There is an enduring nexus between these three. Human nature affects culture. Culture affects government. Human nature varies, but bad, average, and good usually fall into similar percentages. ln chart form it looks a bit like a bell.
If we compare the people who should have been strangled at birth on the left side of the chart, with all those better and better, until we get to the near saintly on the right side of the chart (and with the number of each distributed vertically) it will look like a bell. This will be true of any, race, nationally, or human grouping of any sort.
If we say, “Those blankety-blank S.O.B.’s are all alike”, we will be gravely wrong. There will certainly be many S.O.B’s - but rarely more than in any other group. There are always 10% to 20% of both the best and worst, with 70% to 80% in the middle. If you understand this, it will make it harder for you to be a bigot. I’ve no doubt some will manage, anyway.
Race, and nationality are useless considerations when judging the value of any people. What really matters are the people’s shared ideas of : right/wrong; false/true; useful/foolish – these matter very much; they are the components of culture.
People are much the same, throughout time, and geographic location.
Cultures are wildly different.
Some cultures produce: opportunity; wealth; and general good for all. Other cultures produce: servitude; poverty; and general horror. Socialism, in all its many forms, consistently produces the latter. Free market capitalism, when coupled with moral probity consistently produces the former.
Ideas matter.
If you, along with your friends and family, all believe everyone should be granted the best of everything, you are all begging for tyrannical socialism. It will result, as it always does, in loss of personal freedom and loss of personal wealth. Each new generation will have to be taught this wisdom. Youth is perpetually bewitched by idealistic gobbledygook. By the time they figure it out, it will be too late, as anyone from the former, “Soviet Socialist Republic”, will be happy to explain.
Culture - that is the shared beliefs of any group - has consequences.
If you’re a gang-banger, in any urban waste land, you probably believe that revenge is the surest path to justice. You probably believe that, “The Man”, is responsible for your pitiful, savage life. You probably believe your home-boys are the only people you can trust. Actually, that’s pretty much what savage isolated tribes around the world believe. That’s why they remain savage isolated tribes.
For a very long time the entire population of the Earth consisted of savage isolated tribes. When the tribes grew larger, authoritative management was needed. to keep them from injuring each other. This job usually fell to the brightest and most aggressive - who became,” Kings”. This model of Kings ruling Subjects is the oldest, and simplest form of government. It’s still in use with baboon troops, wild horses, and even some human tribes, urban and otherwise. Although an improvement over chaos, some few started wondering whether Kings ruling Subjects was really the best model possible. Their Kings, through judicious use of sword and mace, quickly assured them that it was absolutely the best plan. Still…? In the middle of the fifth century B.C. a single culture changed it all. Classical Greece, and the city-state of Athens in particular, started thinking things that had never been thought before. Most of their ideas are still with us. Citizens replaced subjects. Citizen-Government replaced Kings.
Subjects did as they were told; Citizens had responsibilities. Their new responsibilities promoted serious argument about: what is good? What is true? What is just? In the space of some 30 years, Athens, and the city-states around them, tried every conceivable form of government that has ever existed, before or since – including Tyranny. The Greek version of Tyranny differed from Kingship in only one way; they elected their Tyrants. They also tried various forms of Socialism. Eventually Democracy triumphed.
The founding fathers of America considered the Democracy of Athens, as well as the Republic of Rome, and the Kingdoms of Europe. They took what seemed best from each model. They also filtered the political ideas of these models through the moral wisdom of Judaism and Christianity. These selected and combined ideas brought our Greco-Roman/Judeo-Christian heritage into full bloom. It resulted in the United States of America.
American cultural notions of: good; true; and just; informed the constitution of America. It remains the most virtuous, realistic, and fair constitution, ever devised.
Culture and Government are inextricably entwined. Countries rise, fall, or stagnate, because of the shared (or enforced) beliefs of the people in the country. Shared notions of decency lead to decent government. Shared notions of realism lead to wealth. Shared notions of justice lead to just government.
If we chart cultures and countries from worst to best, along with how many there are of each, we will end up with a very lopsided bell curve. The countries that embrace the norms of Western Civilization occupy the narrow hump at the right top of the bell. Those who do not, occupy the very wide bottom. Most of the human race lives in stifling bondage because of foolish beliefs that are the inevitable byproduct of ignorance. What can be done? I don’t know.
I do know that if we don’t teach people the wisdom of the past, the future will remain in darkness – increasing darkness.
“What would you do if I sang out of tune?”, sang the Beatles, implying that only boorish friends would remark on such a thing. I’m not so sure of that. What sort of friend would encourage you in self-deception? There are gentle ways of saying what’s true. There is little good in deception, even when well intentioned. “Political Correctness”, is a case in point. “Political Correctness”, replaces an obvious truth with a weasel-worded untruth. “You don’t sing out of tune; you just sing to your own tune”.
We all know the endless variations. No good comes from avoiding reality.
Vibrant cultures begin by acknowledging reality.
People cannot be divided into good and bad. Most people are good and bad on alternate days. The most consistently bad should be consistently supervised. (reform school, prison, work camps, etc.) the rest of the people should be left alone.
Laws should be as few as possible; brief, clear, and understandable to all.
Any law, or contract, that exceeds one page of single-spaced 10 pt. type should be ruled as illegal and rewritten, clearly and concisely.
“That government rules best, that rules least”, said Henry David Thoreau.
That’s still true, although it depends upon a people capable of disciplining themselves. That’s something that can never be achieved by government. It’s a blessing that comes only from willing surrender to God’s law.
Property should be respected as highly as freedom. Without an enforceable right to property, freedom is only a hollow promise. Enforcing property rights is one of the few things government actually should be doing. Instead, many States have imposed property tax on what should be private ownership. Property tax means that no citizen can ever truly own their own property. If you don’t pay the property tax, government will take your property from you. What you do not control, you do not own. You may lease, but you cannot own.
Ownership is the most basic part of citizenship. People who own their own piece of the Nation start to care about what happens to the rest of the Nation. They become Citizens. Free-Market Democratic Republics cannot survive without vigilant citizens who fiercely defend their individual rights.
The Western world, in general, and the U.S.A. in particular, demonstrate the best combination of culture and government. Far from perfect, but better than all the other models. It cannot be imposed. But it might be taught. Perhaps, one day, even in our own public-school systems - as it once was. The way to improve the current misshapen bell curve of cultures is to promote, worldwide, the following:
1. Respect for every individual.
2. Respect for the property rights of every individual.
3. Respect for the rule of law; not the rule of men.
4. Respect for individual initiative.
Is that possible?
Probably not, but it’s worth trying.