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Sept 23, 2003 Gentle readers of Useless-Knowledge, do you sometimes wonder why the liberal columnists are almost extinct from the scene here? I have done so many times and having reached a possible conclusion, wish to share it for your perusal. There are basic premises upon which we depend on making the decisions of life. Everyone has made declarations within themselves about fundamental issues even if we have not outwardly expressed them or much considered them. The following treatise attempts to see conservatives and liberals in the light of such fundamental questions and in both cases ascribes to them good intentions. GOD: FACT OR FICTION One very fundamental question is whether there is a Creator God to whom we must answer. If there is such a God, then we would be beholden to him and would be wise to line up our lives in such a way that He would not “bring the hammer down” upon us at some point. Many people try to be wishy-washy on this point and label themselves as “agnostic” or they may even join a religious organization or go to church while not really believing in what that organization endorses. People who claim to be unknowing or unable to know are, for all practical purposes, atheists, for in proclaiming not to know they are also admitting that they do not believe. Secondly, those who join a church because they wish to have a label or for social purposes or political purposes but do not really believe they must answer to God are free to do so, but in fact they might as well call themselves atheists also. There are many Americans who believe in a Creator God and therefore make decisions with that fact in mind. More often than not, the Conservatives will be believers and the Liberals will be the unbelievers. The reasons for this will be apparent as we move forward in this column. ABSOLUTES: YES OR NO Concurrent with the idea of a Creator God is the idea of moral absolutes. If you believe in such a God, you will also believe that he has the right to determine absolutes regarding right and wrong. He is the King, this world is his kingdom and he makes the rules. The founders of this country believed in both the idea of the Creator God and also believed in the idea of absolutes. The 10 commandments and attendant precepts from the Bible were the basis for the foundation of our country. Conservatives concur with this and thus they are “conservatives”: People who seek to conserve the values and traditions upon which the nation was founded. The liberal mindset generally agrees with the idea that there is no Creator God and therefore man is responsible for making his own rules. Rather than an absolute standard of right and wrong, the rules are not only created by man but also are continually in flux. My rules may differ from yours, and the accepted rules of society will tend to evolve. Man is king over mankind, he is the rule-maker and he is answerable to himself. Therefore the best and brightest of mankind need to take charge of rule- making for the benefit of all mankind. It follows, then, that liberals consider themselves “progressive” as they seek to reinvent society and morality. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY: ANSWERING TO MAN OR GOD The typical conservative will tend to believe that he must answer to God in some fashion and that a combination of his adherence to Godly precepts and individual efforts will largely determine how he fares in life. He will see himself as able to provide for himself and others and largely self-determinant within the aspect of society at large. The typical liberal, though, with no God or Biblical standards to obey, must view society as having been built from scratch and in need of renovation. He begins, with all good intention, to try to build Utopia. This means that he must make society responsible for all men, rather than man being responsible for himself. TRUTH: CHANGING OR UNCHANGING The typical conservative sees that Truth is a basic and unchanging foundation upon which all the issues of life must rest. Truth has been determined by God, in fact, created by God and it is up to mankind to adhere to the Truth as they will. The conservative therefore will work to keep society in line with Truth or bring society as close to Truth as possible. The liberal sees truth as often being more or less a matter of opinion, created by and improved upon by mankind. He therefore decides what he thinks SHOULD BE and then based upon his opinion tries to bring it to pass. DEBATE: BASED ON TRUTH OR NOT? When conservatives debate liberals, they are just not coming from the same position. Generally, the conservative point of view is based on unchanging doctrines and those doctrines are not subject to change. Conservatives will be very logic-oriented in almost a mathematical sense, in that they will take their starting premise and add it to the situation at hand and come up with the same answer time after time. They believe in Truth that is unchanging and work from a foundation that is immovable. Liberals become frustrated with conservatives because they do not accept the conservative’s Truth as being the Truth. The liberal may be armed with many facts, as will the conservatives, but their foundation from which they approach issues is not unchanging. Liberals will deny the existence of Black and White and seek to coax others to endorse their own particular shade of Gray. Without an immovable foundation upon which to base their arguments, when conservatives try to apply sound reasoning to an issue the liberal will sometimes find himself lost, because at the root of his beliefs is a “Because I say so” instead of “Thus saith the Lord.” They find that one’s own opinion is not nearly as defensible simply because it tends to lack collaboration. A CONCLUSION My conclusion is thus: The liberal columnists here at Useless-Knowledge would find themselves called upon to use logic to defend their positions on various issues and find themselves to be lacking. A liberal politician can make broad and bold statements and declare how things ought to be, safe in the knowledge that the public has been easily swayed by attractive arguments and catch-phrases. A scoundrel with a talent for Blarney like Bill Clinton can ignore the Truth altogether and sway the public with his clever words and kindly demeanor. In the environment of this website, such pronouncements are weighed and challenged when they do not measure up. In such a climate, the liberal will be often uncomfortable and will prefer to take his opinions elsewhere. Fortunately for this country, the dissemination of information is no longer in the hands of the liberal press. Talk radio and the internet have begotten Fox News which has exposed the ultra- liberal viewpoints of NPR and the NY Times and their ilk for the public at large to see. We don’t have to depend on Dan Rather; we can get our information from several different sources and decide for ourselves who the more reliable sources might be. I believe that if you give people Truth, the majority of the people with agree with that Truth. It is in part my responsibility to get that Truth out because I love this country and the people of this country. I do acknowledge that many liberals are very sincere and do not desire to destroy the country. But I also believe that many of them hate this country and are diligently trying to make it into something else far more socialistic than it ever was or was intended to become. What do you think? ------------ About the author: Kimbal Ross Binder is a husband of one wife and parent of six child units of various sizes. He is a tennis bum, karaoke singer, punster and a reformed liberal who now admires Rush Limbaugh and hates to miss Fox News in the evening. You can pass along plaudits and invectives to: radar@eternalisp.com Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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