"Good laws are governed by morality. Bad laws govern morality.
One will seek to elevate the individual through the inequality that liberty offers , the other will degrade the individual to its lowest common denominator that equality promises.
One will be empowered by a Nation and the other will empower the State.
One focuses on the means over the end and the other will focus on the end over the means.
One promises nothing except the opportunity to succeed and the other promises everything and is doomed to failure.
One is absolute while the other is relative.
Abide by one a person recognizes the allowance of failure once established as a way of life. Abide by the other a person will only recognize the promise of success once established as a way of life.
We either choose to abide by one or the other. There is no compromise. "
15 comments:
Lotta truth there! I believe we got the first back when we elected statesmen, since we now seem to prefer politicians, we get the second.
ahhh another one to add to the list, gorges. :)
I have two thoughts which may not connect.
1. Is the general quality level of judgment lower than it was 200 years ago or did the founding fathers face the same stupidity we do today?
(I suspect that there were a lot of total morons who came to this country but it was a rough life so they tended to die)
2. What part of our culture makes us legislate from every exception/accident? A kid runs out in front of a bus and is killed. Then we lower the speed limit to 20. A guy tries to ignite a wiener bomb and now we have to be fondled before getting on an airplane. It is all the same concept.
3. Laws as revenue enhancement, is that not what started the revolution?
he chuckles. your questions are good ones, budde, but ones that have plagued mankind ever since the creation of separate societies, i believe. a blog could be created based on nothing but the theme behind your questions.
it all boils down to one idea, life and the risks of life. one side will be willing to accept the risks and its effects on the life of individual. their answer to the problems of risk is to teach others not to be careless and to accept the costs of carelessness.
the other side will seek to eliminate the risks of life for the individual. their answer is to pass off the responsibility of risks to others and spread out its costs of carelessness to everyone.
one side will see life in terms of the whole of society while the other side see life in terms of the individual.
the debate by the founders over what type of central government we should have can be traced back to this one concept.
I wanted to comment on your Howlin' Wolf video which I found pretty amazing.
As a young person I was on a quest for the expression of real emotion. (I understand I was not unique)
We listen to Howlin' Wolf sing the blues and feel the harmonica cry.
But doesn't it lead us to kind of simplistic view. Is the expression of pain the only emotion you can trust? Why don't we like happy music? (my 9 year-old does)
Of course her judgment is somewhat suspect. She is watching a Hannah Montana movie so I guess she also like poop and sit back down in it music as well...
"Good laws are governed by morality. Bad laws govern morality."
Granpa was wise Griper. It sounds like he was sympathetic to a progressive view with his statement.
budd,
an expression of pain is a recognition of something valuable that was once possessed is now lost or taken away. and that pain remains within us for a lifetime.
and in this world everyone knows that they will experience it. that is what we trust, isn't it?
Truth,
Grandpa said to tell you that he doesn't think an ideology that approves of the use of force on it's good citizens is a moral ideology.
He also said that an ideology that expounds the principle that the end justifies the means is not a very moral ideology.
he also says that b4 he'll accept the concept of the progressive ideology someone will have to prove to him that we live in an existence of determinism rather than an existence where man can declare he possesses free will.
he also declared that the progressive ideology has been tried many times throughout history and it has a perfect record of failure.
So, the point being, Truth, your conclusion about grandpa belies the nick you use as does the ideology you adhere to.
Not to get your post off track but...
I remember moments of happiness and know they were real. I expect moments of happiness in the future but yet it would seem that an appreciation of pain gives one more depth of character, gives art more validity, makes better country and blues songs.
People seem to be quite uncomfortable singing hymns.
Just kind of a funny thing I've been thinking about.
now there we can really agree on. there can be no doubt in my mind of the truth of your words.
music or any of the arts are the expression of the personal experiences of the artist. art is nothing but a glimpse into the soul of the artist himself. this is especially true of music in my opinion.
"progressive ideology has been tried many times throughout history and it has a perfect record of failure." Grandpa, you owe me a list of the 'many times'. :)
BB,
smiles, a list would be impossible but it goes as far back as to the Biblical days if not further. then you had the small communities in the 60's who tried the same concept.
the pilgrims tried the same concept when they came over here.
noww, this is not to say that the concept cannot be seen as successful for a time but they all die out for some reason or another.
those are just some that i can think of off the top of my head right now.
Ah, the pilgrims! Thanks to Grandpa. A couple notes
(or random silly thoughts):
we need understand which
definition of 'progressive' for the antonyms are a bit soddy-
"atavistic, throwback, retrograde, retrogressive
returning, reverting
unmodernized, disorderd, conservative, inactive"
[my limited vocabulary sent me to the dictionary on 'atavistic'!] Secondly, we observe regarding '..they all die out for some reason or.."
applies to human activity,
including civilizations, states, organizations as we learn from history-and
perhaps the key word here
being 'reason or'. Have grandpa join me in pondering the 'reason or'
the Pilgrims died out!
BB,
the key word here is "ideology". we are speaking of the political ideology of those who refer themselves as progressives in today's politics. for that we need to examine the purpose of government and the goals of that ideology for society of the progressive not the definition of the word "progressive."
Your grandpa is a very wise man.
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