How Clinton and the Pope Share a Mistaken Moral Vision |
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| Media Link - Washington Times | ||||
| Friday, 20 August 1993 00:00 | ||||
Pope John Paul II and President Bill Clinton share the same view of morality. Never mind their well-publicized differences on abortion and sexual behavior. Even when their conclusions differ, they operate under the same moral framework. That moral framework is self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice refers to the moral ideal that man's highest virtue is to surrender his mind, his property, his integrity -- indeed, his very life -- to the need, whim or demand of another. Mr. Clinton believes that productive Americans must sacrifice their independence and their income so that wealth (or health care) may be redistributed to the masses. The Pope believes that women must sacrifice their happiness and their futures to a theological belief that a fetus is a human life. Each man understands that physical force -- also known as government -- is the only means of imposing his philosophical views on an unenlightened population. Each exploits the unchallenged idea that self- sacrifice is a virtue. Both men use guilt as a psychological weapon: President Clinton accuses you of "destroying the Presidency" if you oppose his retroactive tax increase; the Pope accuses you of murder if you question his illogical claim that life begins nine months before the beginning of life. On some issues (such as abortion and gay rights), the two men may disagree; but on many more issues (national health insurance, the welfare state, the injustice of capitalism) the men are in full agreement. Mr. Clinton justifies self-sacrifice, of course, on the premise that "the uninsured" or "the jobless" or "the poor" must be protected. And Pope John Paul justifies self-sacrifice on the premise that "the unborn" or "the sick" or "the Church" must be protected. Yet neither is willing to defend the most vulnerable minority of all: the individual. I am referring to the thinking, independent, productive individual -- the kind of person who assumes full responsibility for his life and asks for nothing in return except to be left alone. Popes, of course, have never understood the virtue of leaving people alone. The Church has been meddling in individuals' lives since the Middle Ages. American presidents used to leave individuals alone -- before the advent of glorified busybodies such as FDR, LBJ and now Bill Clinton. If government is to stay out of our bedrooms, as liberals correctly insist, and stop punishing success and productivity, as conservatives justly demand, there is only one solution: Abandon the morality of self-sacrifice. Reject the idea that sacrificing one's life or one's property is a virtue. Replace it with the idea that independence, pride and self-esteem are virtues and can flourish only in the absence of today's massive government involvement in individuals' lives. A free society is only a consequence of the morality upon which its government is based. If our government is based on a morality of self-sacrifice, then our leaders will continue to demand sacrifice until there is nothing left to give. If our government is based on a morality of independence and self-interest, then we can expect government to protect us from sacrifice rather than impose it on us.
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