(The Swamp) - Let's get this straight from the get-go: this editorial is NOT about ANY Ecclesiastical organization. As life unfolds, it becomes more and more evident that God and organizations dedicated to Him have little in common, other than some defining generalities - it doesn't matter which organization is proffered.
Instead, we are going to speak of those generalities about the Almighty and the lessons that the current resident of the White House can learn from them.
FREE WILL: If there is one principle which defines the Deity, it is the concept of free will. The argument goes like this: A loving God is not a puppeteer. Sentient beings must have the freedom to screw up on their own.
Even before mankind understood the scientific principles of chaos theory (which is about all of human history minus 45 years.), the idea of a chaotic universe was understood. The ecclesiastical organizations, down through the ages, determined whose fault it was that good could be corrupted by bad, but the idea that freedom caused both good and poor decisions existed long before a scientific explanation did. It's called messing with complex systems.
For some reason, and that reason is usually some form of hubris, people who are leaders seem to think they can do things which can change a complex system for the good. It is a fool's errand, as discussed in one of the seven major editorials accessible on the front page of this website. If our ideas about a loving God are true, then surely the Almighty knows this truth about the complex system He created. After the trillionth iteration, the possibility that the system resembles anything controllable reduces logarithmically.
Yet, the current occupant of the White House, like presidents before him, insist that "something" can be done to make any situation better. This is not an expression of evil, unless one considers hubris from ignorance wicked. And this next will be a hard statement to take - in MOST cases, most curative actions have unfortunate unintended consequences, especially when human understandings of fairness are applied in the place of the Godly understanding of free will.
Why do we insist that we know better than God? For liberals and other atheists, this is easy - there is no God. Also, the misunderstanding of existentialism, which is the peculiar signature of liberals, creates in them a hubris that they know how the universe is set up. They insist on existence being chaos, but then think they can bring a just order to it. There is no greater definition of hubris than that.
As has been expressed in that previous editorial on complex systems, such people who claim understanding of the universe without an understanding of the true expression of God's love, find themselves imposing, not love, but a dictatorial impression on a system which will not adhere to their ideas. Again - unintended consequences of good intentions.
How then, does one do to correct terrible situations?
Let's call it the Red Cross option. The Red Cross is the world's largest VOLUNTEER organization - those who can't physically do it themselves, give funds for others to do it - VOLUNTARILY. It works because the operating mechanism is free will. The more volunteering there is, the easier the situation will correct itself. Left to their own devices, Florey and Chain developed a medicine using Fleming's observation of penicillin mold's effect on Staph infections. Had they presented their ideas to their peers, first, instead of going it alone, how long would it have taken for the drug to have been developed? How many more would have died in WWII? How many more people are going to die because of our government's hatred of profit from drugs and a tyrannical Food and Drug administration's meddling?
What about acts of charity?
While it is palpably true that the majority of people who live off the American taxpayers' largesse are not truly needy, the current joke being that poverty in America consists of less than two flat screen HD TV's. It is also true that those who are truly needy ARE being taken care of by voluntary means. When people voluntarily help people, who for one reason or another fail, the unintended consequences are kept to a minimum. People express their love through free will. And even if people don't believe in God, they have created a perfect existential experience, forced by no-one, expressed through freedom. No bill of Congress can ever achieve this, even though it has been stated as their goal, time and time again. Not taxing at any level has ever worked for good. Ever.
Is free will more moral than control of variables for the sake of "goodness?"
That is the whole idea between the argument of Hobbes and Locke. Many believe it is the very difference between corruption and God.
If the current occupant of the White House wishes to do something constructive, he will have to eschew artificial controls. He must back away from the temptation to "solve" a complex system. He must fight his own party to do away with the desire to control people. He will have to embrace a philosophy of free will which allows people and businesses to fail. Unfortunately, that will probably not happen as this goes against the very nature of liberal teleology. Some even intend this result as they believe it will insure their income and power.
Does Obama, as some in this State believe, think he's God? Hardly. But he could learn from the Supreme Being. Or, if that's above his pay grade, just the Red Cross.
- Dick Anderson
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