The People

Democracy and the Death of Choice: Why the liberal struggle for a better world will fail. Part 6 of 6

 

I believe that one of the problems of modern society is that the collective will of the people is being applied to everyone via an “all-powerful” central government. Our United States was formed by taking advantage of the differences exemplified by the colonists, and the individual states supported by the Bill of Rights, flourished on principles that were at times opposed.

 

This mixed regime incorporated the elements of the common good and encapsulated the virtue of its citizens, even with their flaws. The diversity found in this mixed regime model has been slowly but systematically replaced by a centralized government that is more concerned about conformity and less concerned about the rights of individuals.

 

I believe that once again the will of the people within each of these states should be allowed to flourish even if their principles are opposed to the ideals of the central government. Diversity is essential in the growth and health of any civilization, including our own. By allowing one all-powerful government to oversee and control our lives we are progressing toward a single regime; one which is ultimately unstable, for it will have nothing to check its weaknesses and abuses of power.

 

I would also argue that the Bill of Rights as found in our Constitution is more than a small collection of laws willed by The People. These rights were demanded by the states, were held as sacred by their citizens, and reflected our belief in human nature. By allowing these rights to be filtered by the conditions of dialogue and modified by the common will our society is being significantly changed; not progressing towards a better world.

 

By requiring relativism and tolerance modern liberalism is contributing to the failure of society as we know it by intimidating the individual in favor of the general will, ordered by nothing other than itself and administered by a central government. If preserving principles is indeed more difficult in a democracy than in any other regime because of liberalism, then the principles which we hold valuable will continue to be subjected to dialog and competition, and slowly replaced by principles unconcerned with Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. By accepting conformity, the collective will of the people are allowing their own rights to be restricted to the extreme and by passing control of our lives over to a central government our freedoms will disappear, possibly forever.