Robert Owens
What’s the Deal with History?
By
May 21, 2008 - 3:22:34 PM

If the study of history has value, we must apply its lessons to our understanding of the world in which we live.  The lack of historical perspective condemns people to live eternally in the present, and the present always changes.  Of course, there are two factors affecting the lack of historical perspective in society, one good and one not so good.  First, no one really lives without historical perspective, since we make decisions every day based on what happened yesterday, and that’s good. Otherwise, none of us would know when to quit putting our hand on a hot stove.  The not-so-good part is for most people, history began when they were born.

Looking at our current political theater, I believe this lack of perspective makes all the silliness of the debate and the frivolity of the proposals as sensible as re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.             

America was founded on certain principles.  These principles were not the “I want more” of consumerism or the “Give me more” of cradle-to-grave socialism.  They were instead principles of individual freedom, free markets, private property, and limited government.  These great principles were first set forth in the Declaration of Independence and later enshrined in the Constitution.  In a world awash in absolute monarchs, the Founders radically proclaimed individuals have the natural God-given right to live any way they choose, as long as they conduct themselves peacefully. They went on to build a system based on the idea that instead of riding rough-shod over citizens, governments are instituted to protect these natural and inalienable rights. To a generation raised on big government fixes and big government solutions, it may seem almost unbelievable that for more than 100 years, the people of the United States stood against such anti-freedom ideas as income tax, state retirement, socialized medicine, a regulated economy, welfare, gun laws, public schooling, and interventionist wars. And what was the result?  These policies created the most prosperous nation the world had ever seen. With no public education, it became the most literate.  With no socialized medicine, it became the healthiest. With no welfare, it became the most compassionate.  With no central bank, it had sound money.  But since the early 20th century, our emerging political class led us into the puzzle factory of state control as an alphabet of agencies assumed control over every area of our lives.  From the ATF, DEA, FDA, FTC, INS, IRS, etc., our government has done more to lay the yoke of immoral and destructive oppression on us than any invading army as inch by inch, they toil day and night, taking away our freedom, our property, and our well-being.

This suffocating paternalism has lulled us into relying on the government for everything and in the process, short-circuiting our morality, our sense of self-worth, our voluntary charity, and our feelings of community.  It has all but destroyed the family.  It’s left the poorest people in our country with enough to make it, yet with no way to make it up or out.  It’s turned the world from admirers to enemies.  It’s subverted the Constitution, which was meant to limit government, not empower it.  It’s produced generations of Americans who wouldn’t recognize free markets if they ran into one at a swap meet.  

I believe that we the people need to look to our history to regain the vision and courage necessary to demand a return to freedom.  We should refuse the debilitating dependence that’s sapping our strength. We should work for the elimination, not the extension, of the paternalistic web of programs and agencies that, day by day, lead us into the swamp.  We should refuse to be lulled into the trance of stimulus packages and bail-outs. For I believe unless we wake up and return to the principles and practices of private property, free markets, voluntary charity, and limited government, we will descend into the abyss of collectivism and social regimentation.  We made it through 1984 with our nation intact, but will we have the courage to stop walking down the road to serfdom or will we follow the pipers into a Brave New World?  Only the history of the future can say.

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