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"To say that
government ought to do that which is "expedient," or
to do that which will tend to produce the
"greatest happiness," or to do that which
will subserve the "general good," is to say nothing; for there is infinite
disagreement regarding the natures of these desiderata.
A definition of which the terms are
indefinite is an absurdity.
Whilst
the practical interpretation of
"expediency" remains a matter of opinion, to say that a government should
do that which is "expedient," is to say that it should do, what we think it
should do!
The expediency-philosophy ignores
a world full of facts.
It
considers the philosophy of humanity easy, the constitution of the social
organism simple, the cause of people's conduct obvious; general examination can
provide "collective wisdom,"
the insight requisite for law-creation.
The
expediency philosophy thinks that man's intellect
is competent to:
observe
accurately the facts exhibited by associated human nature;
to form just estimates of
general and individual character;
to understand the effects of
religions, traditions,
superstitions,
prejudices, of the mental tendencies of
the age and of the probabilities
of future events;
to grasping at once the
multiplied phenomena of this ever-agitated, ever-changing sea of life,
to derive from them knowledge of their
governing principles which shall enable him to say whether such and such
measures will conduce to "the
greatest happiness of the greatest number."
Here, then, we have a
rationale of the expediency-ideology of government.
It is the latest
and most refined form assumed by this disposition to exalt the state at the
expense of the individual. Between that old eastern regime under which the
citizen was the private property of his
ruler, having no rights at
all, and that final state under which his rights will be entire and inviolable,
there comes this intermediate state in which he is allowed to possess rights,
but only by sufferance of parliament.
Thus the expediency - philosophy
falls naturally into its place as a phenomena attending our progress from
past slavery to future
freedom.
Like each of its predecessors, it is natural to a certain
phase of human development.
And it is fated to lose its hold as fast as
our adaptation to the complex social state increases.
As far as the state is
concerned again comes the inquiry - how does expediency-philosophy propose to
determine between what should be attempted and what should not?
To
escape the charge of political empiricism,
the polity must show us some scientific test by which we can in each case
determine whether or not state-superintendence is
desirable.
Between the one extreme of entire non-interference, and
the other extreme in which every citizen is to be
transformed into a grown-up
baby, "with bib and pap-spoon," there lie
innumerable stopping places; and he who would have the state do more than
protect is required to say where he means to draw the line, and to give us
substantial reasons why it
must be just there and nowhere else.
The proper constitution of
governments, their duties, and the limits to their action must be arrived at
out of an endless labyrinth of confused
debate concerning the policy of these or those public measures, it openly
short and easily-discerned ways; and the conclusions it leads to are enforced,
both generally, by an abundant experience of the fallacy of expedient
decision, and specially, by
numerous arguments bearing on each
successive question.
If the true end of this conflict of
opinion is to keep social arrangements
in harmony with the average
character of the people; and if the
honest opinion held by each man of any given state of things is not an
intellectual accident, but indicates a preponderating fitness or unfitness
of that state of things to his moral
condition; then it follows that only by a universal manifestation of honest
opinions can harmony between social arrangements and the
average popular character be preserved." - Herbert Spencer |
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This web site is not a commercial web site and
is presented for educational
purposes only.
This website defines a
new perspective with which to engage reality to which its author adheres. The
author feels that the falsification of reality outside personal experience has
forged a populace unable to discern propaganda
from reality and that this has been done purposefully by an international
corporate cartel through their agents who wish to foist a corrupt version of
reality on the human race. Religious intolerance occurs
when any group refuses to tolerate religious practices, religious beliefs or
persons due to their religious ideology. This web site marks the founding of a
system of philosophy named The Truth of the Way of the Lumière Infinie -
a rational gnostic mystery religion based on reason which requires no leap of
faith, accepts no tithes, has no supreme leader, no church buildings and in
which each and every individual is encouraged to develop a personal relation
with the Creator and Sustainer through the pursuit of the knowledge of reality
in the hope of curing the spiritual corruption that has enveloped the human
spirit. The tenets of The Truth of the Way of the Lumière Infinie are
spelled out in detail on this web site by the author. Violent acts against
individuals due to their religious beliefs in America is considered a "hate
crime."
This web site in no way condones violence. To the contrary the
intent here is to reduce the violence that is already occurring due to the
international corporate cartels
desire to control the human
race. The international corporate
cartel already controls the world economic system, corporate media
worldwide, the global industrial military entertainment complex and is
responsible for the collapse of morals, the elevation of
self-centered behavior and the destruction
of global ecosystems. Civilization is based on coöperation.
Coöperation does not occur at the
point of a gun.
American social mores and values have declined
precipitously over the last century as the corrupt international cartel has
garnered more and more power. This power rests in the ability to deceive the
populace in general through corporate media by pressing emotional buttons which
have been preprogrammed into the population through prior corporate media
psychological operations. The results have been the destruction of the family
and the destruction of social structures that do not adhere to the corrupt
international elites vision of a perfect world. Through distraction and
coercion the direction of thought of the bulk of the population has been
directed toward solutions proposed by the corrupt international elite that
further consolidates their power and which further their purposes.
All
views and opinions presented on this web site are the views and opinions of
individual human men and women that, through their writings, showed the
capacity for intelligent, reasonable, rational, insightful and unpopular
thought. All factual information presented on this web site is believed to be
true and accurate and is presented as originally presented in print media which
may or may not have originally presented the facts truthfully. Opinion and
thoughts have been adapted, edited, corrected, redacted, combined, added to,
re-edited and re-corrected as nearly all opinion and thought has been
throughout time but has been done so in the spirit of the original writer with
the intent of making his or her thoughts and opinions clearer and relevant to
the reader in the present time.
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© Lawrence Turner
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