Sunday Philosophy: Individual Responsibility

The framers of the Constitution sought to provide a framework in which the natural rights of the people–those rights which are granted to us by our Creator–would be respected and defended by the government.  But there was profound concern among the writers and even pre-revolutionary thinkers about whether or not people were sufficiently moral to effectively govern themselves.

The founders felt that a free country that respected individual rights could only survive and thrive if its citizens strived to live moral lives and accept their individual responsibilities.  Thomas Paine spoke out in favor of revolution because he believed that Americans had a moral advantage over Europeans, and were therefore ready for self-government.  Many years after the war, John Adams said, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  George Washington believed that anybody who would subvert "the great pillars of human happiness", religion and morality, had no claim to patriotism.

So from the very birth of the country, the religious and moral strength of Americans was understood to be central to its success.  Or more specifically, that strength was central the success of the Constitutional Republic that they designed.  They didn’t necessarily say that people must be moral or religious.  They just suggested that if we wanted freedom, we couldn’t be a bunch of degenerate materialists who went around undermining faith and morality and spouting psychobabble nonsense in an attempt to excuse whatever questionable behavior people chose to engage in.  A country like that would descend into some kind of chaotic, fractured mob that empowers corrupt, populist masters to arbitrarily enforce whatever anthropocentric "values" are popular at the time.  Which is cool, if that’s your thing.

But it wasn’t the founders’ thing, and it wasn’t the country’s thing for the first 140 years or so.  The belief was that the best way to maintain a virtuous people was to select virtuous leaders who believed in natural rights and who would hold each other accountable for failings.  Leaders who didn’t seek public office out of personal ambition or personal gain.  Jefferson believed that the best Americans would form a "natural aristocracy" and that the best among us would consider it a duty to seek public office.  These people would believe in our fundamental founding principles and strive to uphold a shared moral code.  The founders also believed in the idea of schools teaching religion and morality as a means to producing good citizens.

The progressives have sought to change that.  They’ve introduced ideas and programs that assume for the government responsibilities that should lie with individuals.  Psychology has weakened the idea of personal responsibility and objective morality.  Morality has become a personal choice.  Whatever feels good is right.  If everybody has a moral code all their own, then there really aren’t any moral standards or expectations to hold people to.  If your behavior and beliefs are not your responsibility, and are instead a genetic condition or a function of you family life or your place in the socio-economic strata, how can anybody claim anything you do is wrong? 

And if there is no right and wrong, how can anybody define what our individual responsibilities as Americans ought to be?  For that matter, what does it mean to be an American?

The founders put a lot of faith in American people to control our own destiny by following their lead.  It is every individual in every generation’s responsibility to read what the founders wrote and understand what they were trying to achieve.  They themselves stood on the shoulders of the Greeks and Roman Republicans, who were the first to experiment with representative governments.  They studied the ancient philosophers, they understood the perils of living under an oppressive oligarchy, they didn’t just make it up as they went along.  They knew they were making history, they knew that it was risky, but they believed that the character and morality of the American people would allow us to continue to accept the responsibility which we have inherited.  We’re expected to, in turn, stand on their shoulders to continue their great experiment.

America is unique among all nations in this.  The people have rights, and are solely responsible for defending those rights.  The American idea is under attack from all directions.  We have to constantly defend it. The responsibility is yours.  Educate yourself.  Understand our purpose.  And stand up to the progressives and shout NO!