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Five Questions—One Answer

By Ed Basquill

          In 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the Castle Church in Wittenburg. He challenged among other things, the absolute power of the pope and clergy, sparking the reformation.  Last week 5 theses were posted on this website, challenging power in our current age.   There is one answer to the five questions, and it is the central thesis of the modern day 95 theses posted by Ann Coulter in her new book “Godless.”  The priests of the religion are the educators. I don’t think she states it explicitly, but the surrogate for God, the one who sits on high in the place of God, is government.  Questioning government is to blaspheme.

          Still, the five theses need an answer. To one in the druid like cult of government worship, they have obvious answers.  I have some dear friends who are very state-ist, and we have discussed these issues over many years, and here are the answers:

1.     The oil companies colluded to make the prices go down fifty cents to help Bush & the republicans with the election, of course. They will go right back up afterwards. It is payback for starting the war to make them rich. It is all a conspiracy.  (It has to be conspiracy, because then you have an excuse for victimhood, and you have the government/your God to worship and fix it.)

2.     The government doesn’t ever fail to protect people, so long as there is someone to sue.  It is always the fault of tobacco companies, oil companies, lack of a seatbelt law, or big business (God/Government is infallible.)  

3.     To understand why one trusts politicians with so much power, one needs to have a basic understanding of the parallel catholic concept of papal infallibility. The pope is considered infallible in “matters of faith,” in his papal “bulls.”  Bill Clinton was infallible as a politician; why mention his private life? Politicians aren’t human like you and me; they are high priests, and they are above the law.  These problems you bring up have nothing to do with it, my liberal friends tell me. It’s just a human failing he had ten grand in his freezer, he really stood up for the little guy, you know?  

4.     People find comfort in order. Mussolini was praised because the trains always ran on time.  God/ Government is always number one, always the victor through whom one can live vicariously, like the numerous college sports fans who never attended a college class. There is a sense in which the worship of government is the “easy victory,” and victimhood is the fuel of worship. Without a victim, who needs a social program? My liberal friends would frame it differently. They would tell you that they are activists; they are following Gandhi or Marin Luther King or some such spin.

5.     Consider a house of cards. Difficult to build. Easy to knock down. It is so much easier to tear someone else down than it is to build up.  This plays into the religious theme very well, because part of worship of one’s pagan god is to offer sacrifices, sometimes human sacrifices.

It might not be obvious, but the answer to Martin Luther’s 95 theses was also the worship of a government; it just happened to be the worship of the governance of the church, complete with tax like indulgences, and incredible corruption. His 95 theses sparked the reformation, leading to reforms within the catholic church, the Bible in every language, and the protestant movement. This is relevant for a lot of reasons.

In many ways, Luther’s problem is the same as ours. Luther’s reformation movement was founded in knowledge and education on founding principles of Christianity from the Bible. That is the answer for our government as well, a returning to Jeffersonian principles on which the government was founded.  A reformation is needed. I am a republican with many libertarian views.  One reason I remain a republican is to try to influence that reform from within.  Things like the seatbelt law and the idea of getting taxpayers to help some rich people finance an arena so they can make money charging me admission really tempts me to go libertarian sometimes, and I do support some libertarian candidates, financially and otherwise.  I stay republican because the lunatic / anarchist wing of the libertarian party usually pushes me right back into camp.

The latest is the libertarian candidate who writes that she is against “the current war (and all wars) and is for the libertarian principle of NON-AGGRESSION”.    Israel wasn’t the aggressor in their latest war -- is she against that one too? What if the other guy just wants you dead? Would she have suggested talking as the rockets rained down upon their cities?   I have it on good authority that the people in the World Trade Center practiced non-aggression.  A group on flight 93 did more than talk.  Taking her at her word, she is against them, too. They were aggressive. She probably doesn’t like football either. There is a position based on reason to be against the war, but to claim to believe in non-aggression is to accuse those who disagree of being for aggression. Those of us who fought in wars should not be lectured by pacifists that war is hell. We know that better than you.

 Then there is the occasional article from the Woodstock wing, who are co-dependent on the libertarian movement as a rationale to justify their drug addiction.  I read one article by a libertarian advocating legalizing drugs, because some species of reptile he studied self-medicates. I try to convince myself he was high when he wrote it.  Well, the guy writes with too much flare to have been high, and he is apparently main stream for a libertarian. John Stossel recently wrote an article saying smoking pot was “no big deal.” Gim’me a break, John.   

          In summary, the one answer to your five questions is this:  government is god to the many.  Liberty alone isn’t the answer, just as dissolving the church wasn’t the answer.  Limited government is necessary, to keep drug addicts from running over my kids while intoxicated, and to give pacifists a nice free country in which to dream.

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