Basically Good v. Basically Bad

Ron Hubbard is convinced man is basically good; the
Bible says man is basically sinful. I have come to believe that where one
falls on this issue bears on how one sees virtually every other issue. Gun
control is for those who see man as basically good, because if we take away
guns, people will be good. It’s the weapons that are bad. It’s the same concept
that Obid
expressed in verse 2,000 years ago, when he said that the Iron Age began strong
weapons and thus the corruption of man. If man is basically good, then we should
be able to talk out our differences with other nations instead of going to war.
If man is basically good, then we should not have a death penalty, because the
criminals are just misguided. If man is basically good, then welfare should work
smoothly, because people will not take advantage of the system. Democracies will
flourish, because no one will seek power over others. If man is basically good,
then there will be a Utopian government some day, because the basic building
blocks of government are all the good people. And evolution must be true,
because every generation is a little better than the one before. The very idea
that somewhere in the distant past man chose to go into a fallen state is
perfectly unacceptable to any of the above. It makes more sense that if man is
basically good, then man is moving toward God. No, better yet: Man is becoming
God.

But the only democracy that lasts is one that has a balance
of power. Three branches of government work not because the rulers are good, but
because no one branch can overpower the other two. The
"invisible hand" of economics works not because people produce for the sake of others, but because
competing self-interests drives up production and drives down prices. It works
for people to bear arms, because no one will let anyone else take control.

This entry was posted on December 16, 2007 at 12:07 am and is filed under Culture & society, Politics, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.