One of the few things I find fascinating about Facebook is the mix of the inane and the intellectual. Some of the most simplistic views of politics, a bumper sticker mentality, pervades much of the FB day-to-day fare. But there are also some extraordinarily smart people out there who stand out from the ideological clutter.
Which brings me to Darrin Moore of Grosse Ile. I do not know Moore but I do admire his posts on politics. Moore describes himself as “very conservative,” but he is certainly not some hardcore Republican partisan. He has engaged in a series of posts today that denounce those that blindly follow ideology, including the libertarians (and, in particular, Ron Paul’s cult-like following).
Here’s what Moore has to say about ideology:
“… Ideology inherits the fanaticism that sometimes has afflicted religious faith, and applies that intolerant belief to concerns secular.
“… Ideology makes political compromise impossible: the ideologue will accept no deviation from the Absolute Truth of his secular revelation. This narrow vision brings about civil war, extirpation of ‘reactionaries,’ and the destruction of beneficial functioning social institutions.
“… Ideologues vie one with another in fancied fidelity to their Absolute Truth; and they are quick to denounce deviationists or defectors from their party orthodoxy.”
He then goes on to quote Burke on the balance that is essential in a truly free society:
“Civil freedom, Gentlemen, is not, as many have endeavoured to persuade you, a thing that lies hid in the depth of abstruse science. It is a blessing and a benefit, not an abstract speculation; and all the just reasoning that can be upon it is of so coarse a texture as perfectly to suit the ordinary capacities of those who are to enjoy and of those who are to defend it. Far from any resemblance to those propositions in geometry and metaphysics which admit no medium, but must be true or false in all their latitude, social and civil freedom, like all other things in common life, are variously mixed and modified, enjoyed in very different degrees, and shaped into an infinite diversity of forms, according to the temper and circumstances of every community.”
~ Edmund Burke: Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, April 3, 1777.
Then, in response to some FB comments, Moore added this:
“Look, I appreciate that young people like to keep it simple and believe that they can make no mistake so long as they can convince themselves that they are fighting for Freedom (with a capital F). Youth is all about breaking rules, pretending morals don’t exists and thinking any rule is oppression that destroys freedom. But what libertarian rarely understands is that liberty is precarious product of a justly-ordered society. As Hayek said: “Indeed, the basic point of my argument–that morals, including especially, our institutions of property, freedom and justice, are not a creation of man’s reason but a distinct second endowment conferred on him by cultural evolution.” Hayek, who was a staunch traditionalist as well as a strong proponent of experimentation would say that Hume’s expression couldn’t be repeated often enough: “The rules of morality are not the conclusions of our reason.”“Liberty cannot be separated from duty. We are not born free. Sure, God gives us freewill, but leave a newborn baby alone and discover how dependent /unfree it is. Do we want a society of teenagers who believe the right way to live is without ordered liberty? I don’t. We are only free to the degree of our own self-mastery combined with the degree of freedom endowed by the society in which they live. America ain’t Soviet Russia or Saudi Arabia. Yes, we have seen some of our sacred liberties leaked away by socialist policy (primarily an attack on property and market enterprise), however progressive policy has paradoxically torn down custom, convention and the rules of morality. It is easier today to be an emancipated, immoral freak than ever, and (Ron) Paul–in the name of greater Freedom–would accelerate the destruction of our customs, conventions and rules of morality.”
“Liberty cannot be separated from duty. We are not born free. Sure, God gives us freewill, but leave a newborn baby alone and discover how dependent /unfree it is. Do we want a society of teenagers who believe the right way to live is without ordered liberty? I don’t. We are only free to the degree of our own self-mastery combined with the degree of freedom endowed by the society in which they live. America ain’t Soviet Russia or Saudi Arabia. Yes, we have seen some of our sacred liberties leaked away by socialist policy (primarily an attack on property and market enterprise), however progressive policy has paradoxically torn down custom, convention and the rules of morality. It is easier today to be an emancipated, immoral freak than ever, and (Ron) Paul–in the name of greater Freedom–would accelerate the destruction of our customs, conventions and rules of morality.”
