Friday, July 24, 2009

The Quandry

Much has been discussed over the last few months about the proposals of the Obama administration in regards to health care. Both would expand the power and authority of the federal government to heretofore unseen dimensions. Conservatives (both Republican and Democrat) are not enthused about this considering these measures to be a threat to Federalism, the private sector and individual liberty in general. Liberals (especially on talk radio and "The View") are enraged by what they call obstructionism from the right.
But this is all very simple people. Let me demonstrate by analogy. Let's say that my wife is pregnant and needs an abortion to save her life. Or let's say I have a teenage son who has such a bad case of pneumonia that if he doesn't get medical care from a hospital, he will die. Do I have the right to go to my well off neighbor and, at gun point, raid his bank account and confiscate his capital gains earnings to force him to pay for treatment of these legitimate medical issues? Do I have the right to hire someone else to do so? Do I have the right to get my Senator to do it? Theft is theft whether it be with a gun are a government program. Such class warfare is never good. In every society, class warfare left unchecked has only resulted in societal masochism with terrifying results. And it always starts small with legitimate issues like social justice and the "Robin Hood complex" that the federal government seems to be afflicted with these days.
In sum, it is, I believe, Henry Weaver who said it best. "Most of the major ills of the world have been caused by well-meaning people who ignored the principle of individual freedom, except as applied to themselves, and who were obsessed with fanatical zeal to improve the lot of mankind-in-the-mass through some pet formula of their own….The harm done by ordinary criminals, murderers, gangsters, and thieves is negligible in comparison with the agony inflicted upon human beings by the professional 'do-gooders', who attempt to set themselves up as gods on earth and who would ruthlessly force their views on all others – with the abiding assurance that the end justifies the means."

And Madame la Guillotine awaits.


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