This looks so cool, doesn't it? The hearts in the 'O's, the baby being held by her hip daddy---how could we disagree with the slogan: 'The Common Good Trumps Individual Self-Interest'?
This image is from an article in Nation of Change by Jim Hightower, a populist Texan writer. Hightower's message is that it takes a village, more or less. He adds in a few homilies but his main commentary is that in order to make a society we have to be thinking about others and make it possible for them to excel. That's great, isn't it?
There is a difference between society and government. Our government was created to protect our individual rights. Through the government we are able to build roads and bring water to our homes, and protect ourselves against those who would do us harm both as individuals and as a nation. We have a three branch government designed to keep any one branch (legislative, judicial, or executive) from gaining too much power.
Society, on the other hand, is not codified. Its rules and laws are of custom, and are not enforced by government. This is why the censorship laws have largely disappeared, and why the right to marry (a legal contract) is being disputed. These issues are social issues, not issues that government should be involved in. The government is founded on recourse to damages--whether to your person or to your property.
The confusion that Progressives have is that they are trying to get the government to control and dictate their social good. Their Common Good is their 'vision' of the common good whether you like it or not. Now, if you're a member of a church and the church makes a rule that you don't like, you can leave the church. We have only to look at centuries of European rulership to see the consequences of having the church be the government. Our nation was founded on religious freedom in order to avoid the misery of religious war. Progressives are gripped with a sort of religious fervor in their effort to mandate giving up individual rights for the common good. The Common Good is in the eye of the beholder and is not delineated. It's a sort of 'known' in the way that 'being good' in a religious sense is 'known.' But if you're in a Muslim country, being good might mean keeping your hair covered, praying 5 times a day, and being submissive to your husband.
Communitarianism is dependent on social pressure in order to function. That pressure can make you do things that you don't like, that you don't agree with, that violate your principles, because you feel shame or embarrassment or you might be ostracized. This kind of behavior is actually a primitivist concept. It is a sort of tribal attitude that does not allow for individuals to go their own way and answer to their own 'vision.' Self interest is not wrong. Individualism is mental, physical, and spiritual freedom. Each individual determines how he or she would like to contribute to the productivity of the larger social structure. But the idea that your concerns for yourself and your family would be TRUMPED by the 'common good' is a dangerous one. That slogan subsumes the individual into the greater whole and reinforces a mentality that finds comfort in totalitarianism.
If you work with a group do it as an individual, and always stay true to your individual values. Be careful not to lose yourself in the group.
Awareness is the first step in the Resistance. Be aware of your own actions and your desire to impose your version of the 'common good' on others.
This image is from an article in Nation of Change by Jim Hightower, a populist Texan writer. Hightower's message is that it takes a village, more or less. He adds in a few homilies but his main commentary is that in order to make a society we have to be thinking about others and make it possible for them to excel. That's great, isn't it?
There is a difference between society and government. Our government was created to protect our individual rights. Through the government we are able to build roads and bring water to our homes, and protect ourselves against those who would do us harm both as individuals and as a nation. We have a three branch government designed to keep any one branch (legislative, judicial, or executive) from gaining too much power.
Society, on the other hand, is not codified. Its rules and laws are of custom, and are not enforced by government. This is why the censorship laws have largely disappeared, and why the right to marry (a legal contract) is being disputed. These issues are social issues, not issues that government should be involved in. The government is founded on recourse to damages--whether to your person or to your property.
The confusion that Progressives have is that they are trying to get the government to control and dictate their social good. Their Common Good is their 'vision' of the common good whether you like it or not. Now, if you're a member of a church and the church makes a rule that you don't like, you can leave the church. We have only to look at centuries of European rulership to see the consequences of having the church be the government. Our nation was founded on religious freedom in order to avoid the misery of religious war. Progressives are gripped with a sort of religious fervor in their effort to mandate giving up individual rights for the common good. The Common Good is in the eye of the beholder and is not delineated. It's a sort of 'known' in the way that 'being good' in a religious sense is 'known.' But if you're in a Muslim country, being good might mean keeping your hair covered, praying 5 times a day, and being submissive to your husband.
Communitarianism is dependent on social pressure in order to function. That pressure can make you do things that you don't like, that you don't agree with, that violate your principles, because you feel shame or embarrassment or you might be ostracized. This kind of behavior is actually a primitivist concept. It is a sort of tribal attitude that does not allow for individuals to go their own way and answer to their own 'vision.' Self interest is not wrong. Individualism is mental, physical, and spiritual freedom. Each individual determines how he or she would like to contribute to the productivity of the larger social structure. But the idea that your concerns for yourself and your family would be TRUMPED by the 'common good' is a dangerous one. That slogan subsumes the individual into the greater whole and reinforces a mentality that finds comfort in totalitarianism.
If you work with a group do it as an individual, and always stay true to your individual values. Be careful not to lose yourself in the group.
Awareness is the first step in the Resistance. Be aware of your own actions and your desire to impose your version of the 'common good' on others.
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