Linking Politics to Morality

There is a hierarchy of concepts in philosophy: from metaphysics to epistemology to morality to politics. Let’s look at some important linkages between concepts to arrive at an acceptable political system.

Reason is a critical first value for man: it is his only means of acquiring knowledge and truth. Since man has a volitional consciousness - free will, he must use reason to abstract and form concepts, and to base his conclusions on available facts. And that provides the only means to make proper choices and take proper actions for his survival.

Morality is a code of values that guides man’s choices and actions; it only pertains to those actions open to his choice. Its purpose is to enhance his life - to enable him to be virtuous and happy. It should be clear why man needs such a code; but what code should he follow?

One must begin with some standard of value by which one judges good from bad/evil. Given the above, that must be life itself: that which is proper to the life of a rational being is the good, and that which opposes or destroys it is the evil. Actions are required to gain and keep one’s values and sustain and enhance the good in life. The following virtues define those actions.

Man’s essential characteristic is his rational faculty. Rationality is the recognition of reason (as described above) and that nothing can alter the truth dictated by reality and reason. It must be man’s most fundamental virtue, the source of all of the following virtues.

·         Independence: accepting responsibility for forming one’s own judgments and never subordinating one’s mind to another’s.

·         Integrity: acting in accordance with one’s convictions and values, to rational principles; never sacrificing the latter to the opinions or wishes of others.

·         Honesty: loyalty to reality and rationality; never practicing deceit or evasion. It requires living by any idea you accept as true; mean what you say.

·         Justice: never seeking or granting the unearned or undeserved. To judge and be judged based on all factual evidence available; i.e. objective judgment.

·         Productiveness: pursuit of purpose and the use of one’s mind to sustain life through productive work and the achievement of one’s goals. This is highly correlated with reward.

·         Pride: recognizing oneself as his highest value, having earned it, by striving for moral perfection – consistently practicing all virtues. This correlates with strength of character.

This is a pro-life, pro-individual morality of rational self-interest. The result is happiness - one’s end goal in life; and self-esteem - living up to one’s values and strength of character.

“Rights”, a moral concept, are inherent in man’s need to survive. They necessarily pertain only to individual actions. And based on this morality, force can never be initiated in violation of rights.

This moral foundation dictates the only proper function of government: to protect individual rights. And we should be thankful that our original political system - called Capitalism - was based on that belief and enabled America to become the freest and most productive society in history.

Any rejection of reason is an escape from the responsibility of rational thought. The result is inappropriate choices, actions and conclusions. Emotionalism, not rationality, will be one's guiding virtue and other virtues will be compromised or negated.

·         Dependence and Obedience replace Independence: not accepting responsibility for oneself and relying on others for one’s survival.   

·         Compromise replaces Integrity: Loyalty to one’s subjective whims leads to sacrificing one’s convictions/principles to others. In any collaboration between two men holding different basic principles, the more irrational one wins.

·         Dishonesty replaces Honesty: failing to adhere to reality and to live by what you say.

·         Mercy replaces Justice: unearned forgiveness, subjective judgment. (Don’t confuse this with being charitable or caring for others.)

·         Unproductiveness replaces Productiveness: lacking purpose and desire to achieve one’s goals.

·         Humility replaces Pride: having a relatively low assessment of self/self-esteem/self-respect; contentment with one’s moral flaws. (Don’t confuse this with merely recognizing one’s failings.)

 

This is anti-life. The standard of value becomes subjective, leaving one with no guiding principles and with a morality of sacrifice and irrationality. It sacrifices higher values to lower values, ability to inability, achievement and wealth to need, a love of life to envy, self-esteem to self-denial, and happiness to duty. It is a code for the unearned and undeserved.

As need trumps life as a standard, the theory of rights begins to self-destruct: rights are replaced with arbitrary government “privileges”, and policies based on ‘sacrificing to need’ make the pursuit of individual rights a virtual crime. Conflict becomes the norm as one is given the “right” to infringe others’ rights. Life is necessarily sacrificed by force.

The resulting political system is necessarily some form of statism. Included is:

·         Arbitrary government control of at least some aspects of our economy and our actions.

·         Lack of adherence to our constitution and the DOI.

·         Failure to truly protect our rights. E.g., bending to special interests, cronyism, collectivism over individualism - concern for the unidentifiable “public good” at the expense of the individual.

·         Egalitarianism: economic equality with need trumping justice. This is used to justify redistribution of wealth, ignoring the distinction between the earned and unearned.

·         Multiculturalism: a belief that all cultures are inherently equal, regardless of their moral flaws. It fosters an anti-American bias even in favor of cultures determined to destroy us. It attempts to negate America’s exceptionalism.

·         Talking points (emotional assertions) replacing the truth.

 
Capitalism (as in the beginning) is clearly the superior, and only moral, political system. And placing a high value on individual life, it will always be the most benevolent system. The primary reason for our long-term trend toward statism is that statists and others who have abandoned reason have only recently faced rational moral opposition (previous issue). Moral truth is key; and let’s hope Gandhi was right: “the way of truth has always won.”