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The Word's Eye View is a newspaper column written by
Serfdom or Freedom? The recent efforts of Congress to craft a health care bill tell a much larger story than just the negotiations, backroom bribes, deals and swaps to advance the general agenda. At stake is the national choosing of a very basic philosophy as to how we as Americans are going to live our lives. On the one side, the liberals maintain that health care should be a guaranteed right for all which will be enforced and, if necessary, provided for by the government. On the opposite face of the spectrum the conservatives insist that loss of personal freedom to federal control will be the result. All polls now indicate that well over 60% of the population now views the democratic majority of Washington as delusional. They appear to consider themselves the lords of the manor who, from their castles, look down on the serfs and mandate in their graciousness what care the workers should have. The best way to keep slaves in subordination is to convince them of the benevolence of the masters. A review of history may well illustrate the snakes that lie in the bushes of misplaced compassion. Due to hard times ancient Israel relocated from Canaan to Egypt at the invitation of Pharaoh. He gave them every assurance that all of their needs would be met which, in fact, they were. The conundrum that developed was that attitudes of self-reliance were slowly displaced by dispositions of dependence. The process was slow, incremental and insidious, but in due season the tribes of Jacob found themselves being afflicted by government taskmasters. Four hundred years of bondage were interrupted when God sent Charlton Heston (perhaps it was Moses) to deliver His people. After the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, it took little time for some to commence the chorus of complaint and to wish for the miserable stew pots of slavery. This murmuring was compounded by unbelief concerning God’s promise for a better day and land. God’s judgment was swift and sure…He dictated that the entire generation of ingrates would live and die in the wilderness and the next generation would be allowed to enter the Promised Land. The amazing truth that accompanies this story is one of God’s provisions: health care. “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” (Exodus 15:26) Now that’s a Cadillac plan! Furthermore, God provided quail and bread for them to eat, water bursting from rocks and protection from their enemies. He gave them laws to regulate human behavior and a religion that was second to none. Israel’s required effort to enjoy these luxuries was minimal; however, one must not forget that this welfare state was activated during a time of judgment. They enjoyed all the basics of life but were confined by a wilderness which offered little opportunity for personal expansion, entrepreneurship, pioneering new ideas, land development or the satisfaction of the fruits of labor. Forty years hence the curse of wilderness provision was removed when God gave the “apple of His eye” the opportunity to grow their own. The manna and quail ceased and the other handouts disappeared, but the TRUE benevolent Master did direct them to a place of rich natural resources. They were required to fight numerous battles, plow their own fields, build homes and fences, dig wells, plant and harvest. They encountered all of the usual obstacles of becoming more independent with the realization that freedom, by necessity, must hang on the thread of self-reliance. God, guns and guts is a bumper sticker theme that will undoubtedly see a resurgence as the American public becomes more resistant to Washington intervention in our lives. The proposition is actually quite simple…our ultimate faith and confidence should be in God, which is recommended on our money—“In God We Trust.” The guns suggest the comprehension that it is necessary for the individual to defend against the bears and lions in his field, and all of this is accompanied by enough courage to saddle up when you are scared to death. The alternative is to wait for “big brother” to rid the slums of rats, eradicate poverty, improve education and create a Great Society. Come to think of it, all those wars have allegedly been fought over the last forty years…someone help me, did we win? In 1968 Merrill Root wrote, “On the old frontier there were no subsidies, no governmental cushions, no social air-conditioning. No one gave you a right to a living; you made a living or you accepted your dying. Your neighbors would help you, but they could not take your burdens wholly upon themselves. The self-reliant man of the old frontier made his own house, he made his own living---and he made his own happiness. Instead of being “bored” like the children of suburbia with affluence everywhere except in their own souls, he found always some new thing to do, to build, to invent, to create, to see and know. But today liberals make fun of that sort of life, that sort of man, and they try to ridicule such men while they can—and crush such self-reliance when they must.”
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