The first reaction of truth

I was challenged on my Facebook page today to put a mirror on my beliefs when I offered the following quote:

“The first reaction to truth is hatred” --Tertullian

One of my liberal friends made this comment in response:

Better hold the mirror up to your side when you whisper that one.

My response was to encourage him to do the same.  More and more lately, I see the left refusing to provide support for their beliefs and instead demanding conservatives just “Shut Up!” I suggest discussion.  And I challenge our opponents to bring substantiation to their claims instead of vitriol

The mirror of which I speak is one designed for the left side and that the right side do the same.  “Facts are stubborn things.” And our task here even in disagreement is to prove our point intelligently and with evidence to support our claims. It is hubris to think that we can just throw out an idea and not have it be examined just as it is hubris to ignore the facts of history and reasoned analysis.  I claim by this standard that less government means more freedom and greater economic growth; that greater economic growth is not a static process but of necessity requires fluctuations in prosperity which lead to sustained, long-term growth.

I also submit that liberty advances when government is restrained and when government institutions are given the authority to make the rules of fair play they ultimately renege on both fairness and play (e.g. socialism). And, lastly, I submit that liberty <!-- more --> and the standards of right and wrong dictated through the Natural Law are the highest moral values which should dictate the interactions between human beings; that liberty is messy and some people get hurt; that liberty requires an individual to make proper moral judgments regarding his fellow man; that the sum total of those individual judgments makes a society strong or weak; that government is incapable of guiding those judgments; and that governments should restrict their non-defense, non-infrastructure activities to those only which protect the right of individuals to make such judgments based on the dictates of conscience. And I believe capitalism of its very nature controls its own excesses because individuals under that system are forced by the market to act in a moral way and promote honesty and fair play.  When cheaters arise, they ultimately fall in a capitalist system.  And the greedy can only pursue their greed to the extent their customers are willing to pay for the products they produce.

I see the philosophy of the left as one which proposes that government should be active in the affairs of men ordering society in such a way as to protect us from the “excesses of capitalism.”   They seem to see liberty in the way Lenin viewed liberty.  He said,

It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed.

I, for my part, offer this in response:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”