Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Will Catholics Learn From Libertarians?

In a move perfectly consistent with their moral code, libertarians are defending Catholic freedoms.
Meanwhile, the loudest, supposedly uber-Catholic candidate in the public eye is anti-libertarian.
This is not because there is anything inherently anti-Catholic in libertarianism. Rather, it is due to the fact that many Catholicism are far too Roman. The Republic was, after all, a pagan invention, ordained by gods to which we are not supposed to bow.

We have Democracy at the apex of our pantheon now, rather than Jupiter, but the American Republic displays yet more of the capriciousness so characteristic of the old gods. We are at the mercy of political law, and what was once declared moral, just, and good, is today declared evil and wrong. Saving, as an example, is considered good almost universally, in practically every moral system; yet, the government, pretending the laughable pretensions of Keynes is somehow valid, declares it evil. Every attempt is made to punish, destroy, inflate, tax, or otherwise remove whatever is valuable from the hands of those who saved it, to the priestly bureaucrats- whether they be technically private sector or no.

So, I wonder if any Catholics looking at this situation see the point. I often hear a condemnation of individualism in response to libertarianism, but it must be noted they have real principles that would protect a Christian's right to live, associate, and contract to do what we believe is right. The average American Catholic's orientation to government would seem to get us in trouble- once in a while it protects us, then one day it turns on us, and it always compromises us.

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