Since it is indisputable, that our great country was founded on the principles of rights granted by God, the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and a limited government which as John Locke would argue, receives its authority by the consent of the people, a consent that is a continuous process and one that must be perpetually renewed.
Further, Locke would argue that never can consent abolish certain primary natural rights – life, liberty, and property; these cannot be relinquished by reasonable men, as noted above, these rights preceded law and thus were not granted by the law (see posts on Bastiat for further discussion of some of these concepts).
With that in mind listen to and reflect on the following quote by Pericles and ask yourself this question, “Why are we trying so desperately to throw away these precious freedoms and embrace government control of our freedoms?”
What was the road by which we reached our position, what the form of government under which our greatness grew, what the national habits out of which it sprang?…If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences;…The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life….But all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.
[Pericles - quoted in “The Constitution of Liberty, Introduction, pg. 1, F. A Hayek, (The University of Chicago Press, 1961)]
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“a consent that is a continuous process and one that must be perpetually renewed”
What does that continuous process and perpetual renewal look like?
And what does it look like if men choose not to renew?
Luke in response to your question I turn to the “Preamble” of the U. S. Constitution:
The phrase, “we the people” indicates where our government derives its authority. Next, in answer to your question, “What does that continuous process and perpetual renewal look like?” Again, I direct your attention to the political process established by the U. S. Constitution, Amendment XX: Terms of the President and Congress, which reads:
Amendment XX provides “the people” the opportunity to exercise our “consent for renewal” of our government at the ballot box. Your next question, “And what does it look like if men choose not to renew?” is more difficult question to answer. I guess we can only look at history to see what it looks like when men choose not to renew their consent to their government. I do think the wisdom displayed in the “Declaration of Independence” here provides a wise caution to us as we move through our own “history.” It states,
I believe that the ideals laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution are worth fighting for in the public arena and in the arena of ideas. That is what I am attempting to do through the For Freedom’s Sake blog. Thanks for participating.
Thanks, Doug. I always wondered how those things fleshed out in reality.
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[...] was first posted on For Freedom’s Sake on February 12, 2009 and deserves attention again. PericlesSince it is indisputable, that our great country was founded [...]