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May 06, 2009
Creating a Heaven on Earth
What do the following places have in common: Trumbull Phalanx in Ohio, Modern Times in New York, Brook Farm in Massachusetts, New Harmony in Indiana, United Order in Utah, Amana Colonies in Iowa, Oneida Community in New York, a kibbutz in Israel, and the Pilgrim’s Plymouth Plantation?
Each was an attempt to establish a form of heaven on earth, or put another way, to establish through socialism a utopian community by (1) abolishing private property and (2) eradicating self-interested acquisitiveness.
There are basically three forms of socialism: utopian (Robert Owen, Henri de Saint-Simon, and Francois Fourier), revolutionary (Marxism-Leninism), and fascism (Fabian, Social Democracy). Continuing attempts such as those listed above to establish some form of utopian socialism reinforce the observation of Alfred North Whitehead — “the European philosophical tradition is . . . a series of footnotes to Plato.”
Whitehead was himself an influential twentieth century philosopher and mathematician, who saw that Europe and America were enamored with Plato’s “general ideas” scattered throughout his various writings, none more so than the communistic ideas in his Republic.
In fact, the pilgrims came to these shores establishing Plato’s communistic utopia. Plymouth Plantation's William Bradford mentions him by name, referring to “that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God.” Bradford learned, however, that God is wiser than Plato.
It seems as if the United States failed to learn her lesson from our early Fathers, as we find ourselves once again toying with Plato!
Eric Etheredge of the New York Times refers to President Barack Obama as a "social democrat." Gene Edward Veith of World magazine (May 9, 2009, p. 56) notes that “social democrat” is code for socialist, using the Merriam-Webster online dictionary to define social democracy as “a political movement advocating a gradual and peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism by democratic means.”
Veith develops the point further by using the Encyclopedia Britannica to show that social democracy is “a political ideology that advocates a peaceful, evolutionary transition of society from capitalism to socialism using established political processes. Based on the 19th-century socialism and the tenets of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, social democracy shares common ideological roots with communism.”
Thus we see that the United States of America is being led into another socialistic experiment to create anew a heaven on earth by its President, his Democratic administration, and the House of Representatives (flush with four socialistic organizations, including the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus).
Utopian socialism did not work for the pilgrims, who were primarily Christian in orientation, and neither Social Democracy nor the John Maynard Keynes evolutionary variety of socialism will work today for men and women of a vastly different orientation.
- Posted at 08:49 am by David A. Noebel
- Join the Discussion (2)
April 27, 2010 // 07:58 pm // #
“What is human?” GOD’s answer…
Keven J. Hasson, President of the Becket Fund, recently stated, “...the American and Soviet systems…offered differing visions of freedom and human nature.” The missing element in every human ‘solution’ is an accurate definition of the creature.
In the Bible, God’s Word has accurately defined the human being as ‘the earth creature endowed with the ability to choose.’ His natural Rights, therefore, are merely an extension and application of natural human endowments, which all humans - everywhere in the world - possess. Even as goldfish, canaries, and puppy dogs require an environment based on their natural features, so humans require external freedom to fulfill their natural internal abilities of choice, selection, election, and consent. Uniquely, America was founded on this definitive paradigm in human nature. All nations should reject foundational human opinion that teaches otherwise.
Further, God’s gift of criteria for choosing between alternatives supplies us with superior standards for successful visionary choice-making. Humans cannot invent (or replace) criteria greater than self, ACLU to the contrary.
Defining ‘human’ accurately is the first step in establishing accurate and successful environments, institutions, and creative relationships for earth’s Choicemaker. Middle East governments, and all leaders, would do well to pay attention: nature and nature’s Creator speak with an authoritative voice. Psalms 25:12 119:30, 173 Joel 3:14 Selah
No one is smarter than their criteria.
Jim Baxter
Sgt. USMC WWII & Korean War
semper fidelis
April 27, 2010 // 08:03 pm // #
Each individual human being possesses a unique, highly developed, and
sensitive perception of variety. Thus aware, man is endowed with a natural
capability for enacting internal mental and external physical selectivity.
Quantitative and qualitative choice-making thus lends itself as the superior
basis of an active intelligence.
Human is earth’s Choicemaker. His title describes his definitive and
typifying characteristic. Recall that his other features are but vehicles of
experience intent on the development of perceptive awareness and the
following acts of decision and choice. Note that the products of man cannot
define him for they are the fruit of the discerning choicemaking process and
include the cognition of self, the utility of experience, the development of
value measuring systems and language, and the acculturation of
civilization.
The arts and the sciences of man, as with his habits, customs, and
traditions, are the creative harvest of his perceptive and selective powers.
Creativity, the creative process, is a choice-making process. His articles,
constructs, and commodities, however marvelous to behold, deserve neither
awe nor idolatry, for man, not his contrivance, is earth’s own highest
expression of the creative process.
Human is earth’s Choicemaker. The sublime and significant act of choosing
is, itself, the Archimedean fulcrum upon which man levers and redirects the
forces of cause and effect to an elected level of quality and diversity.
Further, it orients him toward a natural environmental opportunity, freedom,
and bestows earth’s title, The Choicemaker, on his singular and plural brow.