Anarchy (no laws)

BASIC POLITICS

By Lawrence Wilson, MD

©July 2008, The Center For Development

The basics of political systems are not explained in schools today. They are also quite important for the upcoming election in America. Therefore, I present the following diagram with explanation. The diagram has two axes. The vertical axis runs from libertarian at the top to socialist or communist or totalitarian on the bottom.

There is also a left-to-right axis. This runs from left wing or secular on the left to conservative and religious on the right side or right wing, as it is also called.

To begin, let us examine the words we will use.

LIBERTARIANISM

This system, which used to be called liberalism, means to have laws to protect people from each other, basically. This was mainly the system advocated by the founders of America.

The concept is very beautiful, but not appreciated as much today by Americans, especially, though others around the world are rushing to copy this system. Each person, it says, has “natural rights” under God and should be free to live as one pleases, providing one does not harm another. The laws are designed to protect individual rights and freedoms. They include the freedom to speak freely, worship as one chooses, bear arms in defense of one’s property and to buy and sell or contract freely as well.

From a spiritual viewpoint, the idea is that the creator speaks through and works through all people equally. This is the meaning in the American Declaration of Independence of the words “all men are created equal”. It does not mean they should all have the same kind of home, or make the same amount of money. This is an aberration of the original intent and meaning of these words.

The role of government, however, must be understood. It is a limited type of government run by the people that does not provide health care, welfare, rebate checks and all this. It is a government solely to protect the right of every adult to do as they please, providing no one else’s rights are trampled upon. Then the government and only then, may it step in and stop a person from doing what they want with their land, their money and their businesses.

This system is also called free enterprise capitalism, because each person is free to run his or her own life as they please.

SOCIALISM

A very different vision of the government is put forth by the socialists, who are often also called communists or Marxists after Karl Marx, who wrote about this system. Today in America these people are often referred to as the liberals. This is to differentiate them from conservatives, who are discussed below under the heading of the Left Right Axis.

This view states that it is the role of government to police everyone for the “public good”. What that good is, is never clear, but the government, by committee, will decide what is good and therefore what rules and laws to enforce.

This system is widely used in all police states, all called totalitarian states. It is called this because the government has total control of the people. Examples today are Red China, Singapore, and parts of Europe to some degree. Even England, Germany and France are quite socialist nations today.

This means the government takes care of the people from cradle to grave with job security, welfare benefits, free health care and more.

The problem with this system is it is very wasteful, as anyone knows who examines it. But we are not told this at all by those who advocate this system.

America is already suffering from some of this system. Our social security retirement idea is communist, as is Medicare and Medicaid. These are the most expensive items in the US government budget, far more than defense, for example, and getting even more costly every day.

The reason is simple. If you give away free money or health services, people just take it and want more. There is no control on it, until the government realizes the problem and limits the cost. Then services are cut back and the people just suffer the consequences.

This is what is happening throughout the world where these systems operate. It happened in the former Soviet Union and is happening in India, China and Europe today.

Another problem is the system must be enforced by a huge policing effort, as everyone must be controlled. Not everyone wants government health care and gun control, to name two of the major concepts of socialism.

So there must be huge jails or psychiatric facilities, as they were called in the Soviet Union, to properly “educate” the people to be compliant with the system. This is another huge waste of money and resources that is unavoidable with socialism. We have this in America in Medicare and Medicaid, where fraud costs billions every year and a huge “health police” is needed to get the doctors and hospitals to go along with the system.

All nations fall between these two extremes, and these are represented on the diagram as examples such as America, Great Britain, Soviet Union and others.

LEFT-RIGHT AXIS

Left Wing, Liberal or Secular. These are people who do not like religion and who do not give any authority to religion in their lives. In the extreme such as in the former Soviet Union and in many extreme left nations today, even Red China, people who worship are either killed outight or imprisoned for worshipping God of any kind.

In places like America, there is freedom of religion. Left-wing people may even attend church or synagague ro mosque, but their attitudes are not biblical at all or related to their religion. For example, many embrace homosexuality, child pornography and other tenets that are forbidden in the bible. They also believe that no religion should have any influence on society, either morally or legally.

The founders of America also believed in freedom of religion. However, they were all students of the bible, which was often the only book a family could afford to own. They were keenly aware of the benefits of religion, at least the Christian religion, and they did not hesitate to say to say so in speeches by Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and all the others of those days.

In fact, they based their new American society on many of the values listed there, such as the Golden Rule of the old testament and Love Thy Neighbor in the new and old testament. So they were not like today’s liberals or leftists, who are often vigorously anti-religion.

The leftist view is expressed well by Karl Marx, the author of the Communist Manifesto and still much admired today in Europe and on American campuses. He wrote that “religion is the opiate of the people”. In other words, these people believe that religion, especially organized religion, just keeps people in slavery to subservience.

The public or government schools in America, for example, are now run, basically, by leftists and communists. Public schools, in fact, is a tenet of communism.

Consequently, prayer has been virtually removed from the school and they do not teach any religious dogma or tenets at all. Any such mention of religion in a positive or sacred light is often harshly punished. Meanwhile, negative views of religion as causing wars, death or persecution is taught with no hesitation.

Right Wing, Conservative or God-centered. These people feel that religion has much to offer. In fact, extreme right-wing nations, including most Arab countries, believe that religious law, called Sharia in Arabic, should be enforced on everyone. Those who don’t want to go along should be tortured or killed.

In America and Europe, freedom of religion is honored. However, right-wing people want more of religion in government in many cases. This is not in accord with the founders of America, in fact. they want religious organizations to take over welfare, for example. They forget that non-religious groups used to provide welfare in America as well, before the government stepped in and forced most of them out of business by competing with them.

Right-wing people are also often called conservatives, although there is a difference. Conservatives generally want the government out of our lives and true conservatives want a smaller government with fewer rules or all kind. They often favor a return to the ways of the founders of America, for which reason they are “conservative” as opposed to words like progressives, which is another word for liberals and communists

Centrist. This word is applied to those who are more or less in the middle between left and right. It is a very vague concept, however, that can change at any time. Therefore, we will not discuss it much.

POLITICAL SPECTRUM DIAGRAM

LIBERTAIRAN