Conspiracy: A Biblical View, by Gary North - EntreWave

THE PEOPLE'S WILLprinciples. They are outworkings of explicitly biblical laws. I realizethat some conservatives and most free market economists have notargued this way in the past, especially academic types. Professionalacademics (especially the economists) want to leave morality out ofthe discussion. They want "value-free" solutions. This invocation of"value-free" economics has failed, again and again. Society hasconducted a continuing empirical test of this intellectual appeal, andhas registered a verdict: failure. Besides, does anyone excepteconomists really believe that there is moral neutrality in economics,psychology, political science, or anything else? Naive "value-free"faith has been under attack for two centuries, and fewer and fewerscholars have taken it seriously since 1965. 9The other side appeals to our basest instincts in order to manipulateus. But they are careful always to adopt the language of morality.They take what appears to be the moral high ground. They comebefore the voters "in the name of the People." They ask only to beallowed to serve the People. They want to act in the interests of thePeople. They want to "harness the engine of government" for thebenefit of the People.For eight or nine decades, this classic flim-flam has worked. Why?Because there is larceny in the hearts of the voters, and widespreadignorance of biblical morality ("thou shalt not steal, even by majorityvote"), economics ("there ain't no such thing as a free lunch"), and theU.S. Constitution ("the delegation and dispersal of political power").The proper response is to appeal to men's highest instincts, and toshow them that the limited government philosophy and the freemarket economy are grounded in moral values that are among thehighest that any civilization has ever adopted. We must take the moralhigh ground. Nothing else stands a chance of overturning the presentpower-drunk political system. We must appeal to ethics in order toovercome our opponents' raw power.We must also understand that they, too, have a moral vision, atheology. Without it, they could never have been successful over thelong haul. Ideas have consequences, for good or evil. We mustunderstand our opponents' theology, and then do whatever we can tocleanse our own thinking of our opponents' first principles. If weadopt their first principles, then any future competition between usand them is just another gangland struggle. Given the extent of theirhttp://freebooks.commentary.net/freebooks/docs/html/gnco/html/2.htm (9 of 10) [5/26/2000 1:48:04 PM]