Victor Hugo, in his classic novel Les Miserables states,
"Society is guilty in not providing universal free education, and it must answer for the night it produces. If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness".
I wonder who or what Mr. Hugo would say today? Why does crime, violence and inequality still exist? Could it be that he was WRONG? Clearly, he was desperate for answers. But all the philosophizing in the world won't turn falsehood into truth.
I liked the book, but I didn't like the idea of socialism as the answer to the Great Debate. Personal and community liberality answers his question. If government is "of the people, by the people, and for the people" then it can't bestow power that we don't give it. And we can't give power we don't possess ourselves.
When my neighbor can't afford groceries, I should liberally share when I have a little extra. I like my neighbor :)
Sure, I could give a hundred bucks to the government to give to my neighbor but what is their cut and how long would it take? How 'bout while I'm at it, I dig through your wallet and give it to the neighbor - oops, I'd end up in jail. So following that line of logic, do I have power to tell government that they can get into your wallet and give it to the needy neighbor? I can't give power to the government I don't have.
Now go read the Constitution.
Schanz Vs Edwards
13 years ago
2 comments:
An interesting thought Nancy..I like the blog...I guess my only question would be though is if the government doesn't do anything, and people are imperfect and don't share, how do we care for each other. It seems to me that the only society that could make this happen without government intervention is a righteous one. What happens if your neighbor doesn't want to give? I guess this is my delehma with the government. I think it should stay out as much as possible, but we also live with the fact that sometimes people don't share....
My solution...teach the gospel:) Other than that, I'm not sure. What we need is a people that wants to share and work hard...thus my feelings are that if we want a society like this we need to help people understand the truth...so that's my two bits:) Rachel
Thank you for your thoughts. I like your solution. God taught us that coercion is not his way. No, we can't force people to share. That was that other guy's plan (hehe). Look at how one person who lived and died over 2000 years ago transformed the world. Now perhaps we won't have THAT kind of impact, but it speaks to the importance of one person's example.
One of my assumptions is that the US Constitution was inspired of God. The practice of forced wealth redistribution through taxation is, in a word, unconstitutional. We must step up to the plate and share and be examples to others and invite them to share too.
Government intervention is never the best answer.
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