Internal vs External governors - without the former, the latter will be necessary
Dr. Walter Williams is one of my favorite pundits - the word "wisdom" is a word that I easily use when mentioning his name. His latest column hit a large nail in our society with a very large hammer. Unfortunately, Liberals that need to hear and understand the message and differences between internal vs external governors will not understand:
A civilized society's first line of defense is not the law, police and courts but customs, traditions and moral values. Behavioral norms, mostly transmitted by example, word of mouth and religious teachings, represent a body of wisdom distilled over the ages through experience and trial and error. They include important thou-shalt-nots such as shalt not murder, shalt not steal, shalt not lie and cheat, but they also include all those courtesies one might call ladylike and gentlemanly conduct. The failure to fully transmit values and traditions to subsequent generations represents one of the failings of the so-called greatest generation.
Behavior accepted as the norm today would have been seen as despicable yesteryear. There are television debt relief advertisements that promise to help debtors to pay back only half of what they owe. Foul language is spoken by children in front of and sometimes to teachers and other adults. When I was a youngster, it was unthinkable to use foul language to an adult; it would have meant a smack across the face. Back then, parents and teachers didn't have child-raising "experts" to tell them that "time out" is a means of discipline. Baby showers are held for unwed mothers. Yesteryear, such an acceptance of illegitimacy would have been unthinkable...
...Policemen and laws can never replace customs, traditions and moral values as a means for regulating human behavior. At best, the police and criminal justice system are the last desperate line of defense for a civilized society. Our increased reliance on laws to regulate behavior is a measure of how uncivilized we've become.
What many have called progress is not; those that cry out that "times have changed" when confronted with the ever increasing coarseness of society are merely lazy and decided long ago to "go along with the flow". Certainly in the moment, it is the easier path to take. They may well have seen the negative changes, have not been in favor of them, but have not had the moral courage or will to say "Stop it!". They refused to stand up when action was needed. Now that times are worse, they merely shrug their shoulders and say "what can I do about it?". I really think that they are of the mind "I hope that I outrun you as the bear chases us both".
Dr. Williams is right - in the headlong rush to allow almost everything under the rubric of "rights", we have allowed society to "ungovern" itself. While Liberals whine about their rights; they often have willfully neglected to retain the complementary side of rights - that of responsibility. While rights are God given, the price of those rights and of freedom is self- responsibility. Without the ability and discipline, they willfully will allow their rights to be subsumed by the State in an ever increasing snare of external laws by Government instead of relying on the inward sense of "maybe I just shouldn't do that".
As a result, we see a plethora of new laws governing our behavior, here in the land of the free, all because far too few of us are willing to take that time to encourage that small, quiet voice that asks: "is that right? Is that being responsible?". I believe that the number of us that do will decrease over time - after all, the Liberals think, bad behavior is simply a case of oppression and a result of a bad society.
Hmmm, I don't agree with the oppression, but I do see a self-fulfilling prophecy of a bad society right before my eyes....
