That is the title of a Dr. Ted Baehr column. Here is the introduction:
People will either be self-disciplined or need the whip of tyranny, to paraphrase the famous 19th century sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville. He noted that the United States was self-disciplined because it was a deeply religious and Christian people.
For 50 years, however, the media, in cahoots with the self-appointed nomenklatura of the educational establishment, have ripped religious values out of the public square and out of the educational system serving our children.
What were those values that so upset them that they dedicated themselves to erasing them from the public square and people's consciousness? Well, they were such principles as "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not murder," and "Thou shalt not covet" – principles that had meaning in light of the biblical principle that the "fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom" and its wonderful corollary that the knowledge of Jesus Christ is the culmination of wisdom.
Since far too many people no longer adhere to those principles, there has been horrific stealing and looting in New Orleans after the tragedy that Katrina wrought. The response by the media is a call for government intervention. Without the principle of self-discipline, therefore, we are now at the mercy of the whip of tyranny.
I remember thinking how the Second Amendment rights of those too poor to evacuate New Orleans were violated as the National Guard would take away firearms of those who wanted to take refuge at the Super Dome. Later, reports of rapes and murders demonstrated that an unarmed society is not safe.
Here is the conclusion to Baehr’s column:
When Russia descended into the Gulag of the Soviet Union, Alexander Solzhenitsyn stated that it was because the people had forgotten God. When people rob, steal and kill their fellow neighbors for a pile of rotten porridge, it is because people have forgotten God. The frontal lobotomy that caused this destructive memory loss and moral failure was performed by the cabal known as the self-appointed intellectual elite of the mass media and liberal, humanist academia.
Only by defeating or redeeming this evil cabal can we restore the sacred moral and spiritual roots that made the United States a beacon of hope for wise people like De Tocqueville.
There will be those on the left who will not believe the above column. To those (and others), may I recommend Star Parker’s book, "Uncle Sam’s Plantation". Star Parker is an African American who was once a welfare dependent. She provides real insight into what caused the calamity her fellow African Americans is faced with in New Orleans. Here are some excerpts from a book review:
Star Parker, freedom fighter and social policy activist, has written a blistering indictment of today's culture of government dependency.
"Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What You Can Do About It" traces the benign origins of the welfare state and its evolution into a $400 billion plus monstrosity of programs that effectively enslave America's poor.
Parker, a former welfare mother, has seen first hand the damage that a life of dependency renders. Years of massive government spending have left America's inner cities in shambles, black families destroyed, and youth uneducated and directionless.
It's time to cut our losses, get government and bureaucrats out of the way, and return our precious and limited resources to where Americans know how to use them best - to the control of private citizens. Perpetuation of the lie, says Parker, that government programs can solve the problems of individuals has left a generation of black Americans with a loss of a sense of self, hope, and responsibility.
The review also points to the moral issue raised by the above Baehr column:
Government undermines the framework of morality and values without which poverty and adversity cannot be overcome.
The review also points out that the poor lost their freedoms, as they became government dependents:
"Thirty-five years of Great Society social engineering have forced the disadvantaged to live under the control of the federal government.
Politicians control their housing, their food supply, their schooling, their wages, and their transportation.
It is unfortunate that the MSM are advocating more government as the solution for those trapped in the floodwaters of New Orleans. There is nothing about how government dependence was the reason why so many were too poor to heed the warnings and leave their dangerous below sea-level location. That's because the MSM is dominated by far-left secular socialists. It is only through people like Star Parker can the ice be broken and the truth be shown to those who are living in the dark. The dark that only promotes the far-left propaganda of the secular socialists, and does not allow the voices of conservatives. The MSM needs to be honest about their labels, and stop calling liberals…liberals. They are socialists. America’s experiment in socialism is failing many.
Its time for America’s rebirth. We must renew are focus on the principles that our Founding Fathers used to create this great Nation. Freedom is our solution, not the government. And freedom cannot remain without a moral foundation to support it.
For those who blame the government for not doing enough in New Orleans need to understand that a government that did too much created the problem.
