THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

WORDISM: NOBODY AT THE WHEEL | nationalsalvation.net

The saying is that one has freedom until it harms others. After delivering that profundity people walk away feeling Wise and self-satisfied.

The problem is hat they haven't said anything. Those of us who inhabit Planet Earth live with PEOPLE. Our freedom is what other PEOPLE decide we have. The fellow who just delivered the above chestnut leaves out all reality.

Who decides?

The above piece of Great Wisdom is, "One has freedom until I DECIDE it harms others."

That is the "freedom" that is granted by every Communist, every fascist, and every slaveholder who ever lived. The Berlin Wall was set up because East Germany decided that the flow of young people into West Germany harmed East Germans.

And it DID.

"One has freedom until it harms others" justifies the Berlin Wall and the Fugitive Slave Laws. When a field hand who cost a man a thousand dollars runs away it definitely harmed him and his family. In fact, the loss of that piece of property could RUIN a small slave owner. To use the Great Wisdom that justifies illegal immigration, "The man who sent someone up North to reclaim his property just wanted a better life for his family."

That was the way slave owners looked at it. The slave's freedom harmed his family. That was what Andrew Jackson, who lived on the edge of ruin, viewed chasing down HIS runaways.

Here is a critical distinction:

It is not that one who says "One has freedom until it harms others" is wrong.

It is not that he is right.

The point is that he is saying NOTHING.

THAT is the reason we are rudderless today. People get paid for saying NOTHING, from the pulpit and from the lectern.

The Bionic Man is here. Genetic selection is rushing toward us. What do we get from Traditional Values preachers and Harvard Ethics professors? They warn us that this power can be misused. They warn us that these powers are dangerous and can be misused.

Well, DUHH!

There is no thing as harmless freedom. There is no such thing as harmless power.

The reason anesthesiology became a medical specialty is because ether can EASILY kill a patient. In fact, with a random spark, it could kill everybody in the operating room. If our only reaction is to outlaw anything that can harm people, every drug on the market would be banned, starting with antibiotics.

Sugar can EASILY kill diabetics. The freedom to sell sugar should end with that.

Certainly automobiles would have to go.

In the onrushing new age, all the people we pay to advise us are saying NOTHING.

They make a LIVING saying nothing.

We have "both sides" and nobody at the wheel.