The American epic unleashed the greatest outburst
of creative energy in the history of the world. More progress was made
in the last 200 years than in the previous 2,000. Why are more and more
Americans running away from the American Revolution?
Perhaps the best explanation comes from Fyodor
Dostoyevsky in the Grand Inquisitor, from "The Brothers Karamazov."
The scene takes place in Seville, Spain in the 1500s. The Grand
Inquisitor, recognizing Jesus having returned to earth, has him arrested
to be burned at the stake. He tells Jesus, "You! You who can turn stones
into bread. You wanted to come into the world and You came empty-handed,
with some vague promise of freedom, which in their simple-mindedness and
innate irresponsibility, men cannot even conceive and which they fear
and dread, for there has never been anything more difficult for man and
for human society to bear than freedom!" He continues, "Man has no more
pressing, agonizing need than to find someone to whom he can hand over
as quickly as possible the gift of freedom." This is pretty heady stuff.
With freedom comes responsibility, for one's self,
for one's accomplishments. Your shortcomings are your own: but, make
government responsible and you can blame government, big business,
unions, your spouse, you name it. Inexorably, those people attracted to
government are only too willing to oblige you by taking away your
freedom in exchange for some vague "promise" of bread and an agreement
to rule over you. But Jesus cautioned, "Man does not live by bread
alone."
We're taught that the American Revolution
commenced with that war with King George in 1776. That war however, was
a minor skirmish as such things go. Similar wars to determine what type
of autocratic government would rule men have been going on over the
ages. Never before 1776 was it freedom vs. authoritarianism. What
constitutes the real American Revolution originated with the part of the
Declaration of Independence that states, "Men are endowed by their
creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
What this declaration did was remove government as
the ruler of men and put the Creator in its place. People would no
longer be subjects of the government but henceforth government would be
subject to the "consent of the governed." This was an astounding
revolutionary break with all prerecorded history. Once this idea got
going, it had far-reaching ramifications, one being an outburst of
ingenuity and creativity with the millions now being free to act and
produce far beyond what the founders could imagine.
As students we hear about the Bill of Rights.
This, however, is a misnomer. The Bill of Rights primarily is a series
of prohibitions. Prohibitions not against the people but against the
government. Government shall not abridge freedoms of religion, speech,
press, etc. Government shall not take private property except through
due process of law and so forth. Some 45 prohibitions in all. People who
crave power tell us today that the Constitution is a "living" document
when, in reality, it is a dying document.
To see how it is dying, one need look no further
than the recent Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London. Without a
Constitutional Convention, without a vote of the Congress, without a
vote of 50 state legislatures, five Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court
nullified the 5th Amendment's protection of private property. "Nor shall
private property be taken for public use without just compensation."
This granting of "unlimited" power over private property is the most
radical, revolutionary change in how we are governed since the
Constitution was ordained in 1789.
The United States Constitution limited our
government more than any government had ever been limited. This is not
to suggest that government is a necessary evil. Government is not
inherently evil. To the contrary, government is absolutely essential to
the workings of free society, provided the government is properly
constrained. The purpose of government first and foremost is to protect
the people from predators, both foreign and domestic, protect property,
invoke a common system of justice and enforce contracts legally and
voluntarily entered. That's it.
When government is properly limited, is wedded to
a market economy and guarantees private property, you have the three
indispensable ingredients required for a free society. You and I are the
beneficiaries of a land born to freedom, a land of plenty that most of
us have done nothing to earn. We have an obligation to pass the
principles of freedom to our children and to thank God we wake up every
morning in America. What's your understanding of limited government?
