A Devious Plan Indeed...

It seems a society that enjoys a comparably excessive amount of freedom is doomed to move down the path toward tyranny and oppression for several reasons. I will address one that has been spoken of since the inception of representative government itself.

I was listening to an address in which the speaker was berating business and entrepreneurship because of the extensive use of sexual images in advertising. While this practice is largely contributing to the unraveling of society's moral fiber, the equally distressing problem is the general demonizing of business — large and small. This practice will ultimately, if left unchecked, fuel the advocacy for and imposition of absolute government control and regulation.

Look what has happened in the last eight months since the supposed financial meltdown in our country — the government has thus far seized enormous power and control over the banks and the automakers as well as mortgage and credit lenders. In the next few months we will watch an out of control government continue to nationalize industry after industry and become more and more powerful. They will seek to control your life by taking over the health care industry and seeking to control news and media.

So, in spite of the shortcomings of business in an imperfect society — one in which men are easily corrupted by wealth and power, we must be very very careful when deciding who the villains are and who the heroes are. We cannot get in the habit of throwing out the baby with the bath water and making sweeping generalizations that are not rooted in principle.

Above all, we must be alert and aware because in making one group the "bad guy" you may inadvertently allow a really really bad guy to make things much worse than ever. before possible. So let us be very careful when and how we scrutinize business and capitalism; for if we are careless in this debate we could one day find ourselves free of all the possible or inherent evils of business but enslaved by government because we fell prey to the deceptive enticement of the benevolent central power that will never exist in our imperfect world.