[headsonpikes]

"We don't need to be at war on this..."

Oh, yes, we do...but a war of words and ideas, I hope.

IMO, communities of people have always expected their members to adhere to certain behaviors, and to avoid others. Adherence to these various communal mores are not objectionable to me, at all. If the good folks of Hooterville despise the consumption of red meat, for instance, then Hooterville can decline to issue business licenses to butchers; if I think that's stupid, I can leave town.

In my view, the extension of this practice to the nation-state has been a grave error. Few nation-states are compact and uniform enough to legitimize such particularism in human behaviors.

Utopian perfectionism is a hideous distortion of the proper relationship between the citizen and the state. The history of the 20th Century is largely a history of nations gone berserk while possessed of this insane notion. Russia, Germany, China...these and others succumbed to a fearful psychopathy which was rationalized as the 'true' expression of national consciousness.

In America, Prohibition, the eugenics movement, the various insane economic nostrums of '30s-era radicals, and lately, the WOD, are manifestations of this psychopathy. Often, these movements are rooted in a crazed pseudo-scientific delusion of a 'true' understanding of social and political life.

That Americans have permitted their governments to 'establish' certain views to the exclusion of others is a tragedy, whose fruits can be seen in the hideous monopoly in public education by 'progressives', as well as in the hysterical WOD.

These trends represent American Socialism, as distinguished from German Socialism, Russian Communism, Chinese Communism, Italian Fascism, and all the other 'national socialisms' of our bloodstained planet.

Socialism is not merely an economic idea; it is the idea that human beings should be viewed as mere instances of a type instead of as unique individuals. Identity politics is the most obvious manifestation of this delusion in American public life, but it is implicit in all of the intrusive legislation of the past century.

Given current public discourse,I would describe myself as a libertarian Conservative, but would rather be seen as a 'disestablishmentarian'. That term was used to describe those who wished to 'disestablish' the Church of England three centuries ago, but I seek to 'disestablish' educational bureaucracies, health bureaucracies, and the very notion that citizens are 'human resources' to be nurtured and protected by high-minded civil servants.

We must plunge a stake through the heart of Socialism to ensure our survival as free people.

Of course, some folks value group solidarity above individual autonomy, but I cannot see how this can be justified by reference to the 'general welfare' mentioned in the Constitution.

Socialists, of course, have no such compunction.

[TigersEye]

Excellent exposition! My hearty congratulations for your well spoken thoughts!!!

[unspun]

My sentiments are with you, hop. Hope to respond, 'ere long.

[rb22982]

very nice post

[tpaine]

IMO, communities of people have always expected their members to adhere to certain behaviors, and to avoid others. Adherence to these various communal mores are not objectionable to me, at all. If the good folks of Hooterville despise the consumption of red meat, for instance, then Hooterville can decline to issue business licenses to butchers; if I think that's stupid, I can leave town.
-HoP-

Exactly, the Hooterville majority can 'regulate' the offensive [to them] practice of butchering/ selling/consuming red meat in public. -- But they cannot prohibit or criminalize this foul practice in the privacy of the home.
- This would violate our inalienable right to eat what we wish.

Thanks for a great essay. I think you should come up with a controversial title, and post it to a thread of its own.

[headsonpikes]

Bumping my post #78.

Feel free to accept that post as my initial contribution to your proposed debate.

The so-called WOD is based on a rationale of 'established' knowledge about human nature.

Abandon the scientific pretense and a free-ranging debate about the relation between state and citizen becomes possible. The hysterical response of 'authorities' to the use of 'drugs' is merely one egregious example of the modern statist trend towards 'human resource management'.

See post #78.

All IMNSHO. ;^)