Libertarianism and American Exceptionalism
I believe that we as libertarians, because we rail against the totalitarian bent of our government, its “soft” tyranny of “nudging” that is turning into the “hard” tyranny of the police state, because we dwell on our government’s mistakes and concentrate on those areas where our government has strayed far from our founding principles, often fall into the trap of the multiculturalists and liberals who hate America and believe the United States is responsible for all the evil in the world. These critics believe in the moral equivalence of all nations, cultures and peoples. America is no better or worse than communist Russia, Nazi Germany, or the current states of Iran, North Korea, Somalia or Syria.
From the Seditious Acts of John Adams to our embrace of “Manifest Destiny” to the suspension of rights under Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson to the rounding up of American citizens into camps during World War Two, our government has occasionally overstepped its bounds and become tyrannical. But to say that these deviations from the good and moral nature of the American people reduce our stature to the point we are morally indistinguishable from a Soviet Union that systematically starved and killed its people and sent dissidents to labor camps for indefinite periods to die is absurd. To say that interring the Japanese was no different than the death camps of Nazi Germany is asinine. Even today, to say that our treatment of prisoners in the war on terror which has included such occasional indignities such as waterboarding or the donning of female underwear is somehow morally equivalent to the rape, torture and beheadings of soldiers, civilians and journalists alike is moronic.
Ah, but internment is just the first step to the ovens. Waterboarding is simply the first step on the torture continuum that leads to electrodes, fingernail removal, beatings and assassination. Humiliation is merely the first step in dehumanizing the “enemy”, reducing them to animals and facilitating our killing with a clear conscience. Perhaps that is true. But the fact that we have a government at all, a government to which we have conceded the right to use force, means we will, as a nation and a people, always be on that continuum somewhere. But does the fact that an individual or people are on the continuum mean that there is a moral equivalency among them? Is genocide really equivalent to interring people that may be a threat? Is “mishandling” a Koran really equivalent to beheading? Common sense says no.
The real question is what is it that allows an individual or people to move along the continuum and descend into barbarism? It is a simple but not obvious answer. Some will say it is religion, the principles of Christianity keep men from dehumanizing one another and making murder as easy as killing a rat. The Catholic Inquisition and its torture and murder of heretics and the systematic persecution of Jews are one glaring exception to that argument. The fact that Protestant Germany could become the poster child of brutality and state murder in less than a decade puts it to rest. It is not western Christendom that puts the brakes on inhumanity.
Is it political institutions? Do democratic institutions keep people from descending into barbarism? Ask Socrates. Ask Robbspiere. The French Revolution was democratic and killed thousands. There were occasionally monarchs who ruled justly and abhorred the barbarity of their age. However, it should be obvious that the totalitarianism that results from democratic mob rule or the rule by a monarch or dictator makes a descent along the continuum more likely than not.
So it is not religion, it is not political structure that will guarantee men will not succumb to barbarity. So what does? What keeps American soldiers from treating prisoners of war the same way as the Japanese or the Taliban? What prevents Americans from practicing genocide against minorities it deems dangerous? What makes torture an uncomfortable topic of debate instead of an accepted method of interrogation? It is a free society in which each individual is confident in the value of his own life and therefore values the lives of others.
The history of America is truly unique. It was populated by people steeped in a form of Protestant Christianity that valued the individual conscience who had been on the receiving end of state persecution. It was settled by a hardy people who knew the value of work because without it, they would die. Far from the control of strong, historic government institutions, they formed a society that valued the individual, his person and property, and therefore, his life. If I know how hard I must work to survive, if I must labor for everything I have, I value the results of that labor. I expect you to value my labor as I value yours because I know you have struggled for it as I have. Your work is an expression of your life and liberty. For generations, this ideal of individual self worth and respect for people and property was combined with the injunction to “love thy neighbor as thyself” and a sense of justice and morality informed by the Bible and reinforced by a belief in the hereafter. Most individuals in such a society find it difficult to dehumanize fellow human beings even if we view them as different, even if they are “the other”, even if they are aggressive enemies who have consistently demonstrated their hatred. Such a people are not aggressive, preferring to be left alone but will not shrink from defending themselves, their property or the nation that enables them to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
This is why the survival of America is so important to the world. It is our embrace of these ideals and the example we set that is a “civilizing” influence on the rest of the world, that gives hope to individuals in every nation. As long as we held firm to that which made us unique, we were invincible and on the road to greatness. However, we have been systematically dismantling the ideals and institutions that made us a great and moral people. As government has grown, as it has reduced our freedom and made us dependent, it has been reducing our value as individuals and our respect for property. If we have so little respect for the property of others we see nothing wrong with hiring the state as a mercenary to take what belongs to others for our own use, no one will respect the property of his neighbor, nor the life that produces it. If looting and mooching are the way of life for the majority, we all lose our humanity. Our romantic ideals of chivalry, innocence, respect and dignity have already become casualties to an American culture that has become base, rude and immoral. If we remove the need and motivation to contribute, assuming it is acceptable to live at the expense of others, we have no basis for self-respect and therefore have no respect for our lives or the lives of others.
When men descend to such detrimental forms of interaction, when their inner moral compass has become compromised to that degree, only the imposition of order from the outside will restore some semblance of “normalcy”. When there is no respect for property, the state rises to take it and distribute it. When there is no respect for life, the state will determine an individual’s value. It is at that point, when no one has individual value in and of themselves, that they will see no value in their fellow man. If our own humanity is destroyed, how can we see it in another? This is what makes our course so dangerous and what has motivated the brutal fascist and communist regimes of the past and the historic barbarism of the Muslim world. The definition of a Muslim is one who has submitted to Allah. The Muslim has no intrinsic individual self worth, his worth is defined only to the degree he can contribute to the advancement of Allah’s will. Those who have not submitted to Allah have no worth at all. This has remained consistent throughout the centuries, having risen from the culture of the caravan raiders of Mohammed's time, a culture that had no respect for the property of others and killed indiscriminately, a template that did not change with the imposition of Islam. Communism, Fascism and Islam are all united in their dehumanization of the individual and their resultant sanguinity. As we accommodate and excuse their behavior, as our government makes war on private property and individual worth, we will move ever closer to the brutality they exhibit instead of exporting the best of our values and culture.
America is not perfect and our government, as it has become separated from the people and our founding ideals, has made mistakes, sometimes big ones. But we have been, and still are, better than most. Intuitively, people know that. People the world over are still lined up to come here, America is still a symbol of hope, freedom and opportunity even as our government is trying to limit all those things. They have faith that we will not descend to the totalitarianism and brutality of the nations they are leaving because they believe that we, as a people, are a moral and good people who value freedom and always will, that it is part of our cultural DNA and it will not be eradicated by our current circumstances. For some Americans, that is true. Whether that group becomes a shrinking minority will be determined by what we do over the next few years. Government is the enemy of human dignity and individual value. One rises at the expense of the other. For too long, government has been on the winning side and our culture as begun the descent into barbarism. If we are to save our nation, our neighbors and remain the hope of the world for freedom and the dignity of humanity, we must act and act now. The world we and our children inherit will be determined by what we do in this moment.
From the Seditious Acts of John Adams to our embrace of “Manifest Destiny” to the suspension of rights under Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson to the rounding up of American citizens into camps during World War Two, our government has occasionally overstepped its bounds and become tyrannical. But to say that these deviations from the good and moral nature of the American people reduce our stature to the point we are morally indistinguishable from a Soviet Union that systematically starved and killed its people and sent dissidents to labor camps for indefinite periods to die is absurd. To say that interring the Japanese was no different than the death camps of Nazi Germany is asinine. Even today, to say that our treatment of prisoners in the war on terror which has included such occasional indignities such as waterboarding or the donning of female underwear is somehow morally equivalent to the rape, torture and beheadings of soldiers, civilians and journalists alike is moronic.
Ah, but internment is just the first step to the ovens. Waterboarding is simply the first step on the torture continuum that leads to electrodes, fingernail removal, beatings and assassination. Humiliation is merely the first step in dehumanizing the “enemy”, reducing them to animals and facilitating our killing with a clear conscience. Perhaps that is true. But the fact that we have a government at all, a government to which we have conceded the right to use force, means we will, as a nation and a people, always be on that continuum somewhere. But does the fact that an individual or people are on the continuum mean that there is a moral equivalency among them? Is genocide really equivalent to interring people that may be a threat? Is “mishandling” a Koran really equivalent to beheading? Common sense says no.
The real question is what is it that allows an individual or people to move along the continuum and descend into barbarism? It is a simple but not obvious answer. Some will say it is religion, the principles of Christianity keep men from dehumanizing one another and making murder as easy as killing a rat. The Catholic Inquisition and its torture and murder of heretics and the systematic persecution of Jews are one glaring exception to that argument. The fact that Protestant Germany could become the poster child of brutality and state murder in less than a decade puts it to rest. It is not western Christendom that puts the brakes on inhumanity.
Is it political institutions? Do democratic institutions keep people from descending into barbarism? Ask Socrates. Ask Robbspiere. The French Revolution was democratic and killed thousands. There were occasionally monarchs who ruled justly and abhorred the barbarity of their age. However, it should be obvious that the totalitarianism that results from democratic mob rule or the rule by a monarch or dictator makes a descent along the continuum more likely than not.
So it is not religion, it is not political structure that will guarantee men will not succumb to barbarity. So what does? What keeps American soldiers from treating prisoners of war the same way as the Japanese or the Taliban? What prevents Americans from practicing genocide against minorities it deems dangerous? What makes torture an uncomfortable topic of debate instead of an accepted method of interrogation? It is a free society in which each individual is confident in the value of his own life and therefore values the lives of others.
The history of America is truly unique. It was populated by people steeped in a form of Protestant Christianity that valued the individual conscience who had been on the receiving end of state persecution. It was settled by a hardy people who knew the value of work because without it, they would die. Far from the control of strong, historic government institutions, they formed a society that valued the individual, his person and property, and therefore, his life. If I know how hard I must work to survive, if I must labor for everything I have, I value the results of that labor. I expect you to value my labor as I value yours because I know you have struggled for it as I have. Your work is an expression of your life and liberty. For generations, this ideal of individual self worth and respect for people and property was combined with the injunction to “love thy neighbor as thyself” and a sense of justice and morality informed by the Bible and reinforced by a belief in the hereafter. Most individuals in such a society find it difficult to dehumanize fellow human beings even if we view them as different, even if they are “the other”, even if they are aggressive enemies who have consistently demonstrated their hatred. Such a people are not aggressive, preferring to be left alone but will not shrink from defending themselves, their property or the nation that enables them to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
This is why the survival of America is so important to the world. It is our embrace of these ideals and the example we set that is a “civilizing” influence on the rest of the world, that gives hope to individuals in every nation. As long as we held firm to that which made us unique, we were invincible and on the road to greatness. However, we have been systematically dismantling the ideals and institutions that made us a great and moral people. As government has grown, as it has reduced our freedom and made us dependent, it has been reducing our value as individuals and our respect for property. If we have so little respect for the property of others we see nothing wrong with hiring the state as a mercenary to take what belongs to others for our own use, no one will respect the property of his neighbor, nor the life that produces it. If looting and mooching are the way of life for the majority, we all lose our humanity. Our romantic ideals of chivalry, innocence, respect and dignity have already become casualties to an American culture that has become base, rude and immoral. If we remove the need and motivation to contribute, assuming it is acceptable to live at the expense of others, we have no basis for self-respect and therefore have no respect for our lives or the lives of others.
When men descend to such detrimental forms of interaction, when their inner moral compass has become compromised to that degree, only the imposition of order from the outside will restore some semblance of “normalcy”. When there is no respect for property, the state rises to take it and distribute it. When there is no respect for life, the state will determine an individual’s value. It is at that point, when no one has individual value in and of themselves, that they will see no value in their fellow man. If our own humanity is destroyed, how can we see it in another? This is what makes our course so dangerous and what has motivated the brutal fascist and communist regimes of the past and the historic barbarism of the Muslim world. The definition of a Muslim is one who has submitted to Allah. The Muslim has no intrinsic individual self worth, his worth is defined only to the degree he can contribute to the advancement of Allah’s will. Those who have not submitted to Allah have no worth at all. This has remained consistent throughout the centuries, having risen from the culture of the caravan raiders of Mohammed's time, a culture that had no respect for the property of others and killed indiscriminately, a template that did not change with the imposition of Islam. Communism, Fascism and Islam are all united in their dehumanization of the individual and their resultant sanguinity. As we accommodate and excuse their behavior, as our government makes war on private property and individual worth, we will move ever closer to the brutality they exhibit instead of exporting the best of our values and culture.
America is not perfect and our government, as it has become separated from the people and our founding ideals, has made mistakes, sometimes big ones. But we have been, and still are, better than most. Intuitively, people know that. People the world over are still lined up to come here, America is still a symbol of hope, freedom and opportunity even as our government is trying to limit all those things. They have faith that we will not descend to the totalitarianism and brutality of the nations they are leaving because they believe that we, as a people, are a moral and good people who value freedom and always will, that it is part of our cultural DNA and it will not be eradicated by our current circumstances. For some Americans, that is true. Whether that group becomes a shrinking minority will be determined by what we do over the next few years. Government is the enemy of human dignity and individual value. One rises at the expense of the other. For too long, government has been on the winning side and our culture as begun the descent into barbarism. If we are to save our nation, our neighbors and remain the hope of the world for freedom and the dignity of humanity, we must act and act now. The world we and our children inherit will be determined by what we do in this moment.
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