THE POLITICAL FULCRUM

When you get right down to it, there is really only one question that determines your political views:

DO YOU SEE EACH OF US AS AN INDIVIDUAL OR AS A LINK IN A SOCIAL CHAIN?

The argument that we are individuals is based on the following evidence:

we are born and we die as separate entities;
we each have a brain whose function it is to make decisions;
each of our brains is fully capable of working on its own;
we each have the natural power to choose the course of our own lives;
we have separate tastes, priorities, preferences and pleasures.

The argument that we are links in a social chain centers on the following:

we are members of one species;
we tend to live in groups;
we develop feelings for other group members;
we generally find comfort in not being alone;
we benefit from being interdependent..

If you see man as an independent individual, you are a strong advocate for freedom, you want limited, if any, government (group) control over your life, you wish to retain the decision as to how you spend your money, and for whose benefit you spend it, you see man as the sovereign power, the master of his fate.

If you see man as a link in a social chain, you welcome greater government control over our personal lives, you believe we are each responsible to some extent for the support of others, particularly the haves for the have nots, you support social benefit and entitlement programs, you see society as the sovereign power.

Variations on each side can be found, of course, but the themes remain the same. Both Democrats and Republicans are advocates of the social link side, the only differences being in what areas and to what extent the chain ought control the links. Advocates of the sovereign individual side are often pejoratively misnomered as extremists, when in fact that is complimentary since one ought to be extreme about the principles one lives by. Religionists are social link supporters, believing we are all part of one family of God, with God as the ultimate decider of all our actions and the supreme sovereign power.

I sometimes hear politicians say, "I am for government controls on business, but I am for freedom on social issues." Or, vice versa. But those positions are contradictory. If you believe man is an independent individual, then he ought be treated as such with regard to all issues, at all times, or he is being mistreated. And the same holds true for links in a chain. Give a link independence at any time and the chain is broken.

As originally envisioned, America was an independent individual country, hence unalienable rights. recognized for individuals. The government ruled with consent of the governed, and then only with the specific owers granted to it. Over the past 80 years, those who support the group ideology have made significant inroads. Today, under President Obama, the country is at the edge of repealing its philosophic origins and turning into a gigantic link chain.

We know how far the independent individual idea took America ...to unprecedented heights of productivity, standard of living and strength. We are yet to know how strong, or how fragile, America's new chain will be.