“A plan to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.” H.L. Mencken
All of mankind’s endeavors have the potential for good and/or bad outcomes. Usually, the initial driving force is built on good intentions or the wonder of discovery. However, all too often good ideas reach the point of diminishing returns, and unintended consequences take over to bring out the dark side of the endeavor and negate most, if not all, of the original good intentions.
The Constitution recognizes these tendencies in we humans. Because of this, the Constitution is without a doubt the best attempt to control mankind’s darker side than has ever been devised in this world. Besides its philosophical underpinnings, the Constitution recognizes that humans are imperfect beings and the Constitution is designed to minimize the tendency to exercise and expand one man’s rights at the expense of another man’s rights.
The philosophy of the Founders’ states that the people’s rights come from the Creator and government’s rights come from the people. Unalienable Rights are bestowed on all citizens by our Creator, not just those educated in elite schools, or those who have amassed great wealth.
All other forms of government believe that mankind lives to serve the state and humanity comes from the wisdom of the state. On a philosophical level, socialism’s belief in the equality of results instead of opportunity leads to the belief that mankind’s and therefore society’s imperfections can be made perfect through education and indoctrination. In spite of repeated failures, progressive government functionaries continue to insist that mankind’s nature can be made perfect by suppressing individual liberty and property rights. Refusing to recognize man’s fallible nature will always doom the purveyors of equality of result to failure. Refusing to recognize that government’s purpose is to protect individual’s unalienable rights and property rights will always lead to totalitarian government.
Faced with increasing failures, the political class will increase laws and regulations in an attempt to salvage the grand plans to save humanity. Eventually, as the fixes to the grand plan fail, the state will become more repressive; resorting to force when all else fails (Venezuela, North Korea, Iran and Syria come to mind.)
Property is the one Creator given right that supports all of our inalienable rights. It is the right to own, posses, and determine what will be done with our own property. Without property rights, the individual has no means to resist the totalitarian impulses of the political class who seek to prefect mankind through indoctrination and regimentation. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that those who would mold us to their version of perfection are themselves imperfect.
I think that the utopians and scallywags, who would strip us of our rights through Executive Orders, Judicial activism, or Legislative excess, should take note of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which I will post for their edification:
Ninth Amendment – “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Tenth Amendment – “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
When a politician, a denizen of academia, or a community organizer tells you that they are saving humanity by giving your property to someone else, beware of a false front covering the urge to rule.
