Personal
Morality-Government Rules
Charlie Earl
Most of us
adhere to some type of moral code. Some follow theirs more loosely than others
do, and some seem to possess a moral code that is indecipherable for the rest
of us lowly mortals. Nevertheless internal anarchy is rare, and when we witness
someone without a personal code of honor or morality, we are often shocked by
their behavior. Our abhorrence of radically immoral or evil acts illustrates to
me that there is a semblance of morality that threads its way through humanity.
Personally, I believe that it is God-breathed and God-written, but others may
rely on Natural Law as a source.
In a speech
in 1886 Thomas B. Reed stated, “One of the greatest delusions in the world is
the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.”
Yet….governments of all stripes and types attempt to regulate “moral” behavior
by edict or laws. The inconsistency of having a government legislate moral
codes is that governments have no souls, have no minds and are populated by
extraordinarily fallible people. For many years I have been perplexed by people
who trust the most sacred tenets of their lives to a bunch of lying, cheating
and thieving ignoramuses. Why would any person who possesses a scintilla of
reasoning capacity believe that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz or Harry Reid could
design, implement and follow an unimpeachable legislated moral code?
As
governments grow in size and power, they enforce compliance with their various
dictates……a few of them are wise and reasonable, many others not so much. It is
the government of Saudi Arabia that refuses to allow women to drive for moral
reasons. The Iranian government has given carte
blanche to the mullahs for stoning women for adulterous behavior….such as
going out uncovered or without a male relative. Several governments around the
globe tolerate or even encourage female genital mutilation as a moral practice
for ensuring the purity of women. Governments are not the final judges of moral
behavior because they are inherently amoral.
Even here in
the United States of America a government-enforced moral code has emerged.
Government has deemed that the life of a child should be sacrificed if its
mother chooses not to carry the baby for the full term. Government has decided
that benefits should be provided for cronies, friends and associates of those
who control the reins of power. Government has determined that your neighbor is
entitled to a portion of your labor. Government has concluded that although you
purchased your property and pay the taxes on said assets, you cannot do certain
things with that property. Government has made a moral choice about the
function of the property you paid for. All of the above illustrations are morality-based
choices enforced by government laws, rules and regulations. In my humble view,
any government action that does not enhance my personal liberty is an immoral
interference by government in my life.
Governments
are not moral. They cannot be moral. At best they are amoral, and at worst they
are immoral. Government is an untrustworthy guardian of social moral behavior.
In 1954… “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance. In the past 60
years nearly every act of the federal (now national) government seems to
contradict that portion of the pledge because government cannot be moral.
Charlie Earl
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