Looting and vandalism have continued in the streets of several US cities over the past few weeks. The mayor of Washington, DC, went so far as to paint the BLM slogan on one of the streets near the White House. "Black lives matter?" No, we don't think so! We must express our point of view clearly: "All Lives matter! "
Why does the United States, as a mature model of the rule of law in the modern civilized world for many years, have such bad mass violence on the streets today? Its root is the movement of Affirmative Action driven by left-leaning liberalism in years. The "identity politics" and the "political correctness" promoted by the movement, overstepping the righteousness of God, sowed the seed of today's evil result.
Between a strong man and a weak man, is the weak necessarily just? No, it isn't. Usually, the unconditional preference for the weak of a man (such as today's "White Left" or "Chinese Left") is to show his manifestation of justice superiority and moral superiority. On the contrary, is the strong always just? Not necessarily. Usually, a man's unconditional preference for the strong is a bribe to the strong and a snob to the powerful.
The moral standard of political correctness promoted by the movement of Affirmative Action is an overt and explicit preference for vulnerable groups. We can see that the United States, a great nation that advocates freedom and human rights and has set a good example in the world, is gradually losing its citizens' freedom to express their own will normally and truly due to the bullying caused by political correctness.
In fact, today's mainstream groups in American society are increasingly discriminated against in the fields of schooling, employment, public opinion, law enforcement, etc. because of new discrimination caused by anti-discrimination. If the disadvantaged are taken too much care of, on the one hand, temporarily, there are many short-term welfare benefits for them; But on the other hand, being taken too much care of would be detrimental to their own development in the long run, because you would be "arrogant on account of being favored " or "lazy on account of being favored ". Their ability has not opportunity to be developed continuously and the group is bound to be weak for a long time.
Today, the BLM demonstration launched by these people is the "arrogant on account of being favored" and the "crazy on account of being favored".
"Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly." This is one of the decrees that God gave to the Jews through Moses in the book of Leviticus.
So, what is wrong with weird political correctness? It is that "favoring the weak" is not the highest moral principle. Such favoritism does usurp the righteousness and love of God, will inevitably lead to the loss of the original intention, the loss of meaning, and even more serious social problems.
The Bible says in the book of Exodus, "Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit." How God's word in the Bible sparkles with wisdom. Weakness is not equal to goodness. From the perspective of system, we should restrict people's instinct to sin.
One of the most prominent ideologists of conservatism, Lord Acton of England, once said, "Compassion and love will blind men to justice and favor evil. This is the most imperceptible danger. Most humanitarian disasters resulted from it. "
The famous ideologist from Germany, Max Weber said, "We do not exclude the role of purely emotional factors such as a sense of justice in the development of the law. But experience has shown that if there is no strong guidance of objective or subjective interests of pragmatic factors, "justice" is always unstable. We can easily observe yet that it will suddenly fluctuate, and in addition to a number of very general and pure forms of standards, it has no other form of expression of consensus. Because it is primarily an emotional function, a sense of justice is hardly enough to maintain a stable normative system, rather, it is more of a factor that constitutes an irrational judgment."
Trying to define justice for themselves has long been the goal of left-leaning liberal intellectuals. But conservative thinkers are well aware that this is a clear rational conceit. Modern liberalism seems to hold high the value of human reason, but actually overestimates human reason, making human reason no longer a limited order, and becoming arrogation of truth.
"Social progress, from identity to contract," said Sir Henry Maine, author of Popular Government. Sir Maine knew that human progress, and even its corresponding aspirations, were fragile creative achievements. The mark of the progress of western society is the evolution trend from identity to contract, and its main means are private property and contract freedom.
"Identity politics" or "identity society", which sets people's rights and obligations based on identity, is a privileged society, a divided society, a society governed by man, and a fatalistic society. The "contract society" sets people's rights and obligations with the contract. It is an equal society, a connected society, a society under the rule of law and a civilized society.
In the "identity society", power comes from identity, and power varies from identity to identity. Different identities make power more privileged, and identity and power become people's idols. So, you see, the people who shouted BLM slogan today insist the privilege of being "taken care of" under a certain color of skin.
In the "contract society", the contract becomes the main clue to establish people's rights and obligations. The essence of the contract is to realize autonomy according to the will of the parties. Unlike the "identity society", it relies on the efforts of each party to assert rights, fulfill obligations and assume responsibilities through free competition. Contracts stimulate and maintain people's initiative, enthusiasm and creativity.
The basis of contract is the equality of subjects and the equality of rights and obligations. Contract is the main way that the law gives people to realize the equality of personality. A society of contract is a truly equal society, which opposes privilege and tyranny. The core of the contract is freedom, especially freedom of speech. In a contract, each person may legally assert his free will and defend his free will. The weight of the speech is not measured by the identity of the speaker, but by the content of the speech itself. Everyone is equal before the contract, and only the freedom of speech can have the freedom of contract.
"Identity politics" is the fencing among people, which makes the society appear fragmented and fragmented. People of different identities make their own boundaries and adopt a "beggar-thy-neighbor" policy. Each group has its own ideas, feelings, rights, habits and ways of life. There are no common thoughts and feelings among them.
The "contract society" provides the society with the possibility of rationalizing social communication and establishing the mechanism of change & development. Survival of the fittest replaces the predestined. Contracts become the bonds that bind society together. Contract is the basic communication mode based on the division of labor. The "contract society" becomes an organic society with coordinated interests.
In the "identity society", people are fatalistic and everything is predestined. In the "contract society", people advocate a philosophy of competition. Everyone is created equal. Everyone has the right to pursue the "American Dream" of freedom and happiness.
Russell Kirk, a contemporary conservative thinker, gave a very prescient warning to American society early on: "The transition from identity to contract is the result of noble thoughts, and the retrograde transition from contract to identity will be the result of self-righteous democracy."
Sir Maine was also keenly aware that "left-leaning liberal politicians are genuinely flirting with collectivism. And in this case, too, we see a betrayal of liberty and progress, because progress is measured by freedom."
Identity politics, which places equality above freedom, is the road to slavery.
Civilized societies are competitive societies. The competition between people is economic and civilized. If a civilized people give up the competition of civilization, they will find themselves forced back to the vicious and murderous competition of natural selection after a continuous process of degradation. As soon as this process of degradation is over, civilization reverts accordingly to the state of barbarism which its identity implies.
James Stephen, Henry Maine, and William Lecky defended the covenant against identity. They knew that emotional collectivism could turn into cruel and destructive slavery.
President Reagan said, "If fascism comes to America one day, it will emerge as liberalism."
When Lily Mei, the mayor of Fremont, CA, tried to talk to street protesters on June 2, 2020, BLMers asked her to kneel. The Chinese-American Christian mayor responded on Facebook that evening: "Because of my faith, I will never kneel to Anyone but God."
According to Fox News, O'Neal Saddler, a black police officer in Georgia, refused to kneel down on June 7, 2020. He said he was born to kneel down to only one, and that is God.
Give thanks and praise to God! The power of God is continuously moving his people to stand up and testify to God's glory.
Pray and ask God to give a strong and courageous heart to those who pursue truth like Lily Mei, O'Neal Saddler. Let us not be cowardly or afraid, stand by what we believe, and be brave enough to say no to evil!