Comments on Ron Paul Farewell Address to Congress Nov 2012

http://www.ronpaul.com/2012-11-14/ron-pauls-farewell-address-to-congress/

Excerpts with my commentary in black.

The immoral use of force is the source of man’s political problems. 

We most definitely will have men using force on other men to take away their life, and freedom to use their bodies and properties as they chose. Read Human History. That is all government does - threaten and use force to punish the guilty and defend the innocent. "Moral" is what we call the arena of should/ought/right. "Immoral" would be using government force to reward the guilty and punish the innocent. Ron Paul is going to remind us that your morality is going to come from your Religion. Everybody is just as religious as everybody else. It is helpful to be aware of this and be self-conscious about where your ethical authority is coming from. Why do we think one action is a crime that should be punished a certain way, and other actions should be free for any man (as in the Fed issuing dollars)?

Sadly, many religious groups, secular organizations, and psychopathic authoritarians endorse government initiated force to change the world. 

Your religious Faith will define Sin (things that are wrong to do), and Crime (things that are wrong to do, that other men are responsible to punish with a taking away of life, liberty, or property). Hating someone may be wrong for someone to do, and have lots of negative effects that are bad for the hater and the hatee. But others should not be killing-, imprisoning-, or fining the hater. The Murderer, they should execute. So says one religion. Other religions say that Mother, Father, Doctor, Nurse -- should be given cash awards (from the taxpayers)  if they murder the most helpless-, most innocent-possible human beings before they have a chance to fairly start beginning their lives, take their first breath or have any chance, whatsoever, to defend themselves.

Punishing crime the right way changes the world quite a bit for the good. Your person and property are more or less safe. Are you old enough to remember not locking your doors? Ron Paul and I, are. What if you got to keep what you earned? What if inflation or market shifts didn't decimate your savings, deplete your 401k, or raise the prices so all you can afford to eat is beans?

Punishing innocent people changes the world too. We are all finding out what changes come about after we have hoped that the Government would take stuff away from the Ants and give it to the Grasshoppers. The Grasshoppers are so disappointed that the Ants have stopped working, left the country, or joined the Ants.

Even when the desired goals are well-intentioned—or especially when well-intentioned—the results are dismal.  The good results sought never materialize.  The new problems created require even more government force as a solution.  The net result is institutionalizing government initiated violence and morally justifying it on humanitarian grounds.

Yet, rarely is it asked why it is morally acceptable that a stranger with a badge and a gun can do the same thing in the name of law and order.  Any resistance is met with brute force, fines, taxes, arrests, and even imprisonment. This is done more frequently every day without a proper search warrant.

He is correct in pointing out the horrendous evils that result when human law commits murder, theft and kidnapping in the name or righteousness. The Bible says coercing a man and imprisoning or enslaving him against his will -- is called man-stealing (our word: kidnapping). Kidnapping is a capital crime the same as murder. Yet the Bible doesn't specify what punishments should be inflicted on a man if he ingests nicotine, caffeine, cinnamon, or other stuff that has effects on your body and mind -- but doesn't violate the rights of others. Though not everyone will agree, it may be the Bible never authorizes force against those who neglect paying the taxes mandated by a Majority, a legislative body, or a Dictator. Yet the Bible clearly labels the kidnapping of a man as a capital crime?

The Financial Crisis Is a Moral Crisis

Many are now acknowledging that a financial crisis looms but few understand it’s, in reality, a moral crisis.  It’s the moral crisis that has allowed our liberties to be undermined and permits the exponential growth of illegal government power.  Without a clear understanding of the nature of the crisis it will be difficult to prevent a steady march toward tyranny and the poverty that will accompany it.

Paul will remind us that we have to thresh out the morality of these things, and for that, we will have to go to our religion. Not all religions are the same in their view of Man, and God, and Law. The Bible would say that civil government is committing crimes in their own right, when they are punishing families for not paying "enough" taxes. They are guilty of stealing and assault when they violate the rights of the property-owner by taxes, inflation, and regulation. The Bible would point out that private citizens that want and use civil law to plunder their neighbor are being "partners with a thief", that if society allows thieves to get away with the property of others without paying appropriate restitution, the whole society will be disciplined with wasteful plunder.

Because it’s the government that initiates force, most people accept it as being legitimate.  Those who exert the force have no sense of guilt.  It is believed by too many that governments are morally justified in initiating force supposedly to “do good.”  They incorrectly believe that this authority has come from the “consent of the people.”

People must believe that one thing is more good than another, that one thing is stronger than another. They have chosen to believe some undefined notion of human consensus about law is stronger and more good than the God of the Bible and His laws. They have directed their worship to created things, instead of the creator. Paul is right, people really do not believe in the "consent of the majority of people". They reveal this by criticizing something that Majority does that they think is wrong -- betraying themselves that they have some other Standard/Authority in their worldview that is "gooder" or stronger than the Majority.

Limiting Government Excesses vs. a Virtuous Moral People

Our Constitution, which was intended to limit government power and abuse, has failed.  The Founders warned that a free society depends on a virtuous and moral people.  The current crisis reflects that their concerns were justified.

Here he correctly shows the futility of both the Constitution, and the cry for freedom. Each man doesn't enjoy freedom unless his fellow-men restrain their own freedom. Other men won't enjoy freedom unless he, himself, limits his freedom. This is why there will be no freedom or peace unless they both recognize Christ as their legitimate owner/master, and allow Christ to have His freedom to enjoy His own rights in the Creation He has redeemed. Then Men do enjoy the maximum-possible limited freedom they can have between themselves. If we are enslaved to human government and bankers, we are free from Christ. If you take the king's coin, you become the king's man. If we are enslaved to Christ, He will release us from our unjust servitude to the government and bankers.

Most politicians and pundits are aware of the problems we face but spend all their time in trying to reform government.  The sad part is that the suggested reforms almost always lead to less freedom and the importance of a virtuous and moral people is either ignored, or not understood. The new reforms serve only to further undermine liberty.  The compounding effect has given us this steady erosion of liberty and the massive expansion of debt.  The real question is: if it is liberty we seek, should most of the emphasis be placed on government reform or trying to understand what “a virtuous and moral people” means and how to promote it.

The destruction comes because men have an impossible, self-contradictory idea of where ethical authority comes from. It can't come from Government (those are just individual men - governing), and it cannot come from the men supporting or voting for candidates and issues. Otherwise the foolish and immoral Majority can use the forces of law to kill, rob, and kidnap their neighbors for personal advantage. Democracy won't help you if the democratic men are bad.

Paul doesn't emphasize it, but the other reason laboring for reforms inside government is counterproductive, is because the majority of people have ceded over so much control of their labor and property to the banks, that the banks control government and education and media, and they are fully funded to be able to direct the policies of the civil government. His point is well taken that we have to repent and submit to a new definition of virtue and morality. One option is to return to that earlier WorldView that was more MainStream in the Pre-Constitution -- that puts the Triune God of the Bible at the center of Ethical Authority, instead of sinful men. Here he is calling on the Church to return to being what it has forgotten She is -- the only possible human institution to speak prophetically, with spiritual authority into society, trying to be an accurate guardian of the oracles of God, who has objectively revealed Himself in the Bible. Otherwise, the nations are at the mercy of the morality of Dictator, Legislature, or Majority.

The Constitution has not prevented the people from demanding handouts for both rich and poor in their efforts to reform the government, while ignoring the principles of a free society. All branches of our government today are controlled by individuals who use their power to undermine liberty and enhance the welfare/warfare state-and frequently their own wealth and power.

He doesn't belabor it here, but he has faithfully reminded us over this 36-year period about the evil men to whom we are ceding control. Govt cannot move without the Banking System. People are influenced by the Media and Educations systems. Guess who controls those.

If the people are unhappy with the government performance it must be recognized that government is merely a reflection of an immoral society that rejected a moral government of constitutional limitations of power and love of freedom.

If this is the problem all the tinkering with thousands of pages of new laws and regulations will do nothing to solve the problem.

It is self-evident that our freedoms have been severely limited and the apparent prosperity we still have, is nothing more than leftover wealth from a previous time.  This fictitious wealth based on debt and benefits from a false trust in our currency and credit, will play havoc with our society when the bills come due.  This means that the full consequence of our lost liberties is yet to be felt.

But that illusion is now ending.  Reversing a downward spiral depends on accepting a new approach.

A new direction might be a return to the Pre-Constitution Consensus, which was a more righteous, Biblical approach. It may seem strange now, after 175 years. But If we want different results, we will have to adopt a different worldview. We know Communism (community ownership of wealth) has murdered 100,000,000 innocents. If the "Love your Neighbor" and "Thou Shalt Not Steal" of the Christian Bible doesn't do better, it will be our own fault for not trying it.

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.
Gilbert K. Chesterton

Expect the rapidly expanding homeschooling movement to play a significant role in the revolutionary reforms needed to build a free society with Constitutional protections. We cannot expect a Federal government controlled school system to provide the intellectual ammunition to combat the dangerous growth of government that threatens our liberties.

The internet will provide the alternative to the government/media complex that controls the news and most political propaganda. This is why it’s essential that the internet remains free of government regulation.

Many of our religious institutions and secular organizations support greater dependency on the state by supporting war, welfare and corporatism and ignore the need for a virtuous people.

I never believed that the world or our country could be made more free by politicians, if the people had no desire for freedom.

He may mean, "if the people had no desire to limit their own freedom, so their neighbor could have freedom". The greater problem is that people are reluctant, out of ignorance or hostility, for Jesus to have the freedom He deserves as King of all Nations.

Under the current circumstances the most we can hope to achieve in the political process is to use it as a podium to reach the people to alert them of the nature of the crisis and the importance of their need to assume responsibility for themselves, if it is liberty that they truly seek.  Without this, a constitutionally protected free society is impossible.

And this is what Ron Paul has always been about. He has always known he can't win in this environment. He saw it (to put the best face on it) his responsibility to speak the truth he could without getting silenced. I think he rightly accepted the podium offered him to speak -- even if it was offered by the Powers-That-Be for their own purposes. But now it has become much clearer that only a Religious Voice, calling people for a return to a moral standard that is more concerned about what the government takes away from others -- than what it benefits from taxes, inflation, and regulation.

If this is true, our individual goal in life ought to be for us to seek virtue and excellence and recognize that self-esteem and happiness only comes from using one’s natural ability, in the most productive manner possible, according to one’s own talents.

Here he is giving the secular-language version of what the Protestant Reformation recovered.

Productivity and creativity are the true source of personal satisfaction. Freedom, and not dependency, provides the environment needed to achieve these goals. Government cannot do this for us; it only gets in the way. When the government gets involved, the goal becomes a bailout or a subsidy and these cannot provide a sense of  personal achievement.

Since God has never authorized human government to confiscate property delegated to Family in order to proffer these things it is not authorized to give.

Achieving legislative power and political influence should not be our goal. Most of the change, if it is to come, will not come from the politicians, but rather from individuals, family, friends, intellectual leaders and our religious institutions.  The solution can only come from rejecting the use of coercion, compulsion, government commands, and aggressive force, to mold social and economic behavior.  Without accepting these restraints, inevitably the consensus will be to allow the government to mandate economic equality and obedience to the politicians who gain power and promote an environment that smothers the freedoms of everyone. It is then that the responsible individuals who seek excellence and self-esteem by being self-reliance and productive, become the true victims.

Those are the Atlas's who will either shrug willingly, or collapse unwillingly.

What I’m talking about is a system of government guided by the moral principles of peace and tolerance.

The Founders were convinced that a free society could not exist without a moral people.  Just writing rules won’t work if the people choose to ignore them.  Today the rule of law written in the Constitution has little meaning for most Americans, especially those who work in Washington DC.

As you study the Constitution it becomes apparent that Congress lost track of the meaning of "rule of law" in that First Generation, slid into "rule of the majority" and started passing out the Pork to what they called "internal improvements" back then. Some profit at the expense of All. Unless terms like "moral, peace, tolerance, free" "rule of law", truth, justice, & victims -- are redefined in the light of an absolute standard outside of the Body Politic, much deceit and confusion results. Many manipulative, semi-secret societies try to put forward a version of "natural law" that is supposedly "self-evident" and held-in-common with all religions. In fact most folks lack adequate detailed knowledge of what Law should look like. The Constitution was never intended to adequately fill that void.

You can never have complete freedom of Religion. In the absence of a self-consciously recognized "air-superiority" religion, some other religion will function as a substitute, without men being self-conscious about where they are getting their values.

The main religions actually do NOT agree. People need much instruction to repair their ignorance and also need some objective standard to hold their selfishness and meanness in check. If people reject the real Owner and Master, Jesus Christ, they will soon be left to the mercy of evil human tyranny.

Benjamin Franklin claimed “only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.”  John Adams concurred:  “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

A moral people must reject all violence in an effort to mold people’s beliefs or habits.

This addresses, again, the need for a good standard that will help men recognize the difference between sin and crime.

A society that boos or ridicules the Golden Rule is not a moral society.  All great religions endorse the Golden Rule. 

Yes and no. As long as you leave out Christ, it sounds good to mouth His principles. But they forget that the very first and most important application of "treating others as you would like to be treated" is to treat God as He would like to be treated. Ignoring Him to whom all glory, honor, wealth, wisdom, and praise - is due - is not keeping the golden rule. If you think some other personal being is more Good, or Stronger than the Creator God of the Bible -- you would do well to recognize that you are aligning what English calls "worship" and "service" -- towards what English calls "god".

The same moral standards that individuals are required to follow should apply to all government officials.  They cannot be exempt.

The ultimate solution is not in the hands of the government.

Remember the old view of the Gospel was that Jesus is the head of human government. As enthroned in heaven, His government is in a building phase, mediated through imperfect human beings -- fed and corrected by the objective text of the Christian Bible. The prophecy was that the Government of all nations and peoples will be upon His shoulders, and of the increase of His Government and peace (from now on) there will be no end. Some fear a tyranny by one Master Religion that bullies all others. The Bible actually warns all rulers that the Lord Jesus Christ will bring His disciplines and correctives on all deviate from the Book, of whatever professed religion.

If you research history, you may find, as I have -- that we already suffer from an underlying religion that bullies all the others (though most are unconscious of it), and that ebb and flood of freedom and prosperity traces very close to what the Bible has predicted for centuries.

The solution falls on each and every individual, with guidance from family, friends and community.

The #1 responsibility for each of us is to change ourselves with hope that others will follow.  This is of greater importance than working on changing the government; that is secondary to promoting a virtuous society.  If we can achieve this, then the government will change.

In this he is right. Government (punishments) cannot transform hearts. Human government commits crime when it punishes sin (assuming we are taking the Bible's definitions of government, sin, and crime).

Political action, to be truly beneficial, must be directed toward changing the hearts and minds of the people, recognizing that it’s the virtue and morality of the people that allow liberty to flourish.

So what institutions need to take more responsibility to do this? I think he is saying that the Family and the religious associations are going to do this if it is going to get done. Your politics come from your morals. Your morals come from your religion. Your religion will tell you the difference between sin and crime. Then you will be ready to function as a productive and protective citizen. Then you will be safe to vote and teach. Until then, you will not know if you are contributing towards punishing the innocent or rewarding the guilty.

The challenge is that Religion is a big Pasture and there is a lot of good grass in it. There is also a lot of thistles, poisonous tansy, burrs and other noxious weeds. How do you know the difference? Same way as the weeds. By their fruits you shall know them. Acorns taste different than peaches. You can also know them by their enemies.

There are further hints. Which Book has sold more worldwide copies per year, every year that Men have been able to keep records? What religion has been the determinative developer of Nations where people are trying to get in? What religion provides the maximum limited religious freedom (there is no possibility of absolute religious freedom) to Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Socialist, Gay, Straight, and Communist - alike? What kind of religion prevailed in those nations who had the most beneficial influence on the development of your nation?

What religion dictates the greatest (family) property ownership in Labor, in Land, in Stuff, and in Money? Let's make use of the semi-free marketplace of ideas and the semi-free marketplace of trade in labor and goods to promote whichever religion and law appears to answer these challenges the best.

I am eager to share my resources and agenda with you -- and profit from your better ideas. On Gmail I can correspond on Honestmeasures, and with Yahoo it is leperwatchman.

Sampling of perspectives:

http://www.keepandshare.com/discuss/21920/how-to-restore-honest-money

http://www.keepandshare.com/discuss/22558/natural-law-the-wolf-in-sheep-s-clothing