I have been kicking this around in my head for awhile now, and it is now time to get it out on paper.
In order for a society to function normally (between the ditches of anarchy and statism), some degree of self-restraint is required. Here is what I mean:. If I decide to show absolutely no self-restraint, and do whatever I feel like in the moment, than a lot of people, including me, would wind up hurt. But I do restrain myself; and as a result of that, my life flows more smoothly. This principle scales upward, and I mean all the way upward; to the global view of society. And here is why.
There's this thing called the PAR principle: Privilege, Accountability, Responsibility. As Privilege rises, so must Accountability and Responsibility. As people want to take the P without A and R; governments must clamp down, limiting people's privileges
A couple of examples:
I know a man who has done some work with houses; and he told me one time about a house that he'd worked on in Stop Six. (For those innocents or non-Fort Worthians, Stop Six is the part of town that you should not go to if you don't have to). And he told me that in Stop Six, when you go to sell a house, you sell it without carpet and without air conditioning. If you do put in A/C and carpet while the house is not occupied, than it will not be there the next day. PAR has been violated, over and over again in this neighborhood, and as a result, the whole society is negatively affected; descending into some sort of twisted combination of anarchy and statism. Anarchy occurs regularly, whenever carpet or A/C is stolen. Statism occurs on the rare occasion when the police come to town, they assume that everyone is a criminal; and with impunity, they start putting everyone they see in handcuffs.
Another example: I saw the movie Dredd recently (which I do NOT recommend doing.) It was exremely graphic; but it was a look at a society that has completely descended into this statist-anarchist combination. The society has become so utterly amoral, that the government is forced to give the Judges the combined powers of Judge, Jury, and Executioner, because they don't have the time or the money to give everyone a fair trial; and because most people are guilty, the judges assume that everyone is guilty until they are proven innocent. This is what happens when PAR is repeatedly violated.
Now, here is the part that I've been working through. It is clear to me that society functions in this way because God has ordained it from above.
Proverbs 14:34
Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a disgrace to any people.
Psalm 81:13-14
If my people would but listen to me,
if Israel would follow my ways,
14 how quickly would I subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes!
Psalm 144:14
Blessed are the people of whom this is true;
blessed are the people whose God is the Lord.
If you follow the logic train that way, it makes total sense: God is good, and he has designed reality so that when it functions according to how he has set up reality, the results are more beneficial for everyone. But here's what I want to know: Is it possible to reverse that train, and reverse-engineer this principle, (that when society functions morally, it works out better for everyone) to logically show that there is a God who has designed reality to work this way? I think there is, and the process of that will be coming in the next post. If anyone has any ideas on how that might work, comment below, or email them to me at achristianpolitician.gmail.com.
Stay Tuned!
Great post, quite thought provoking! :)
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