Freedom of Choice or the Fist of Force: On May Day recall that Ideas Have Consequences

Ideas Have Consequences
When you believe that people have Free Will, the consequences are that you believe that people have the ability, and the responsibility, to make their own choices. The type of government which follows from that is one that believes that the purpose of the State is to serve the people and protect their Individual Rights to engage in their own life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

When you believe that people do not have free will, then you necessarily believe that people’s lives are determined by outside factors in their environment, and that the purpose of government is to, as Rousseau said, ‘force them to be free’, and the consequences of that were and still are, the reign of terror of the French Revolution, the final solution of the Nazi’s, the slaughter houses of communist Russia and Red China, and the killing fields of Pol Pot’s Cambodia.

The consequences of believing in free will are that you believe in Individual Rights, that people make their own choices and have a right to retain the consequences of their choices and efforts – that means Property Rights and a written constitution to define and delimit the powers of government, and a Bill of Rights to secure the freedom of the people; written law written in accordance with Natural Law.

The consequences of not believing in free will, are that you believe that Individual Rights are ‘Nonsense on stilts’, that people’s lives are determined by outside events, and that the purpose of the government is to have all the power necessary to nudge, push, shape and re-form their lives as the best minds think is best. That means that the individual has no purpose or meaning except to serve the collective, and law has no meaning or purpose but to serve the needs of the state.

When you believe in Free Will, the consequences in Education are that you believe the purpose of Education is to help the person to understand and shape their own lives, and to develop their own self-control so as to be true liberation in virtue and morality, so as to live a life worth living.

When you deny free will, the consequences in education are that you believe the purpose of education is to force feed the beliefs that are deemed useful to the state, an individuals will is something to be destroyed, individuality is to be feared and stamped and students are to be indoctrinated in order to become servants of the state.

When you believe in Free Will, the consequences are an economy that is based upon the Free Market, that people are free to make their own choices, and have a right to retain the fruits of their labor.

When you deny free will, the consequences are a state controlled economy, massive regulatory agencies which will necessarily determine what choices are ok for you to make, and what and how much of anything, if anything, you need to have in order to serve the greater good.

Ultimately it means that a society which recognizes Free Will, believes in the power of persuasion, while a society which denies free will, believes in exercising the persuasion of power.

Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Charles Yancey, said,

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

If you educate your children to believe that they have the ability, and responsibility, to make their own choices, and that the choices they make are critical to their lives and happiness, you may have a society worth living in.

If you educate your children to believe in materialism, that they are biological machines to be kept and maintained by the state, you will be ruled by force and you will be forced ‘to be free’ under the thumb of the state, or in the freedom of the grave.

Freedom of choice or the fist of Force: that is your choice to make. They are irreconcilable opposites. This May Day you should recall that the consequences of choosing any of the features of socialism, communism or any other style of state controlled life, will be the fist of socialism slammed into any face that dissents or dares to question what experts have determined to be best for the greater good.

Freedom or Force, it’s your choice, and there will be consequences.