Sant Family Blog: September 2008

The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were inspired by God. Our all important Constitution and original government structure was constructed by bold men who acted upon the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Though the Constitution is not scripture (nor perfect), it is an inspired and sacred document. The founding fathers in their wisdom gave us a Constitutional Republic; a form of democracy. Winston Churchill said, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." How true that is. Democracy may not be perfect, but it's by far the best form of government ever practiced so far. We enjoy a form of democracy, but we do not live under a PURE democracy. And that's a good thing. Benjamin Franklin said it best, "A democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding on what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the results of the decision." A pure democracy is bad. It means that the majority always gets what they want. In a pure democracy I could, with the majority, vote away your right to exist and have you killed. Thankfully we are not a democracy but a Constitutional Republic.

The Constitution is like a charter or a document with fundamental rules and laws. The Constitution guarantees all citizens certain "unalienable rights", such as life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, private property, the free exercise of religion (1st Amendment), free speech (1st Amendment), the right to own a gun (2nd Amendment), etc. No vote can (or at least should) be able to take away these basic rights. The founding fathers built our government with the over arching concept of LIMITED GOVERNMENT. They knew that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. They knew that the government should never be allowed to trample peoples rights. They knew that an unchecked government would have the power to bring misery and great evil to a nation. The more power a government has, the more destructive it may be.

How right they were. Mosiah knew this too when he formed the new Nephite government (Mosiah 29:16-47), as did Alma and Captain Moroni when he and the Freemen had to fight off the Kingmen (those who wanted a king, or in other words, an unlimited government). The constitution describes how our government should be organized, what powers it should have, as well as what the government CAN NOT do. It describes limitations of government relating to states, corporations, and individuals. I believe that the unmatched success of America throughout its short history can squarely be attributed to the structure of its government (or lack of government as it were).

So is a limited government really the way to go? Consider all of the immoral things that big corporations are infamous for. In the context of our modern times, you'll notice a lot of venom directed at "Big Business", or in other words, large corporations. "Big Oil", "Big Pharma", "Big Food", and other large industries are often criticized by public officials, activists, and others for allegedly abusing their dominant role in our society/economy. But consider this, a bad corporation or collection of corporations can do immoral things, but they can't FORCE me to do anything. Only the government can FORCE me to do something or PREVENT me from doing something. The pharmaceutical industry can produce a bunch of shady "studies" about how great their drugs are and how horrible natural vitamins are. They can blast me with nonstop propaganda on the television about how I need snake oil this-or-that. They can lobby the FDA and Federal Government with a load of misinformation. They can design the courses that western doctors are "educated" with which over promote the prescription of drugs. But they can't FORCE me to do anything.

It is the FDA and government that are the ones that will make vitamins illegal. It is the FDA that falsely gives dangerous drugs a government seal of approval. The pharmaceutical companies and their bad behavior isn't the core of the problem. They are merely exploiting the real problem. The real problem is a powerful government that over time has corrupted its original design. A powerful government that may well put me in jail in the future if I choose to use vitamins (assuming they become illegal). The pharmaceutical companies are whispering lies to the government, but it is the government that is going to stuff a gun in my face if I disobey.

A knee-jerk reaction to this would be to create even MORE laws to restrict companies and individuals from doing the immoral things that the pharmaceutical companies are doing, but that just creates more law, more restrictions, more government, more of the same problem. It is exactly the wrong way to handle the problem. The right things is to REDUCE government and allow people to make their own choices -- good or bad.

The basic premise is this, that men and women desire to be free and to make their own choices. We prosper most when we are allowed to follow our own ambitions. We create and invent beautiful things when given the freedom to do so. We enjoy unparalleled satisfaction in our labors when the income from our efforts are not stolen by others. We struggle to find prosperity when we are restricted by unnecessary laws and rules, and when unreasonable amounts of our private property (such as our income, etc.) is taxed away (stolen by the government).

Many, who ignore the amazing prosperity of the last 200 years, will argue that allowing average people to make their own choices will result in many poor choices and ill consequences. These people have no confidence that persons or corporations will make "the correct" choices on their own, and they believe that the government should increasingly make choices for them via additional laws. Some of these views are understandable when based on evidence of past misdeeds of an individual or corporation. However, most of these views are not based on fact at all, but rather on emotional feelings, or an almost pseudo-religious belief in socialism/communism. The truth is that though we recognize that individuals and corporations can do many irresponsible and wicked things, they can never match the unimaginable damage and evil that government can do.

Doesn't this argument sound familiar? It should. We had this same argument a long time ago prior to the first man being created. In the preexistence there were two proposals for all of God's children to become like their Father. The eternal plan suggested free agency and an environment of choice and consequence--coupled with a savior to provide a way to repent of mistakes. The second plan was one of severe control and of forcing us to make the right choices and do the right things. 1 out of every 3 of God's children agreed with the counterfeit plan. I have a theory about the remaining children--not all of them completely disagreed with Satan's plan. Many were sympathizers of the idea of guaranteed success by being forced to do the right things, but at the last moment decided it was better to follow Christ's plan instead of being cast out from Heaven. Now down on Earth, the same battle that happened in Heaven is happening here. Satan and his third are convinced that they're right. He is still trying to capture groups of people who will listen--entire nations even--and convince them that forcing people is the right way to go. But, forcing people to do "the right thing" cheats them of their life experience and vainly attempts to remove consequence from our society. This is wrong, it is evil, and I dare say it is Satanism.

Those who are most accepting of Satan's influence are modern day Socialists/Liberals/Progressives. Most Democrats are Liberals and very socialistic in their thinking, and as Vladmir Lenin said, "The Goal of Socialism is Communism." The socialist idea is to give more influence, money, and control to the government, in the false hopes that the government can better take care of society (they make choices for you because you can't be trusted to make your own choices). For the government to have influence, money, and control, they must take it away from the citizenship. They will take your money via taxes and control you through laws. This is a subtle move towards Satan's way of thinking. It sounds good on paper, but everywhere socialism/communism has been tried, it has failed. Look no further than the former USSR. Or do a side-by-side comparison of West Berlin and East Berlin. Europe may seem romantic but it is currently in shambles due to its mindless adoption of socialistic policies. Even in America we have had many socialistic programs that have failed. Look at the largest one: Social Security. It will soon be bankrupt. Satan's plan doesn't work. It is a counterfeit and false idea. Socialism/Communism doesn't work. Any system that attempts to overthrow an individual's free agency doesn't work.

When analyzing the national or local problems we face, consider these views. Consider what the proper role of government is. It would be nice if people never made dumb choices, but whenever we complain and say, "There should be a law against that!" Ponder for a moment what you're asking for. You're asking that the government eliminate free choice in some small way.

-Bryan