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Timebinder, v. 1, issue 3, 1945
Page 7
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LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. According to the American Constitution, our people have a right to these three important things. But let us examine them a bit, and see if we can discover just what they can do and mean to us. LIFE. Can any one, or any group, say whether or not a man can live? (Save, of course, when a convicted criminal is sentenced to death? Or is even that justified?) Can the mere passage of a law lengthen the span of any one man's life? It has always seemed to me that in this case it was the obvious meaning of the Founding Fathers that no man's life should be the property or the subject of another's whim. That each one should have the right to use his life as he saw fit. To do with it he wished within the limits of his own abilities. Naturally it would have to be subject to certain restrictions for the common good of society, and for its common protection in the case of war and/or other national emergency. But to all intents and purposes a man's life should be his own business and his own responsibility. There has lately come a philosophy that seeks in many ways to undermine and abrogate this right. Advocates of a "planned economy" and "the more abundant life" -- beautiful catchwords ! -- seek to put folks into a willing slavery to the few who feel that they, and they alone, know enough to plan and guide every man's life, from infancy to old age and final passing. They have beautiful-sounding words and phrases with which to trap the unwary; they have made great strides towards putting over their plans. Unless we are very, very careful, we shall awaken too late to find that they have taken over control, and that this great right, guaranteed by our Constitution, has become null and void. Watch out for these sly and underhanded propagandists! It is all a part of the great conflict between the new and old and the new concepts in human liberty we are now fighting. LIBERTY. This immensely important phase of every man's life is not something we can have merely by its being guaranteed by our Constitution. History and experience have taught that it is something that must be constantly guarded; that we must fight to obtain and fight to continue to possess it. It is one of the very dearest of man's possessions, and being such, must be constantly guarded, as any other cherished possession must be. Any yet, one sometimes wonder just how this fight should be carried on. By war? It seems to lose us almost as much as ever we gain. Or by the passive, non-resistance which Jesus taught ? This seems to be one of the least-understood facets of His dynamic philosophy of life. This commentator does not profess knowledge of the answer. He is still seeking. In connection with the thought of Liberty, one must be ever alert against those who wish to make this right cover also "Li- 7
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LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. According to the American Constitution, our people have a right to these three important things. But let us examine them a bit, and see if we can discover just what they can do and mean to us. LIFE. Can any one, or any group, say whether or not a man can live? (Save, of course, when a convicted criminal is sentenced to death? Or is even that justified?) Can the mere passage of a law lengthen the span of any one man's life? It has always seemed to me that in this case it was the obvious meaning of the Founding Fathers that no man's life should be the property or the subject of another's whim. That each one should have the right to use his life as he saw fit. To do with it he wished within the limits of his own abilities. Naturally it would have to be subject to certain restrictions for the common good of society, and for its common protection in the case of war and/or other national emergency. But to all intents and purposes a man's life should be his own business and his own responsibility. There has lately come a philosophy that seeks in many ways to undermine and abrogate this right. Advocates of a "planned economy" and "the more abundant life" -- beautiful catchwords ! -- seek to put folks into a willing slavery to the few who feel that they, and they alone, know enough to plan and guide every man's life, from infancy to old age and final passing. They have beautiful-sounding words and phrases with which to trap the unwary; they have made great strides towards putting over their plans. Unless we are very, very careful, we shall awaken too late to find that they have taken over control, and that this great right, guaranteed by our Constitution, has become null and void. Watch out for these sly and underhanded propagandists! It is all a part of the great conflict between the new and old and the new concepts in human liberty we are now fighting. LIBERTY. This immensely important phase of every man's life is not something we can have merely by its being guaranteed by our Constitution. History and experience have taught that it is something that must be constantly guarded; that we must fight to obtain and fight to continue to possess it. It is one of the very dearest of man's possessions, and being such, must be constantly guarded, as any other cherished possession must be. Any yet, one sometimes wonder just how this fight should be carried on. By war? It seems to lose us almost as much as ever we gain. Or by the passive, non-resistance which Jesus taught ? This seems to be one of the least-understood facets of His dynamic philosophy of life. This commentator does not profess knowledge of the answer. He is still seeking. In connection with the thought of Liberty, one must be ever alert against those who wish to make this right cover also "Li- 7
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