Two Big Lies
Justifying Evil
Nobody wants to do the wrong thing. No normal person wants to hurt other people, but that is, nevertheless, what they always do. Why is this true? No doubt, most people want to do what they believe is right and virtuous. It requires something extreme for one to intentionally participate in that which harms others.
While most people would never dream of intentionally interfering in anyone else’s life to harm them, there are two cases in which people not only feel justified in interfering in others’ lives but feel morally obligated to do so, no matter how much harm it does to those others. Those two cases are opposites, the very good and the very bad.
The Very Good
“The very good,” is anything one believes is good for every human being and that every human being must have. It is seldom called, “the very good,” because that description is not as emotionally compelling as the more common expression, “rights.”
The concept, “rights,” assumes that some things are so good and important to human life, that securing them for every human being justifies anything that will accomplish that end. There is no agreement on exactly what the, “very good,“things are that everyone has a, “right,” to, but they are sometimes enumerated as things like, a right to, “life,” “free speech,” and, “security,” and often include things like, “education,” “opportunity,” “food,” and, “health care.”
No matter how narrow or broad the list of, “very good things,” is, the essential idea of, “rights,” is something one has a claim to simply because they were born and anything that prevents one from having what they have a right to is, in some way, “bad.”.
The Very Bad
The very bad is anything one believes every human being must be protected or saved from. It is seldom called, “the very bad,” because that phrase does not arouse enough fear of the, “bad things,” one must be protected from.
Of course the first, “very bad thing,” is anything that stands in the way of one getting their, “rights,” but like rights, there is no agreement on exactly what bad things are the, “very bad,” but always include things such as, “poverty,” “sickness,” “physical suffering,” and any possible, “disaster,” “catastrophe,” “calamity,” “threat,” or “danger.”
The Biggest Lie
Both the, “the very good,” (rights) and, “the very bad,” (evils) arguments are lies and both are variations of the biggest lie: that anything ever justifies one’s interference in how any other individual chooses to live their own life. Nothing justifies compelling any other individual to do, or not do, anything they do not willingly choose.
It is in defiance of this principle both lies are aligned. While most people will agree that it is wrong to force others to do, or not do, anything, they mean it only so long as those others only choose what fits into their own view what is between the limits of “the very good,” and, “the very bad.”
Depending on what one believes, “the very good,” is, it will be used to justify almost any kind of oppression. Knowledge is good. It is, in fact, a necessity of life for human beings. Most people believe because knowledge is good it justifies forcing individuals to pay for the education of children (whether have any children or not) and forcing parents to surrender their children to government controlled education (no matter how much harm it does to those children and families).
The same is true for every other thing that some authority has determined is a, “very good thing,” that no one must be allowed to live without, including food, homes, health care, jobs, fair treatment, love, and understanding. There is, in fact, no end to the list of, “very good,” things people have a right to and are used to justify any kind of oppression necessary to ensure they get them.
Saving The World From, “The Very Bad”
The worst oppression is justified by the second lie, that some things are so bad that any outrage is justified to save humanity from them. The entire environmental movement, for example, is based on this lie.
It is used, for example, to justify the most horrible of all human enterprises, war, with such contradictions as First World war propaganda, “The war to end all wars,” and “the war to save the free world,” by sacrificing the freedom of the 70% of American men who were drafted.
Most of America’s Government consists of agencies of unparalleled oppression which have no other justification than to save people from, “the very bad:”
BATFE to save us from the horrors of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives.
CDC to save us from diseases.
DEA to save us from the dangers of drugs.
DHS to save us from terrorists, foreign and domestic.
DOD to save us from foreign invaders.
DOI to save the land from people.
DOL to save us from unemployment.
ED, to save us from ignorance (not male deficiency).
EPA to save us from environmental disaster.
FDA to save us from bad food.
HHS to save us from bad health and unhappiness.
ICC to save us from interstate tax evaders.
EEOC to save us from unfair job treatment.
FAA to save us from aviation disasters.
FCC to save us from dangerous use of communication.
FEMA to save us from all emergencies—natural or man-made.
FTC to save us from trade and investment scams.
HUD to save us from being homeless.
ITA to save us from aggressive foreign traders.
NASA to save us from Martians (Chinese or Russians).
NEA to save us from being artless.
NRC to save us from nuclear disasters.
ONDCP to save us from the DEA.
OSHA to save us from ever having to do anything dangerous.
SBA to save us from independent entrepreneurs who defy the government.
SEC to save us from the FTC.
TSA to save us from free pleasant travel.
USDA to save us from farms (or farmers).
No apology is made for the obvious satirical description of some of these horribly absurd agencies.
Who Decides
Who decides what, “the very good,” and, “the very bad,” are? There is no objective method, no evidence to examine except the opinion of those who care to express one. That is the secret. There is no argument. Health, wealth and knowledge are good. Sickness, poverty, and ignorance are bad. The lie is not about the value of those things, the lie is about their justifying oppression to achieve or evade them. The lie is in obscuring the fact that whatever some people prefer (or think they prefer) is simply chosen and placed above anyone else’s interests which are then sacrificed as evil.
The subjectivity of the big lie is best described in the, “Anti-human Environmentalists:”
The environmentalists and social planners have convinced the world that they hold some kind of moral superiority which sanctions their forcing their views of what is good and right on the whole world, and all the governments of the world are in their service. If anything, these social manipulators are moral pariahs, but even if they were Gods, there could be no moral justification for their forcing their views on others. …
That is exactly what environmentalism is, however, an evil that allows some to force their preferences on others, even when it means their death, even when it means their death in the millions.
Every war, every act of terror, and every form of human oppression is justified by one of these two lies—that it is to secure some supposed form of rights to, “the very good,” or to protect human beings from the horrors of, “the very bad.“It is always those who used those excuses who appoint themselves as the authorities that determine what, “the very good,” and, “the very bad,” are.
The Freedom Lie
The subtlety of these lies is so potent, even those who should most loath them, use them to justify their own ideologies and social/political agendas.
Freedom, like knowledge, is an absolute necessity for individual human life and success. It is definitely, “very good.“Most so-called freedom advocates are totally oblivious to the contradiction in their own views that, on the one hand, recognizes the necessity and value of freedom, but, on the other hand, believes in working to force freedom on everyone, whether they want it or not.
Just as every individual must work to educate themselves and learn all they possibly can, every individual must work to make themselves free in every way they possibly can. No one is born with an unearned claim, or a “right,” to anything they have not achieved or produced by their own effort, no matter how good it is, even freedom. No matter how good freedom is, it is wrong to force it on anyone else, which is exactly what every political or social activist program is intended to do, though there is, in fact, no danger of that ever happening.
—(04/02/2021)
Free Individual is not copyrighted. You may use any material without permission.
—Since 2004