A few questions
Christopher Hitchens speaks, and prompts me to ask a few questions of the anti-war libertarians. Are you one of the peace-at-any-price crowd? What conditions must be met for you to defend someone else's liberty or is your liberty the only one that matters? Is it possible to coexist with "aggressive regimes or expansionist, theocratic, and totalitarian ideologies"? Do you really think they will leave you alone? Are you content to wait until they start breaking down your door? Edmund Burke said "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". Do you care so little for other people's lives that you're willing to do nothing?
Let's suppose, just for argument's sake, that your neighbor is terrorizing some of your other neighbors, but not you. He's throwing bricks through their windows and committing other property damage and life-threatening acts. There are no cops. Your other neighbors, for whatever reason, cannot respond. You have the capability to stop the terror, but at some cost, and talking has produced no results. What are you going to do?
Read this rant, too. I realize that most libertarians aren't this far off the wall, but there's some comparisons worth pondering.
HT Anchoress
Let's suppose, just for argument's sake, that your neighbor is terrorizing some of your other neighbors, but not you. He's throwing bricks through their windows and committing other property damage and life-threatening acts. There are no cops. Your other neighbors, for whatever reason, cannot respond. You have the capability to stop the terror, but at some cost, and talking has produced no results. What are you going to do?
Read this rant, too. I realize that most libertarians aren't this far off the wall, but there's some comparisons worth pondering.
HT Anchoress
posted by David Aitken | 6:06 PM
2 Comments:
I'm a Christian. I believe that when Jesus said "Love your enemies," he didn't mean to kill them. I believe tthat when he said to "Turn the other cheek," he meant exactly that. I believe that there are always other and better solutions than violence. I believe than man does not have the authority to raise the sword against man for any purpose, that such authority must come from God and that it is not for humans to seek power one over another, because to do so is to seek to supplant God. What I believe that I am called to do is to change the world through peaceful means. Part of that is the lifting of burdens off of others, which is why I involve myself in politics - not to rule over others, but to remove the burdens government imposes upon millions. I simply can't engage in moral calculus, and therefore can't condone war. Right is right, wrong is wrong -- and right intermingled with wrong is wrong. And there's never been a war in human history that hasn't involved large amounts of wrong on both sides.
Jesus also threw the moneychangers out of the temple. Should He have turned the other cheek and let them stay? Should we let the Stalins, Hitlers, and Saddam Huesseins defile His temple, planet Earth?
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