Linking Compassion with Aggression
By Robert Ringer
Millions of people are convinced that the implementation of Congress’s new People-Control Bill (a.k.a. as Obamacare) is, of and by itself, the death of liberty in the United States. There’s no question that this draconian measure is the most anti-freedom, unconstitutional, immoral piece of legislation ever “passed” by Congress, but it would be a mistake to focus on it to the exclusion of everything else.
In truth, Obamacare is just one part of the tyranny wrecking ball that clobbers Americans on a daily basis. What I am referring to is the “progressive” notion that elected politicians – not to mention non-elected bureaucrats – have the authority to grant, as well as take away, individual rights.
Two of Ron Paul’s “Six Forgotten Principles of Freedom” spell it out clearly:
The justification for the existence of government is to protect the liberty of individuals, not to redistribute wealth or pass out special privileges.
People’s lives and actions are their own responsibility, not the government’s.
In plain terms, people have a natural right to be free to make personal choices about their own lives, their own bodies, and their own property. This simple truth is commonly referred to as “Natural Law.” It can also be thought of as the Law of Nonaggression.
If one believes that it is a violation of an individual’s natural right to force him to do something that he does not want to do (e.g., give up any part of his wealth or property to others) or prevent him from doing something that he does want to do (so long his actions do not harm anyone else), then government aggression can never be morally justified. In a society of moral people, the Law of Nonaggression would be the only law that would be needed.
Where confusion comes about – and trouble sets in – is in the progressive’s perversion of a trait known as compassion. Compassion is a unique human trait. Contrary to what some animal lovers would like to believe, animals, in the strictest sense of the word, do not have the capacity to be compassionate. Only human beings can feel compassion, and they can feel it for both people and animals.
Which, of course, is a good thing. It’s why private charity thrives in America, notwithstanding the fact that the government forces individuals to hand over a substantial portion of their earnings to fund immoral government activities. Compassion is about charity, and charity is about each individual giving not according to his ability, but according to his desire – to those whom he deems to be in need and worthy of his charity. CC = compassion and charity. Got it?
The progressive, however, does not get it. He severs the relationship between compassion and charity and instead links compassion with aggression – i.e., the use of force. And while it may seem self-evident that compassion and aggression contradict one another, thanks to the emotion of guilt, this combo is an easy sell even to those who possess a basic belief in individual sovereignty.
After all, how can a person not be in favor of taking wealth by force when millions are unemployed … homeless … in need of medical treatment … lacking money for education … the list is endless, because human desires/needs are endless. But a person would have to be omniscient, not to mention divinely moral, to know which needs of which people are superior to the rights of other individuals to keep what is theirs.
The fact that 35 percent of Americans favor government-run health care is irrelevant. Lots of people want lots of free stuff. That’s a given. But to take money by force in order to give them the free stuff they desire is unconstitutional – and, more important, immoral.
Since the government does not create wealth of its own, the only way it can “help” people – whether it be to give them unemployment benefits, health care, or any other commodity – is to commit aggression against others and simply use force to take the resources it needs.
If we are to steer the U.S.A. Titanic away from the gigantic financial iceberg that lies just ahead, the entire concept of entitlements - of any and all kinds – must be rejected by a majority of Americans. The notion that anyone has a right to anything – other that what others are willing to pay him in a free market – is progressive nonsense.
That includes such sacred cows as Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment benefits. Liberty-minded folks must not allow themselves to fall into the compassion trap that results in a tied tongue. I have observed a number of conservatives squirming for an answer when asked if they are not concerned about people with pre-existing conditions that have no health care. Of course they are concerned, as am I and most other people. But the solution is not to destroy our current health-care system and make everyone equally miserable.
If insurance companies are forced to insure people with pre-existing conditions, they will have to raise everyone else’s rates dramatically, which is the equivalent of a transfer-of-wealth program. If people refuse to pay those increased rates, their insurance companies will go out of business. Presto: Government achieves full control of health care.
On the other hand, if the government prevents insurance companies from raising their rates so they can afford to cover people with pre-existing conditions, those companies will go out of business because they will quickly incur unsustainable losses. Presto: Government achieves full control of health care.
Get the picture?
The solution to medical care for people with pre-existing medical conditions – and people who, for one reason or another, can’t afford medical insurance - is private charity. Private charity always works; government coercion never works (except for the politicians who increase their power as a result of it).
The irony is that people who are against Obamacare have argued that one of its worst features is that it cuts Medicare by $500 billion. Yet, Medicare is government-run health care, thus it is both unconstitutional and immoral in itself and outside of government’s restricted powers. (As always, I must add that Medicare should be phased out over a period of decades in order to avoid undue pain to elderly folks who have come to depend on it.)
As time goes on, progressives will increasingly argue that If government is forced out of the health-care business, those who can’t afford medical insurance will be left to die. No one wants to see anyone die unnecessarily. But if progressives are as concerned about such people as they claim to be, there should be no problem. After all, in a free society they would be free to lead the way when it comes to contributing time and money to set up and fund private charities to provide for those whom they believe are in need of free health care.
Only a Marxist/communist/progressive would even attempt to concoct a justifiable reason why the use of force is morally superior to charity. The idea that compassion justifies aggression is a perversity that must be exposed for what it is: an excuse for government to increase its power over people. Compassion, on the other hand, leads quite naturally to charity, without government involvement. Nothing whatsoever to get tongue-tied about.
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Copyright © 2012 Robert Ringer
ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author and host of the highly acclaimed Liberty Education Interview Series, which features interviews with top political, economic, and social leaders. He has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, The Lars Larson Show, ABC Nightline, and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been the subject of feature articles in such major publications as Time, People, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron's, and The New York Times.
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what Mr. Ringer fails to realize is that a corporation will will work for what ever profit margin is avalible, so if med insurance rates are set at a certin level that is the profit the corporation will work for. free enterprise is like a fire it will comsume everything it touchs unless it is controled.
Great commentary as always Robert. Just thinking this morning-as adverse as this health-care bill signing is by President Obama, I have a feeling that if there was an “R” next to his name, many of the Republicans in the House would not have protested as loud as they did this past week. What really gets my attention is that many Americans want the Republicans to take back control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, yet under their control during the Bush years, government grew and spending was very reckless.
In closing, even if Senator McCain was elected President, this same health care bill (or one similar) was have also passed, but at a slower pace.
Did any of us really think that Obamacare, which is nearly 100% fascist medicine (i.e. private industry totally controlled by the government), would not replace the U.S.A.’s current quasi-fascist-healthcare system? Did any of us really believe that?
Look, I’m going to be blunt: We haven’t seen anything yet. Obamacare is neither the capstone nor the cornerstone of the collectivist metropolis, the great Utopian dream, that the Yes We Can Army is forcing the individualists/producers to be conscripted into building for the Kleptocracy (i.e. a government that rules be thievery and/or deception). What we now see is not the real Utopia, but just the hazy, surreal outline of what’s to come. It reminds me of how the polluted haze hanging over the city of Beijing distorts the view of reality, and on the most polluted days, the view is even distorted from one side of Tiananmen Square to the other. Metaphorically speaking, the average, every-day American cannot see beyond all the political haze to the life of serfdom that is waiting for them at the end of the road.
When Obama(aka You Know Whom or YKW) first sidled up to the ignorant, collectivist masses, few, very few indeed, understood the long range ramifications of what was about to happen. Mr. Ringer was one of the very few who understood YKW from the get-go. That’s why I’ve been both a faithful reader and a relentless contributor of/to this blog. This blog cuts right through the political haze in a very compassionate manner.
Mr. Ringer is a wise, old tortoise. He is an avuncular figure who is one of the few men left alive that is of the same calibre of Ayn Rand. I could never have the patience that Mr. Ringer displays in educating Mr. and Misses Average American, even if I possessed the skill to do so.
Frankly, I still firmly believe that the massive educational efforts put forth by Mr. Ringer, Glenn Beck, and others will ultimately fail to prevent F.A. Hayek’s nightmare from coming true. The nightmare will incrementally come true and YKW’s hazy, communitarian politics will herd Americans down “The Road To Serfdom” until, finally, the point is reached in which the entire system completely collapses—totally ruining the paper based currency, totally ruining the economy, and totally ruining any left-over civility. This, in turn, will create a chaotic vacuum in which a dictator will surely arise. That’s when the real fun begins. Everything that’s occurring now is just a warm up for the big show. Americans are going to be living in an emergency state, which is almost the same as a police state. And if you think that the Republican Party is going to save America, then I guess you didn’t learn very much from the Bush Era, did you? As Mr. Ringer so correctly points out, the republicans are defending medicare; And that SHOULD tell you everything that you need to know about them.
Some cultures execute individuals by inflicting a thousand little cuts on them and then letting them slowly bleed to death. So too, YKW’s Yes We Can Army is inflicting DEATH to America by a thousand cuts, or restated, DEATH TO AMERICA BY A THOUSAND ENTITLEMENTS!!!
If the republicans win back control of congress, then I say, so what? At best, the direction down “The Road To Serfdom” won’t change, it will only slow. Way back in 1960, F.A. Hayek pointed out that classical liberalism—which is the only real answer— opposes both progressivism and conservatism. Dr. Hayek cuts through all the political haze in his masterfully written book, The Constitution of Liberty. In the chapter, Why I Am Not A Conservative. Dr. Hayek adroitly points out why America will inevitably fail if conservatives run the country. The Bush Era unquestionably proved his theory. There is only one way in which the Republican Party could be instrumental in saving what’s left of Liberty; And that way is the Ron Paul way, because Ron Paul is not a conservative, he’s a libertarian; Therefore, if the Republican Party fundamentally transforms itself into a Libertarian Party, then progressivism could be properly challenged and defeated………well, good luck with that.
Robert,
Many of us have been aware that the day when the ideological divide between self reliant free choice individuals and those seeking to make all of us subservient to a megalomaniacal group of people, who have nothing but their own self empowerment and self aggrandizement as their driving motive, would eventually come. With this new usurpation of rights and freedoms from individuals to “the state”, our government has ‘crossed the Rubicon’ where apathy must be overcome and all freedom loving individuals must step up to the plate and be resilient and righteously indignant of our own government going against the majority of the current sentiment amongst the American people.
The premise that government has the obligation and then right to impose it’s version of “compassion” on their citizens by forcefully taking from one member of that citizenry and giving it to another, that the government deems to be “needy”, is a false premise. What we have just witnessed with a minuscule majority of votes (some attained by “Chicago style political methods”)to gain favor with only 35% of the nation’s constituency is nothing less that a legislative coup d’etat of our entire political system.
I for one am increasingly suffering from a not yet officially designated ailment known as C.F.S. or Compassion Fatigue Syndrome due to my observations in life that many of the people who are failing to personally achieve prosperity and stability in life are usually their own worst enemies. It’s not their situation that needs to be addressed and amended but their attitude and their wrong belief that they are owed something to equalize their often self created plight, and can use their vote to have our government steal wealth, time, or services from someone else for the unearned benefit of another.
One of the underlying reasons we now have a major problem in our country with the empowerment of politicians promising the redistribution of wealth is due to the fact that people who do not work and who do not wish to work, have the right and power to vote. These voters by their own human nature are going to vote for politicians who promise to take wealth and assets from that society’s producers and then redistribute that wealth to that nation’s voting block who refuse to metaphorically stand on their own two feet and create their own prosperity by their own efforts and initiative and instead wish to simply vote to have the wealth and prosperity belonging to others given to them.
I am all for compassion and charity on a personal level and have given of my own wealth and possessions exceedingly over the last few years with no expectation of repayment or reciprocation to many friends, family, and even strangers in dire need. However I’ve learned the futility of trying to help people who refuse to change their dysfunctional ways and thus help themselves and now understand that the only way to help people is to let them suffer the consequences of their own poor judgments, laziness, and failure to work hard with self discipline while making mature and reasoned plans for the future.
There are many more factors involved in the present dissatisfaction that Americans have with the current health care system in this country. The medical profession and pharmaceutical industry have taken on too powerful a role in all our lives and there is reason to believe that their insidious influence has infiltrated the very pockets of many of our representatives and those associated with our government.
Those of us still respecting free choice, freedom, and
real compassion need to clean house over the next few elections and restore a lost sense of inherent integrity to a dysfunctional and rapidly failing system.
Bear with me here as I explain how Obamacare provides absolutely free medical care. If you have no health insurance, you will face a stiff fine. (I read in the “L.A. Times” that $10 billion will be allocated to hire 16,500 IRS agents to enforce these Obamacare fines.) And punishment for not paying an Obamacare fine could include a prison term. But here’s the good part: PRISONERS GET FREE MEDICAL CARE. Problem solved.
Just wanted to say I am a big supporter of yours. Read your books when I was a kid and found you again years later on the web. I enjoy your articles and agree with 99%. I read old Ron Paul speeches too lol…No surprise I ended up a entrepreneur. I’ve given up on trying to convert people though. People will get what they want. Amazing that people brand you as a wacko when you quote “constitution”. I will try to protect me and mine under this tortoise shell in the meantime. Again Thank you.
How about an amendment to forbid people from voting if they’re on the dole?… talk about a firestorm.
As much as I despise the Democrats, at least they are somewhat honest thieves in that they say what they’re about in the open and then use every trick in the book to achieve their openly stated goals of a socialist state.
The Republicans, on the other hand, PRETEND to be the white hat wearing “good guys” coming to the aid of the small isolated American prairie town being beset and under siege by unwashed and unprincipled dark caped criminal types and when elected, do exactly as the villains would do.
3 Steps to stop the slide….
First…stop the current Democrats in their tracks next election by voting in large numbers of the lesser of two evils…the Republicans who will at least slow down the Marxist Express and oncoming Obamruptcy.
Second…Replace the Republicans with viable alternative 3rd party candidates the following election.
Third…Maintain the attrition of Democrats and Republicans from our government each election cycle, and then maintain a close watch on the then corruptible 3rd party candidates who have then had a taste of power and the “good life” of politics with all the “candy” being offered by interested outsiders.
Without a viable 3rd political party founded on verifiable maintained integrity and Constitutional foundations, we are undeniably finished as a nation in the not too distant future.
Unbridled and unchecked government compassion was a fashion.
It’s over as it’s time to get back to survival mode.
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