[DOWNLOAD] "Keep the Change: The Zeal for Improvement Threatens Old Liberties (Politics) (Essay)" by James A. Reed # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Keep the Change: The Zeal for Improvement Threatens Old Liberties (Politics) (Essay)
- Author : James A. Reed
- Release Date : January 01, 2010
- Genre: Politics & Current Events,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 55 KB
Description
THE PRESENT-DAY reformer supplants the ancient and foolish doctrine, "Everything that is, is right," with the still more foolish doctrine, "Everything that is, is wrong." In a world which an intelligent and patriotic ancestry lovingly handed over to us in a reasonably well-ordered condition, he runs amok. Our inherited liberties, guaranteed by a Constitution and code of laws, together forming a homogeneous system, are recklessly attacked until the whole structure is seriously imperiled. The modern reformer insists upon substituting statutory commands for ethical precepts and official surveillance for the restraints of morality. He undertakes to force the acceptance of his peculiar doctrines by penalty of fine and imprisonment. The old and true concept of freedom embraced the right of the citizen to choose his own religion, think his own thoughts, indulge his own habits, and live his life without interference by the state, save that he should not trespass upon the rights of others. For this condition of personal freedom and responsibility, the reformer proposes to substitute legal regulations, which, like a web of steel, shall encompass the citizen from birth to death. Man will live and die the slave of the majority which enacts the laws.