There have been a number of posts, columns, and interviews regarding Obama’s “you didn’t build that, somebody else did” admission last week, but none that I have seen touch on the origin of such nonsense. From what I can tell, the earliest work that outlines this belief in depth is William Godwin’s “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice,” published in 1796. (I must give props to Doctor/Philosopher/Economist Thomas Sowell whose invaluable book “A Conflict of Visions” delves into the origins of political ideologies and has helped me, time and again, regain understanding of the dark side as much as I am able.)
Before I continue, and considering this is a blog, I think I need to draw the distinction between this Godwin (William) and the author of “Godwin’s Rule”, Mike Godwin, so as not to cause any confusion. Mike’s rule is that, given enough time, invariably an online conversation will invoke Hitler or Nazis. It’s an interesting little rule, but, alas, I’ve only seen it abused and substituted as an actual argument by the unthinking left when they’re confronted with the reality of where Stateism leads. It’s like an online version of squeezing your eyelids shut, cupping your ears, stamping your feet, and repeating, “Blah, blah, blah, blah,” as loudly as you can, over and over again, followed by a speedy exit and, once far enough away, downshift into a strut like you just out-debated Daniel Webster. It’s cute, just not edifying and completely different from William Godwin’s writing.
Anyway, here are a few of good ol’ Bill’s quotes. See if you can glean a few similarities with His Majesty’s latest reductio ad absurdum. (You may need to read it with a stilted, halting inner dialog to get the full Barry):
“Not a talent do we possess, not a moment of time, not a shilling of property, for which we are not responsible at the tribunal of the public, which we are not obliged to pay into the general bank of common advantage.”
Ok, that may have been too 1/32 Cherokee, but there is a little Barry-ness to it, no? What about:
“We have in reality nothing that is strictly speaking our own.”
Or:
“Few things have contributed more to undermine the energy and virtue of the human species, than the supposition that we have a right, as it has been phrased, to do what we will with our own.”
So much for private property rights! It’s a little lofty for Barry, you know, mentioning virtue, but you get the gist.
So is it me, or does His Majesty’s blurb last week have echoes of Godwin? Of course many other utopians were influenced by William Godwin (e.g.,Marx, Engels, etc.), so naturally the Obama fruit fits nicely in the basket with the others. We all know where this collectivism leads and what monsters it can create. See the 20th Century for examples. What I find intriguing is the author who influenced, directly or indirectly, many monsters had a daughter, Mary Godwin. She’s better known by her married name Mary Shelley, and she wrote a marvelous book about a man-made, uncontrollable monster. I can’t help but wonder as she listened to her old man’s ideas, if she shrugged and thought to herself, “Maybe, he’ll get it if I tell him a story”.
