Dear Friends,
It seems to me, today while the lowest of us are held to the highest standard, the highest of us are held to the lowest standard. The mechanism of it is appeal to authority. Of course that was what the Enlightenment was all about, rejecting appeals to authority and settling arguments by logically reasoned, rational discourse. Rational discourse however, is and has been, a means for the people to wrest power form the elite and so is discouraged. In doing so, those who run our governments, banks, corporations, journals, and adjudicate law, are devolving us back to a time and philosophy that predate the Enlightenment, to a form of slavery. Think about it, is a slave allowed to do that which a master can, of course not. The master has free reign to do whatever he or she wants and the slave must toe the line. What if a slave acts up and does something the master disapproves of? The slave is punished. The more obvious the double standard becomes, the more secure the elite feel in their dominance over us, now that the double standard cannot be denied our slavery is all but complete.
The Enlightenment was a watershed event in human understanding. It rejected appeals to authority, which prior to the Enlightenment, was the basis for all discussions. If the authority said something, it became the truth regardless of the absurdity. The Enlightenment made the case that disagreements in the sciences, politics and economics should be decided by rational discourse. The person with the most logical best reasoned argument would win. This doctrine gave rise to the market system, the industrial revolution, constitutionalism, science and a constantly rising standard of living. Such an important advance in human understanding should be protected, nurtured, enshrined and taught so it can keep benefiting the whole of humanity. Sadly, it gets in the way of the elite’s interests and so has been hidden, perverted and mischaracterized.
Constitutionalism was probably the most important advance that came directly from the Enlightenment. Science, it can be argued, was more important, but science in and of itself cannot raise the standard of living, or the humanity of a people, limited government does and limited government gives rise to the conditions that allow science to flourish. Constitutionalism, and along with it, limited government, was a rational reaction to the history of human governments. Many had been birthed in liberty but had always aged into tyranny. A constitution is a contract between the governed and the governors describing what powers the government has and what powers are reserved for the people. Since mankind’s first attempts at writing constitutions the idea of a constitution limiting government has been perverted by the elite to empowering government. Like Obama said, the US Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, in that it limits what government can do to you but in Obama’s view, a constitution should limit the people rather than the government, empowering government to do for us. That is the modern philosophy that returns us to a doctrine of appeal to authority and thereby… slavery.
Why wouldn’t everyone want to be a slave? You get three hots and a cot, your day is planned for you, your freedom to act is strictly enumerated, you have free healthcare and you are protected. Liberty is why people hate being slaves. We all crave liberty. Liberty comes from equality. When some people are allowed more liberty than others, the argument cannot be made there is equality, and if there is not equality, there is no real liberty. Those who are limited in their actions are the slaves and those who have freedom are the masters. If a slave speaks back to his master he is punished and made an example of. A slave’s actions require permission from her master while a master’s actions require no permission from their slave.
Today we are awash in double standards. Al Gore was caught red handed violating campaign finance laws, and had the audacity to stand before the nation declaring there is no overriding legal authority to hold him to the law, and that was accepted by the slaves. Hillary Clinton was caught red handed using an unsecured server to store top secret information putting the entire nation at risk and to date there is no negative consequences for it. If you or I, on the other hand, were to violate campaign finance laws as Dinesh D’souza did, we would go to jail, as he did. If we were to endanger national security, even accidentally, we would be imprisoned. The elite, like Tim Geithner and Charlie Rangel, regularly get caught lying on their taxes with no punishment, if you are caught doing it to a much lesser extent, there are life altering consequences. As Obama was threatening gun owners and sellers along the Mexico boarder with sanctions, for supplying Mexican drug cartels with weapons, Obama himself, as it turned out, was the one supplying the weapons! He faced no such sanctions however. The list of examples where the elite, our masters, have liberty where we don’t could fill a tome the size of the national register.
Global Climate change is the best example of how the elite are moving us away from the advances of the Enlightenment back to appeal to authority. You are not allowed to question the voracity of man made climate change because the authorities have made their determination. Arguments are even met with threats of imprisonment. The concept of limited government has been so veiled in propaganda, misdirection and taught ignorance, most people believe the liberty of others is a bad thing, and so destroy their own liberty by their lack of understanding. We have become so ignorant, needy and selfish we allow our noses to be rubbed in a double standard. That double standard is proof positive there is no true equality, and therefore, no true liberty. When some people are above the rules, they are the masters, and when others are below it’s protections, they are slaves. You are a slave, even if not in name, but in fact.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
