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Hate the Sinner

October 4, 2012 by  

The electoral efforts of we pro-reason, pro-freedom individuals have been undermined by our cowardice.

Thinking ourselves bold and brave, we write in unambiguous and unequivocal terms of ideas and principles; of reason and faith; of selfishness and altruism; of individualism and collectivism; of free markets and central planning; of capitalism and communism. We stand up, look into the eyes of our audiences, and speak about big institutions and abstract entities – “the government”, “the state”, “unions”, etc. – and about their irrationality, their coerciveness, and the like.

In doing so, we act out of fear; fear not because of what we write or say, but because of what we refrain from writing and saying. Fearing we’ll offend someone, we cower from the utterance of the very thing that must be said if freedom is to prevail.

No man was ever robbed by an it. Words about “the state” are not words about a thief. We know this.

No woman was ever enslaved by an ism. Words about racism are not words about slave masters. We all know it.

Theocracy is not a problem. Theocrats are. Human hands flew planes into the trade towers; hands guided by the theocratic ideal. Everybody knows this.

Communism doesn’t kill people. Communists do. And they have starved millions to death.

Naziism didn’t kill people. Nazis did. Human hands shot Jews in the back with guns aimed by the collectivist Nazi ideal. Nobody doubts this for a second.

Yet, desiring not to offend anyone for fear we will damage our chance of getting someone’s vote, we intentionally continue to sunder evil ideas from those who act upon them and who desire to benefit from them. We intentionally refer not to the wrongdoers, but to the institutions and mechanisms that carry out their bidding: “the government”, “the unions”, etc. We intentionally speak of evil ideas (e.g., communism, racism), but refuse to speak of the proponents of those evil ideas as evil people (i.e., as communists, as racists, etc.). We are intentionally depersonalizing our talk so as not to offend those who would rape us and eat us alive – and who would forever remember the massacre fondly – were it not for the fact (which they resent) that their continued effortless existence requires the continued existence of our mental and physical effort.

In truth, in our advocacy of freedom, we have chosen to govern our strategy and tactics by the purported moral code of the enemy: we want never to cast the first stone. That, however, is a foolish want. The enemy does not observe the very code he claims as his own. In truth, the purpose of his alleged ethical code is not to guide his decisions, but to constrain ours; it is not the key to his life, but the lock on the chains we bind ourselves with. Our enemies threw the first stone long ago and they have thrown the second, and third and all subsequent stones at us.

While we are chattering on safely about capitalism and central planning, liberals – having no regard for the facts of reality – continue to hew limbs with ad hominem attacks, blaming the economic downturn on “bankers”. While we point the finger at “government” or “the state” or “unions”, the conservatives – having no regard for, or seemingly having no ability to grasp, rational abstractions – are getting downright Shakespearean, blaming society’s ills on “lawyers”, and “judges”, and other “ivory tower” types who, still having an understanding of and a respect for justice, refuse to apply a one-size-fits-all solution (e.g., mandatory minimum sentences) to everything they consider a problem.

On radio, on TV talk shows, at all-candidates debates etc., we are attempting to hold our heads high in the company of such self-serving something-for-nothing savages. In the process, we are simply making our heads an easier target for the never-ending volley of stones that they rain upon our skulls, knocking the teeth from our heads and freedom from our grasp. We are toothless and enslaved by choice.

In our advocacy of reason and freedom, we have embraced implicitly the enemy’s corrupt code of morality, which grants immunity from justice to anyone who commits an unjust act. We are constantly expressing love of the sinner, and hate only for the sin.

This must end now. Lovers of freedom, it is time to hate the sinner.

Your enemy is not “environmentalism”, or “the Liberal government” or a policy that grants a handful of electricity generators 80 cents per kilowatt hour when the market rate is 4 cents. Your enemy is that handful of your solar-panelled neighbours who knew they could skin you if they applied for and got such a government contract. They knew they were robbing you, and they knew that you’d just have to sit there and take it. In truth, their attitude toward your outrage was and is: “Screw you, because if you don’t get in on the action, that’s your own fault.”

Your enemy is not Islam. Your enemy is that Imam, or that Islamic organization who has called upon trustees and other politicians to turn your child’s public school into a mosque. In truth, their attitude toward your objection is: “If you lack the gonadal fortitude to condemn us, you are handing us control of your future, sucker.”

Your enemy is not the inherently cruel and ineffective government health care monopoly we have. Your enemy is every physician, nurse, medical organization, or other eager recipient of government health care dollars who self-servingly calls upon the government and the opposition parties for a continuation of the monopoly. In truth, their attitude toward the suffering or death of your spouse or your child or your friend is: “Well, shit happens, but I got paid, and I deserve it.”

The government is not your enemy. Its wrongful policies and actions are not your enemy. Your enemy is one or more of your neighbours who, guided by an evil philosophy or desire, agitates, pressures, supports and votes for those who will have the government turn their whims into laws.

I have long asserted that the identity of a political movement or party is created not by the perception of who it includes, but by the perception of who it excludes. To date, the advocates of freedom have included everyone. We have had an open door policy to the enemies of freedom. We have shielded such enemies from criticism by way of self-censorship.

We have committed a grave error.

The organization that seeks to defend all in fact defends nobody from anybody. Such an organization is nobody.

We are nobody to our enemies. We give them nothing to fear.

We are nobody to our allies. We give them nothing to love.

If we are to be somebody, we must be feared by our enemies, and loved by their victims.

We must openly declare ourselves to love and be on the side of the victims.

We must openly declare ourselves to hate and be at war with the victimizers: each and every one of them, personally.

We must expose to both sides the fact that the victimizers are weak and that they have continued to exist only because we have provided them with ongoing life support.

And, most of all, we must openly, seriously, and passionately promise one thing: that, if entrusted with the power of government, we will be pulling the plug, cutting the cord, and leaving them to fend for themselves.

Comments

2 Responses to “Hate the Sinner”

  1. Simon O'Riordan on October 4th, 2012 2:02 am

    Well said.

  2. Tom Lahti on December 11th, 2012 7:19 pm

    Yes, Paul! Hating the sinner and saying that you hate them is the essence of moral courage, something sorely lacking on the side of reason and all-too-unbiquitous on the side of unreason. It is so, I think, because those of reason think reason should be enough, and those on the side of unreason know that moral courage is their only weapon.

    Unreason has historically defeated reason at every significant encounter because of its overwhelmingly greater employment of moral courage. Only when those of reason grow a backbone and call a spade a spade will reason triumph.

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