Founding Principle of the United States of America—Individual Rights
By, Charlotte Cushman
“I want you to look
at the birth of a miracle: the United States of America. If it is ever proper
for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of
Independence. The concept of individual
rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it
fully – and 200 years have not been enough for other countries to understand
it.” - Ayn Rand
Our country was the first and only country in history that was founded on a
brand new idea, the idea that people have rights. These rights are:
• the right to one’s own life (which includes that which one has worked for)
• the right to one’s own liberty (freedom to live the way you want provided you
don’t hurt anyone else)
• the right to pursue one’s own happiness (not everyone else’s—yours)
When America was
created, there was another new idea -- the idea that the only legitimate
purpose of government was to protect these rights, to make sure no person
violated the rights of another. Government was not there to tell men what to
do, or how to live their lives, or to take by force what each man has earned by
his own efforts to give to another. Initiation of force was banned from human
relationships. The only proper use of force was in retaliation against those
who had initiated force or fraud against another. Force was only used as a
means of defending rights through three branches of government: the police, the
military and the courts. And that’s it.
The purpose of government was to only do that one thing and nothing
else. It was to protect individual
rights.
The implementation of
these two ideas created something unseen before on the face of the earth. For
the first time men were free from other men. They were no longer subservient to
a lord, master or king. They could live their lives and pursue their goals
independently yet associate with each other voluntarily instead of by force.
With individual rights as a guiding principle, all other freedoms fell into
place: economic freedom, religious freedom, social freedom, freedom of
association, contractual freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly,
freedom to bear arms and so on. And look
what happened. The United States of America became the happiest, wealthiest,
most prosperous, most advanced nation on earth. It was also the most moral
country because it recognized individual rights.
But the concept of
rights has been corrupted over time. Now
people claim they have a “right” or are entitled to things like an education,
medical care, food, housing and so on.
But if people have a “right” to something, it means that somebody has to
provide it. And when someone has to
provide something against his will for someone else, there is only one word to
describe it—slavery. Yet if man’s
survival is the objective, freedom is imperative. Since man does not automatically know how to
survive, he has to use his mind in order to figure out how to live. He requires freedom so that he can think and
act in accordance with the conclusions of his mind. Therefore, a moral country provides the
conditions necessary for this to happen and there is only one political system
that does this--Capitalism.
Capitalism is a
social system based on the concept of property rights. Without property rights, you have no right to
your own life. If you can’t keep what
you have worked for in order to support and enjoy your life, if you have no say
in what happens to your property, you have no power over your decisions and
actions, which means your rights to your life, your liberty and the pursuit of
your happiness have been taken away. Is
this happening here in the United States?
Yes, it is. Can it be saved? Only if Americans discover our founding
principle of individual rights and eliminate the government programs and laws
that don’t protect them. Here are just a
few examples:
- Re-distribution of wealth doesn’t protect
rights. The man who earns an honest
living has his money taken against his will (theft) to be given to someone
else. His right to what he has
worked for, that which supports his life, has been violated.
- Socialized medicine doesn’t protect
rights or life. The doctors become
slaves of the state that regulates how they should practice medicine and
the patients no longer can choose the best treatments for the best
prices. Their right to use their
own minds to decide what to do and to form contractual agreements with
each other has been violated.
- Social Security doesn’t protect
rights. The man who wants to invest
for his future the way he chooses can’t, because his money is taken away
from him to give to someone else.
His right to his property, to what he has earned, has been
violated.
- Regulations on businesses don’t protect
rights. The businessman can’t hire or fire someone without going through a
“process” dictated by the government.
His right to use his mind to make decisions regarding voluntary
associations has been violated.
When oil companies aren’t allowed to drill for oil, their property rights are violated. Companies that have to follow government
mandates lose the freedom to be innovative. The right to think, form conclusions and
take action with property has been violated.
- Anti-trust laws don’t protect
rights. The businessman is treated
as a criminal no matter what he does.
If his prices are too high, too low or the same as his competitors,
he can be prosecuted at the whim of some bureaucrat. His right to his property (to charge the
price he wants in order to sell it) has been violated.
- Bail-outs and subsidies don’t protect
rights. The government decides who succeeds and who fails instead of
citizens who trade with each other.
Taxpayers pay to support businesses by force through their tax
dollars and become poorer because of it.
The right to freedom of association and property has been violated.
- Welfare programs don’t protect
rights. The person who wants to
give money to a charity of his choice has his money confiscated for
government programs that he may or may not support. His right to use his property (his
money) the way he wants has been violated.
- Bans on consumption of certain foods
don’t protect rights. The right to
one’s own body is a property right and this is violated.
- Taxation without representation doesn’t
protect rights. Money is stolen
from one group of men to give to another.
Re-distribution of other people’s money is a direct violation of
their property rights.
Any violation of our
rights completely contradicts the ideas of our Founding Fathers who were very
serious about individual freedom. On
February 25, 2011 Yaron Brook gave a rousing speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlxbi5syxCM
at the Tea Party Patriots Summit in Arizona where he pointed this out about the
Founding Fathers: “They didn’t say, ‘We just want a little bit less taxes,
please, King George.’ They didn’t say, ‘Give us some liberty, please, King
George.’ They changed the world because they asked a fundamental question. And
the question they asked is, ‘Who does your life – does my life – belong to?’
That’s a question that people had never asked, because it was always obvious:
your life belongs to the state, to the king, to some emperor, to somebody else
– and it’s your job to do his bidding. The Founders of this country said ‘No:
sovereignty belongs with the individual. My life is mine. Your life is yours.
And nobody can take that away – not a king; but not even a majority!"
If we want to restore
freedom to our country, we must re-discover our roots. Our Founding Fathers
were so committed to their revolutionary ideas that they were willing to put
their lives on the line for the document that laid the moral foundation for the
United States of America—the Declaration of Independence. We need to be willing to do the same. We need to be willing to stand up and say:
“My life belongs to me, not to the government, not to the state, not to King
George, not to a welfare program, but…to me!”
We need to believe in that principle and commit to that principle, the
principle of individual rights.
The above post is a guest post by Charlotte Cushman, author of the book,
Montessori: Why It Matters For Your Child's Success And Happiness, available on Amazon. This article is cross posted on other sites.
Cathy
