How The American System Reshaped The World

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

Freedom exists in the absence of government control.  We are free when we are able to worship, speak, write, make a living, and protect our families and property without fear that government agents will punish us for our actions.  America’s Founding Fathers embraced an expansive view of personal liberty that recognizes the inherent right of each person to do as he sees fit, so long as that person refrains from infringing upon the liberties of another.

Right away, then, freedom comes with some restraint.  If we each lived alone on our own island, no-one’s liberty but our own would matter.  When we live within a society, our freedom comes with certain encumbrances - namely, an obligation not to poach the freedom of others.  There is, in other words, a moral consideration that necessarily accompanies the exercise of freedom.  Do my actions cause someone else harm?  Does the expression of my will unfairly restrict the expression of another?  Do my decisions unjustly deny someone else’s liberty?

Harm…fairness…justice - these are words essential to every person’s moral reasoning.  They are subjects that are dissected and analyzed throughout the Bible.  Because our common law has evolved from a Biblical worldview, our legal system is rooted in Judeo-Christian morality.  Therefore, an American who tries earnestly to be a good Christian is also likely acting within the boundaries of American law.  

Taken together, freedom, moral restraint, and legal punishment operate in concert within any society.  To the extent that a member of society can reasonably govern himself, State-implemented punishment becomes unnecessary.  When members of society abandon self-control and pursue personal liberty recklessly or in ways that threaten the liberty of others, State-implemented punishment steps in to provide legal constraints where moral restraint proved ineffective.

Thus, there is a natural relationship among personal freedom, moral conscience, and State force.  The more that people pursue their freedom in moral and just ways, the more irrelevant the State becomes.  A society whose people are individually capable of governing themselves has no need for the machinery of government.  The policing of a population’s legal obligations and the application of State-enforced punishments become not only redundant but also unjust infringements upon personal liberty.

It is no coincidence that free societies exist where there is a high degree of mutual trust among people.  If a shop owner trusts that customers will not steal, then businesses can thrive without a government police force monitoring private transactions.  If customers trust that manufacturers will refrain from making harmful products, then commerce can thrive without the need for government regulatory agencies.  If members of society recognize that the fruits of an individual’s labor belong to that person, then property rights are respected without the need for courts and lawsuits.  If public debate, dissent, and personal expression are highly valued, then there is no need for government agents to police words and ideas as “hate speech,” “harmful speech,” or “disinformation.”

High-trust societies are natural incubators of freedom.  Accordingly, fostering trust among members of society maximizes personal liberty.  How do societies cultivate trust?  In a word: culture.  

Culture is that collection of customs, mores, attitudes, traditions, beliefs, habits, language, and ways of life that bind a people together.  Culture is an unwritten code of conduct passed from one generation to the next.  Culture is the essential glue that allows common members of society to move in the same direction without any obvious director.  Societies with strong cultures do not need external police forces because members of society “police” themselves.  

When that culture includes a profound respect for personal freedom, private property, religious liberty, free expression, and self-defense, the mutual trust that exists among citizens naturally secures the blessings of liberty.  It is no accident that an American, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration of Independence two hundred and fifty years ago.  It is no accident that representatives from America’s original thirteen colonies devised together a Constitution that both greatly limits the powers of government and explicitly protects the inalienable rights of Americans.  It is no accident that Americans’ respect for private property transformed an unsettled continent into the wealthiest, most innovative, and most influential country in the world.  A moral people committed to personal freedom can build, do, and accomplish anything.  A moral people committed to self-government can remake the entire world.

It is not difficult to see why the New World’s values have always threatened the Old World’s grip on global power.  In a world where intelligence, hard work, and dedication matter more than titles of nobility and unearned inheritance, the common man is capable of generating wealth without a feudal lord’s permission.  In a world where free speech and freedom of assembly are cherished political virtues, the common man is capable of forming opinions without the help of so-called “elites.”  In a world where self-defense and private ownership of firearms go hand in glove with self-expression and private property, the common man is master of his castle and servant to none.  

Globalism’s “elites” have been pushing the idea of a “New World Order” for decades.  But it is important to remember that when Americans declared their independence from the British Empire, they established a “New World” order that has continued to the present day.  Two hundred and fifty years after the Declaration of Independence, the United States is the wealthiest, strongest, and most robust nation that has ever existed.  It has 4% of the world’s population but influences every part of the globe.  When Old Europe pushes for a “New World Order,” old aristocrats are desperate to return to the social conditions that existed prior to 1776.  Globalists want the “Old World Order” rebranded as something new.

Ask yourself how you might go about destroying America’s “New World” order, so that the Old World’s feudal system can return.  If you want to dismantle Americans’ economic and political freedoms, then you need to wreck Americans’ mutual trust.  If you want to turn Americans against each other, then you need to ruin the foundations of their shared culture.  In order to weaken the bonds of culture, you must first discourage self-restraint.  By discouraging self-restraint, you encourage demands for government control.  By empowering the State, you diminish the sphere of personal freedom.  When the people have been denied freedom for long enough, they forget what it means to be free.  Eventually, when the government offers “free” welfare in exchange for obedience, the descendants of free people accept their new chains.  They accept total government control.  They accept slavery.

Flooding Western countries with foreign immigrants has never been about compassion.  Globalists use mass migration to destroy any semblance of social trust.  “Multiculturalism” has nothing to do with fostering civic peace.  Globalists “divide and conquer” populations in order to more easily rule over the dismembered parts.  Anti-Christian programs do not exist to protect “diverse” points of view.  Globalists attack Christians because Christian virtue cultivates the moral restraint necessary for freedom to thrive.  

For globalists, freedom is the enemy.  Government control is their greatest friend.  You cannot destroy the former and promote the latter until the natural bonds of society are first broken.  Totalitarianism never arrives by decree.  It comes by request.  In the two hundred and fiftieth year of America’s “New World” order, remember this: Our freedom is always under attack.  Be vigilant and defend it.