What is Important to me?
Explaining some of my core values will show some of the ideas that have caused me to try to help make things better.
“Darkness does not drive out darkness, only light can do that”.
- “Ignorance doesn’t fix problems, only knowledge does that”.
Everyone has a set of values, a mental list of the things that are important to them, things they act to get or to keep.
Reality: Seeing things as they exist. The Principle of Honesty is conforming to reality. Fantasy is the opposite of reality. Honesty is wanting to pay for what you get. Integrity is being true to your principles.
Reason: As a way to understand reality and as the basis to figure out what to do.The tools of reason are the tools of the intellect: Logic, especially the Aristotelean Law of Non-Contradiction; Deduction, Induction, Perceptions; Memory/Recall; Experiences; and the discoveries that contain the knowledge and wisdom achieved by the scientists, inventors and philosophers. You trained your mind from infancy. Your individual mind has astounding attriutes and you can constantly train it to higher levels.
Philosophers, as a group have muddled-up things so bad that philosophy is generally useless as an intellectual guide however the outlines of a general philosophy shows that Metaphysics ia general view of everything and Epistemology includes the rules regarding how to think.
Government: Government is certainly necessary. Every culture has some type of Government.
Excessive government intervention causes problems. Keeping government under control is the solution. Voting for real independent candidates – like me - can help get more control over government.
American Government ~ Began with the Declaration of Independence. A written Constitution identifies and limits the powers of government. The Bill of Rights further limits government. The Preamble to the Bill of Rights. limits power even more. Sadly,all that has been effectively overcome. Big Brother Government overhangs just about everything.
Government is supposed to protect Liberty. There is no other purpose.
Liberty is personal, not cultural. Majority Rule eliminates the protection of the minority. The smallest minority is the individual.
Proper, Moral Government exists to Protect the Liberty of each citizen. America is the only moral nation in history. America was based on a set of values, Morality is a set of values so America, founded on values ibased in Liberty is moral.
Government Legislation should be Limited to the ”Enumerated Powers” and the doctrine of Individual Rights. Economically and Politically that’s not Socialism but Capitalism. Capitalism is the only moral sytem because it’s based on Individual Freedom, is Limited by Rights and a set of Laws designed to protect Individual Rights, not some bastardized list of privileges and entitlements disguised as Rights.
Everything has a nature, a list of attributes unique to similar things. An Eagle for example has the nature of an Eagle but nothing useful to people can be identified by observing Eagles. The nature of people has a definition.
The identification of a proper set of values for a system of government requires a set of values proper to people which is why the nature of people is important. People are what is Governed.
The first question for goverment is not what is a proper system of government for people? The first question is “do people need government and why”?
The answer is people need government to protect them from holtile groups, gangs and Government. there is no danger from other individuals. It is when individuals form groups, gangs and governments that individuals need protection.
People have free will as part of their nature so they need to make choices.
They must be free to make those choices. If there is no freedom to make choices there is no need for a set of rules to make sure people make the right choices. There needs to be a place where people can make choices. That’s why individuals, not government should own and control property. Government owned property is an element of communism or communilism disguised as freedom. Government Control of land is Counterfeit Freedom.
This is where the idea of Rights comes in. The choices people make is a very wide subject but the idea of Rights limits the choices to those which affect no one else. Rights are the way to subject Government to moral law.
The nature of individual judgment means people are free to make wrong as well as right choices. How can a person be sure to make the correct choice?
By basing it on evidence. That defines Objectivity. Objective Judgment defines the idea of Justice. The purpose of government is to provide Justice based on Individual Rights and in accord with Objective Laws which provide clear bright lines between right and wrong behavior.
The government that governs best is the government that governs least. Small government that protects Liberty and provides Objective Judgment is proper for people according to their nature.
The opposite values, opposite to Reality, to Reason and Capitalism are values based in Mysticism, Altruism and Communalism. Mysticism is a committment to a universe of unknowable things with rules that are not rules at all but whims to be decided by no rules at all. Altruism, a deadly vice that has been wrongly turned into a virtue preaches Sacrifice as a value. Sacrifice is giving up something of value for something of lesser value. Paying a dollar for something worth a penny is a sacrifice. Living for the expectation of something greater than living is not a sacrifice but a negotiation to get something in exchange for something less. Communalism is putting the group, tribe or race above the individual. Socialism; Fascism; Communism; Social Democracy; Progressivism; Social Justice; are systems that value the group higher than the individual. History shows the dangers of government based on the false value of some group. The smallest minority needs protection from groups and the smallest minority is the individual, – you.
Mysticism, Altruism and Communalism (MAC) are the counterfeiting of the values of this world, this time, your life as important and to be protected by government over the majority, are not the values that wrote the American Declaration of Independence or the Constiuttion. MAC is clearly Un-American yet it is the reigning philosophy of many people who accepted MAC as valid because of faulty information.
Reason begins with Axioms: Existence, Identity and Consciousness. All intellectual effort begins with evidence provided by the senses, sub-totaled into Perceptions; isolated into Concepts and used as Language. Concepts and Language are learned, not innate. Grammar organizes Language. Each word is an abstraction, a “Concept” that identifies the essence of something. See Ayn Rands: “Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology”, page 10.
Concepts refer to reality. Negative, mystical, fanciful and imagined concepts are based on real things that exist and it’s necessary to identify what exists before imagining the negative. A negative universe rests on the reality of the universe with the imagination changing it to a dream.
The sub-conscious totals all the decisions one makes and uses them as the basis for future decisions. The sub-conscious is a relentless totalizer, sort of like the judge on judgment day except the sub-conscious exists in the real world. It’s just not possible to find out what the sub-conscious has totaled. If a person constiantly makes wrong decisions, the sub-conscious will advise the consciousness to make another wrong decision when the same facts appear. That’s why most criminals cannot be rehabilitated. They have been criminals for so long their sub-conscious doesn’t know any other set of values to guide them. That’s why it’s important to make the right choices even alone on a desert island because one’s own mind is being programmed..
Existence is what exists. Nothing is outside existence. If something exists, has existed or will exist, it is part of the universe. There is no other universe because there is nothing that exists that’s not in the Universe. Fantasy is Imagination. Imagination exists as thoughts in one mind. Intellectual Creations. The mind needs and uses reason to separate Real from Imagined. The misuse of reason is a betrayal of an individual mind.
A persons sum of everything they understand is their Sense of Life; their feeling of self; their inner image; their sub-conscious evaluations; their attitude towards everything. It identifies their Spirit; their soul; their personality, their identification of who they are; their self-worth; their approach to living and to people. At the point where they can identify themselves, ~ when their experiences are sufficient for them to actually be; to understand they exist and are unique , they have reached their personal ”Age of Reason”. Some people never fully achieve a sense of self; of their own life but most do. With still more experience they become Independent; truly unique; capable, and that feeling; their own Sense of Life, guides their soul. They are mature.
Reason based people are happy, productive, Independent, proud of their achievements and normal. Individual Rights protects their ability to develop to their biggest potential. Overbearing, Big Brother types of intrusive, total government that make thoughts crimes and pose as the protectors of society but not of individuals are the greatest danger to each person.
Be alert for the instinct to collaborate, the marker of a dependent being which eventually is the basis of Big Brother Government.
You probably discovered that I’m talking of my own experiences as I’ve moved through life. It seemed easier to make my experiences part of a bigger picture so the above is presented as a set of rules but they are just my rules for myself. Maybe you recognized some of your rules or you see a different way to look at things. That’s important to me because by protecting the ideas above, my ideas, I’m working to protect yours too.
Why try to change Government?
No reason if government is right. Every reason when it’s wrong.
Who decides between Right and Wrong? Anybody who knows right from wrong.
See “What I’ve Done” for a list of some of the results of my attempts to change things for the better.
America deserves better than it’s been getting, mostly because, I believe, the politicians and the people who use them to get favors; the people who use pull rather than achievement to succeed make thing worse for the people. Politicians hsve made a hash of things because they have been promoting the values of Socialism. Why is Socialism so popular despite the evidence that Socialism fails wherever government uses it to re-distribute wealth? Bad information. Manipulated information. Ignorance because of purposeful misdirection.
My philosophy has emourmous respect for individuals. Consequently, I understand that Individuals need the protection of government and they also need protection from government itself. When things go wrong, in the political issues that appear every dau=y here and abroad, “the people” are better left alone to solve problems with market based resources. Unfortunately government types get in the way of people instead of getting out of the way.
Shakesphere asked: “whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outragouus fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles?”
My answer is No. No to suffering and No to suffering in silence when government goes off the rails. No to sitting back when a neighbor is a victim of local politicians. No when the zoning board oversteps the bounds of proper law. No when the township Supervisors pass Unconstitional Ordinances. No when the Federal Government takes over many areas of life.
My approach is to attempt to change things; to get then to go right; and in many cases to get the boot of government off the necks of the people. OK. That sounds a bit over the top but a violation of the Constitution is about as wrong as government can get. That’s why I have sued four townships in Federal Court, including Northampton that had to be sued twice and I won all five times. They eliminated the Unconstitional Ordinances. That’s the way I’ve helped to rescue Liberty. Getting rid of one bad law passed by bad people who use it to do bad things to good people.
That’s what I work for. That’s why I do whatever I can. You can help.
When you see my name on a ballot, vote for me.
Bill O’Neill
