This post is a result of some tweets i posted
@louie_7; #socialism is not just a question of
labor organization; it is above all an atheistic
phenomenon, the modern manifestation of
#atheism ...
@louie_7 ...one more tower of Babel built
without God, not in order to reach out toward
heaven from earth, but to bring heaven down
to earth.
@louie_7 The Brothers Kamazarov ~ Fyodor
Dostoyevsky
@rossign... You do understand the irony of
a hutterite tweeting this, right?
@louie_7 Key words "without God"
@rossign... Yes. Im not disagreeing with you,
just wondering about the nuances of
communitarianism.
@louie_7 Deep subject
@rossign... Yeah, I think you should write
about it on your blog.
So here are the set of questions that were posed.
Rebecca. I’m not disagreeing with you, and I don't think I'd presume to disagree with Dostoevsky. Certainly the kind of socialism he encountered, and the kind that triumphed in the USSR, became unimaginably evil and oppressive. But do you think all manifestations of socialism fall into that category?
LouieV. Certainly all state enforced ones seem to turn out that way.
Rebecca. What kind of secular government would best serve people, and would be the best context for your own communities?
LouieV. I think the best secular government would be one that is based on the Judeo-Christian world view. This may sound self defeating but where else can you find the basis of the value and sanctity of humanity? Only in this world view are we created in the image of God and as such each individual is of infinite and intrinsic value. each and every one of us. Let’s break this down a little more.
Created in the image of God means God knows us personally and desires our bodies to be a living temple for him. That also means he knows our birth place, birth parents, gender, and race and called it as good. What this means:
Our life is sacred
Our race is sacred
Our bodies are sacred
Our sex is sacred
I think with this basic knowledge we can start to derive a pretty good society.
Rebecca. Do you see any role for common ownership or common responsibility in state governments?
LouieV. Common ownership comes with its problems. In society you’ll always have over achievers and under achievers, trail blazers and stragglers. I believe common ownership strives to make everyone equal and average and it’s hard to make progress that way. Where’s the incentive to work hard and innovate if you don’t socially or monetarily advance past the ones you’re dragging behind? We humans are geared to be fiercely independent, to advance and rise above the pack in order to make ourselves and our lives of relevance.
Common responsibility is a tougher one, so much of our thinking and what we hold dear and important is based on our world view and personal interests. Common responsibility would mean to set aside our personal interests and focus on the bigger picture, which brings up another problem, do we as a society have a clear agenda or set of goals we want to achieve and can we all agree on those issues? Think of the pro-life pro-choice debate for example. If we can’t reconcile on issues of basic life, where do we find common ground?
Rebecca. When you say "without God," what exactly do you mean; how does the inclusion, the centrality of God in the mix specifically change the dynamics of a group which "holds all things in common"?
LouieV. Well, as soon as you put God in the picture everything changes;
Voluntarism: With God as the author of free will this movement has to be run voluntarily with God at the top. Government run, this movement would be compulsory with enforcement and penalties with Man as God on top.
Motive. The motive of a group to hold all things in common (Acts 2:44-45) is inspired from the rewards of the next world and not this one.
Action. The desire and the accomplishment to actually live out a life like this is a work from God. Man, left on his own will and accomplishments self destructs rather quickly, especially more so in this age of instant gratification.
Rebecca. As the devil's advocate, I might suspect that that is just a way for those in power to point to God as an even bigger stick to back up their positions, whatever they might be.
LouieV. And I might suspect if those in power are not true Christians then that is exactly what will happen.
