The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World

8/8/2019 The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World

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From The 5,000 Year Leap

By W.Cleon Skousen


2/69

` One of the most amazing aspects of the American

story is that while the nation's founders came from

widely divergent backgrounds, their fundamental

beliefs were virtually identical. They quarreledbitterly over the most practical plan of

implementing those beliefs, but rarely, if ever,

disputed about their final objectives or basic

convictions.


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` Although the level of their formal training varied

from spasmodic doses of home tutoring to the

rigorous regimen of Harvard's classical studies,

the debates in the Constitutional Convention andthe writings of the Founders reflect a far broader

knowledge of religious, political, historical,

economic, and philosophical studies than would

be found in any cross-section of American leaderstoday.


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` The relative uniformity of fundamental thought

shared by these men included strong and

unusually well-defined convictions concerning

religious principles, political precepts, economicfundamentals, and long-range social goals. On

particulars, of course, they quarreled, but when

discussing fundamental precepts and ultimate

objectives they seemed practically unanimous.


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` We will now proceed to carefully examine the 28

major principles on which the American Founders

established the first free people in modern times.

These are great ideas which provided theintellectual, political, and economic climate for the

5,000-year leap.


6/69

` The only reliable basis for sound government

and just human relations is Natural Law. "As one and the same Nature holds together and

supports the universe, all of whose parts are in harmony

with one another, so men are united in Nature; but by

reason of their depravity they quarrel, not realizing that

they are of one blood and subject to one and the same

protecting power. If this fact were understood, surely man

would live the life of the gods! Cicero


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` To Cicero, the building of a society on principles of NaturalLaw was nothing more nor less than recognizing andidentifying the rules of"right conduct" with the laws of theSupreme Creator of the universe.

` The Law of Nature or Nature's God is eternal in its basic

goodness; it is universal in its application. It is a code of"right reason" from the Creator himself. It cannot bealtered. It cannot be repealed. It cannot be abandoned bylegislators or the people themselves, even though they maypretend to do so. In Natural Law we are dealing with factorsof absolute reality. It is basic in its principles,

comprehensible to the human mind, and totally correct andmorally right in its general operation.


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` A free people cannot survive under a

republican constitution unless they remain

virtuous and morally strong.

Benjamin Franklin wrote:"O

nly a virtuous people arecapable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and

vicious, they have more need of masters.

The people had an instinctive thirst for independence,

but there remained a haunting fear that they might not be

"good enough" to make it work.


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` "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and

religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the

government of any other. John Adams


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Samuel Adams, who is sometimes called the "father of therevolution," wrote to Richard Henry Lee:

"I thank God that I have lived to see my country independentand free. She may long enjoy her independence andfreedom if she will. It depends on her virtue."

Samuel Adams wrote:"The sum of all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of

Heaven, let us become a virtuous people; then shall weboth deserve and enjoy it. while, on the other hand, if weare universally vicious and debauched in our manners,though the form of our Constitution carries the face of themost exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abjectslaves."


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` The most promising method of securing a virtuousand morally stable people is to elect virtuousleaders. A favorite scripture of the day was Proverbs 29:2, which says:"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but

when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. I never engaged in public affairs for my own interest,

pleasure, envy, jealousy, avarice, or ambition, or even thedesire of fame. If any of these had been my motive, myconduct would have been very different. In every considerabletransaction of my public life, I have invariably acted according

to my best judgment, and I can look up to God for the sincerityof my intentions. John Adams


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` Without religion the government of a freepeople cannot be maintained. President George Washington from his Farewell Address:"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political

prosperity, religion and morality are indispensablesupports.... And let us with caution indulge thesupposition that morality can be maintained withoutreligion ... Reason and experience both forbid us toexpect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion

of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue ormorality is a necessary spring of popular government.


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` All things were created by God, therefore upon

Him all mankind are equally dependent, and to

Him they are equally responsible.

The Founders vigorously affirm throughout their writingsthat the foundation of all reality is the existence of the

Creator, who is the designer of all things in nature and

the promulgator of all the laws which govern nature.


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` All men are created equal. The Founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence

that some truths are self-evident, and one of these is the

fact that all men are created equal.

Since people are different they can only be treated as

equals in the sight of God, in the sight of the law, and in

the protection of their rights.


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` The Founders distinguished between equal rights andother areas where equality is impossible. Theyrecognized that society should seek to provide equalopportunity but not expect equal results; provide equal

freedom but not expect equal capacity; provide equalrights but not equal possessions; provide equalprotection but not equal status; provide equaleducational opportunities but not equal grades.

` As Alexander Hamilton said: "Inequality would exist as

long as liberty existed.... It would unavoidably resultfrom that very liberty itself."


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` The proper role of government is to protect

equal rights, not provide equal things. The Founders recognized that the people cannot

delegate to their government the power to do anything

except that which they have the lawful right to do

themselves.

By excluding the national government from intervening in

the local affairs of the people, the Founders felt they were

protecting the unalienable rights of the people fromabuse by an over-aggressive government.


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` Men are endowed by their Creator with certain

unalienable rights. The Founders did not believe that the basic rights of mankind

originated from any social compact, king, emperor, or

governmental authority. Those rights, they believed, camedirectly and exclusively from God.

John Adams said: "All men are born free and independent,

and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights,

among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and

defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring,possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking

and obtaining their safety and happiness."


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Idea #8 Cont

"The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it,which ... teaches all mankind who will but consult it, thatbeing all equal and independent, no one ought to harmanother in his life, health, liberty or possessions; formen being all the workmanship of one omnipotent andinfinitely wise maker; all the servants of one sovereignmaster, sent into the world by His order and about Hisbusiness; they are His property.... "And, beingfurnished with like faculties, sharing all in one

community of Nature, there cannot be supposed anysuch subordination among us that may authorize us todestroy one another. John Locke


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` To protect man's rights, God has revealed certain

principles of divine law. Blackstone said it was necessary for God to disclose

these laws to man by direct revelation: "The doctrines

thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and

they are to be found only in the Holy Scriptures. These

precepts, when revealed, are found upon comparison to

be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend

in all their consequences to man's felicity."


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` An analysis of the essential elements of God's

code of divine law reveals that it is designed to

promote, preserve, and protect man's unalienable

rights.` These principles will be immediately recognized

as the famous Ten Commandments. There are

many additional laws set forth in the Bible which

clarify and define these principles


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` The God-given right to govern is vested in the

sovereign authority of the whole people. The Founders subscribed to the concept that rulers are

servants of the people and all sovereign authority to

appoint or remove a ruler rests with the people.

Alexander Hamilton declared: "The fabric of American

empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of

the people. The streams of national power ought to flow

immediately from that pure, original fountain of alllegitimate authority.


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` James Madison declared: "The adversaries of the

Constitution seem to have lost sight of the people

altogether in their reasonings on this subject; and to

have viewed these different establishments not only

as mutual rivals and enemies, but as uncontrolled by

any common superior in their efforts to usurp the

authorities of each other. These gentlemen must here

be reminded of their error. They must be told that the

ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may befound, resides in the people alone."


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` The majority of the people may alter or abolish agovernment which has become tyrannical. "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long

established should not be changed for light and transientcauses; and, accordingly, all experience has shown, thatmankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils aresufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms towhich they are accustomed. "But, when a long train of abusesand usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evincesa design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their

right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and toprovide new guards for their future security.Declaration of Independence


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` The United States of America shall be a republic. This principle is highlighted in the pledge of allegiance

when it says:

I pledge allegiance to the flag

Of the United States of America

And to the Republic

For which it [the flag] stands....


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James Madison A Contrast

` Democracy spectacles of turbulence and

contention

incompatible with personal

security or the rights ofproperty

short in their lives as they

have been violent in their

deaths

` Republic a government in which the

scheme of representation

takes place

promises the cure for whichwe are seeking

extended over a large

region


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` A constitution should be structured to permanently

protect the people from the human frailties of their

rulers.

At the Constitutional Convention, the Founding Fatherswere concerned with the one tantalizing question which

no political scientist in any age had yet been able to

answer with complete satisfaction. The question was,

"How can you have an efficient government but still

protect the freedom and unalienable rights of thepeople?"


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` Life and liberty are secure only so long as the

right to property is secure. John Locke pointed out that the human family originally

received the planet earth as a common gift and that

mankind was given the capacity and responsibility to

improve it. Said he:

"God, who hath given the world to men in common, hath

also given them reason to make use of it to the best

advantage of life and convenience."


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` The highest level of prosperity occurs when

there is a free-market economy and a minimum

of government regulations. Four Laws of Economic Freedom

x 1. The Freedom to try.

x 2. The Freedom to buy.

x 3. The Freedom to sell.

x 4. The Freedom to fail.


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` 1. Illegal Force in the market place to compel

purchase or sale of products.

` 2. Fraud in misrepresenting the quality, location, or

ownership of the item being sold or bought.

` 3. Monopoly which eliminates competition and results

in restraint of trade.

` 4. Debauchery of the cultural standards and moral

fiber of society by commercial exploitation of vice --

pornography, obscenity, drugs, liquor, prostitution, orcommercial gambling.


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` "If the American people ever allow the banks to

control the issuance of their currency, first by

inflation and then by deflation, the banks and

corporations that will grow up around them willdeprive the people of all property until their

children will wake up homeless on the continent

their fathers occupied. The issuing power of

money should be taken from the banks and

restored to Congress and the people to whom it

belongs. Jefferson


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` There are four major schools of economic thought

today. An understanding of these four schools of

thought is necessary for an understanding of

economics.` Marxist

` Keynesian

` Monetarist

` Austrian From The Concise Guide To Economics by Jim Cox.

http://www.conciseguidetoeconomics.com


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` Based on the writings of Karl Marx and FriedrichEngels, who wrote in the mid to late 1800's.

` Marxist thought is based on economicdeterminism wherein societies go through the

developmental stages of primitivecommunism, slave systems, feudalism, capitalism,socialism and finally communism.

` Each includes a class struggle which leads

inevitably to the next stage of societaldevelopment.


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` Named for the writings of John Maynard Keynes,particularly his 1936 book The General Theory.

` Keynesians call for government to manage totaldemand--too little demand leads to unemployment

while too much demand leads to inflation. Thus adichotomy was established in theory: either theproblem of inflation would attend or the problem ofunemployment, but never both simultaneously.


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` Keynes viewed the free market as generating

either too much or too little demand, inherently.

Thus the need (ever so conveniently for the job

prospects of Keynesian economists!) for demandmanagement by government informed by the

wisdom of the Keynesians.


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` Best represented by Milton Friedman and hisfollowers who retained the Keynesian "macro"approach.

` While viewing the economy in this mannerMonetarists lay the emphasis not on spending somuch as on the total supply of money--thus the nameMonetarist.

` In other than the macro economic issues--inflation,unemployment and the ups and downs of the businesscycle--Monetarists tend to take the individual actor as

the basis of their economic reasoning in areas such asregulation, function of prices, advertising, internationaltrade, etc.


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` Begun by Carl Menger in the late 1800's and was

ultimately developed to its fullest by Ludwig von

Mises--both of Austria.

`

Developed a body of thought with a consciousemphasis on the acting individual as the ultimate

basis for making sense of all economic issues.

Along with this individualist emphasis is a

subjectivist view of value and an orientation thatall action is inherently future-oriented.


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` The government should be separated into

three branches -- legislative, executive, and

judicial. "Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not

separated from the legislative and executive. Were it

joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the

subject would be exposed to arbitrary control, for the

judge would then be the legislator. Were it joined to the

executive power, the judge might behave with violenceand oppression.

Montesquieu


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` A system of checks and balances should be

adopted to prevent the abuse of power.

James Madison - "The accumulation of all powers,

legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands,

whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary,

self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the

very definition of tyranny.


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` Each department of government has the

responsibility to rise up and protect its

prerogatives by exercising the checks and

balances which have been provided. At the same

time, the people have the responsibility to keep a

closer watch on their representatives and elect

only those who will function within Constitutional

boundaries.


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` Checks and Balances 1. The House of Representatives serves as a check on

the Senate since no statute can become law without the

approval of the House.

2. At the same time the Senate (representing thelegislatures of the states before the 17th Amendment)

serves as a check on the House of Representatives since

no statute can become law without its approval.

3. A President can restrain both the House and the

Senate by using his veto to send back any bill not

meeting with his approval.


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` Checks and Balances cont. 4. The Congress has, on the other hand, a check on the

President by being able to pass a bill over the President's

veto with a two-thirds majority of each house.

5. The legislature also has a further check on thePresident through its power of discrimination in

appropriating funds for the operation of the executive

branch.

6. The President must have the approval of the Senate in

filling important offices of the executive branch.


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` Checks and Balances cont. 7. The President must also have the approval of the

Senate before any treaties with foreign nations can go

into effect.

8. The Congress has the authority to conductinvestigations of the executive branch to determine

whether or not funds are being properly expended and

the laws enforced.

9. The President has a certain amount of political

influence on the legislature by letting it be known that he

will not support the reelection of those who oppose his

program.


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` Checks and Balances cont.

10. The executive branch also has a further check on the

Congress by using its discretionary powers in establishing

military bases, building dams, improving navigable rivers, and

building interstate highways so as to favor those areas fromwhich the President feels he is getting support by their

representatives.

11. The judiciary has a check on the legislature through its

authority to review all laws and determine their

constitutionality. 12. The Congress, on the other hand, has a restraining power

over the judiciary by having the constitutional authority to

restrict the extent of its jurisdiction.


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` Checks and Balances cont. 13. The Congress also has the power to impeach any of

the judges who are guilty of treason, high crimes, or

misdemeanors.

14. The President also has a check on the judiciary byhaving the power to nominate new judges subject to the

approval of the Senate.

15. The Congress has further restraining power over the

judiciary by having the control of appropriations for the

operation of the federal court system.


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` Checks and Balances cont. 16. The Congress is able to initiate amendments to the

Constitution which, if approved by three-fourths of the

states, could seriously affect the operation of both the

executive and judicial branches. 17. The Congress, by joint resolution, can terminate

certain powers granted to the President (such as war

powers) without his consent.

18. The people have a check on their Congressmen

every two years; on their President every four years; and

on their Senators every six years.


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` The unalienable rights of the people are most likely tobe preserved if the principles of government are setforth in a written constitution. The first written charter in America was in 1620, when theMayflower Compact came into being. Later the charter conceptevolved into a more comprehensive type of constitution whenThomas Hooker and his associates adopted the FundamentalOrders of Connecticut in 1639. It is interesting that theConnecticut charter makes no reference to the Crown or theBritish Government as the source of its authority. It is a

compact of"We, the people.

"


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` Only limited and carefully defined powers should

be delegated to government, all others being

retained in the people. No principle was emphasized more vigorously during the

Constitutional Convention than the necessity of limiting

the authority of the federal government. Not only was this

to be done by carefully defining the powers delegated to

the government, but the Founders were determined to

bind down its administrators with legal chains codified inthe Constitution.


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` Efficiency and dispatch require government tooperate according to the will of the majority, butconstitutional provisions must be made to protectthe rights of the minority. Thomas Jefferson referred to this in his first inaugural

address on March 4, 1801, when he said: "All, too, willbear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will ofthe majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightfulmust be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal

rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violatewould be oppression."


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` It is the responsibility of the minorities themselvesto learn the language, seek needed education,become self sustaining, and make themselvesrecognized as a genuine asset to the community.

Meanwhile, those who are already wellestablished can help. The United States has builta reputation of being more generous and helpful tonewcomers than any other nation. It is areputation worth preserving. Once upon a time, wewere all minorities.


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` Strong local self-government is the keystone to

preserving human freedom. Political power automatically gravitates toward the

center, and the purpose of the Constitution is to prevent

that from happening. The centralization of political poweralways destroys liberty by removing the decision-making

function from the people on the local level and

transferring it to the officers of the central government.


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` James Madison - "The powers delegated by theproposed Constitution to the federal government arefew and defined. Those which are to remain in theState governments are numerous and indefinite. The

former [federal powers] will be exercised principally onexternal objects, as war, peace, negotiation, andforeign commerce.... The powers reserved to theseveral States will extend to all the objects which, inthe ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives,

liberties, and properties of the people, and the internalorder, improvement, and prosperity of the State."


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` A Prophecy "If the day should ever arrive (which God forbid!) when

the people of the different parts of our country shall allowtheir local affairs to be administered by prefects sent fromWashington, and when the self government of the statesshall have been so far lost as that of the departments ofFrance, or even so closely limited as that of the countiesof England -- on that day the political career of theAmerican people will have been robbed of its mostinteresting and valuable features, and the usefulness of

this nation will be lamentably impaired. John Fiske


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` A free people should be governed by law and notby the whims of men. To be governed by the whims of men is to be subject to

the ever-changing capriciousness of those in power. This

is ruler's law at its worst. In such a society nothing isdependable. No rights are secure. Things established inthe present are in a constant state of flux. Nothingbecomes fixed and predictable for the future.

"No man will contend that a nation can be free that is notgoverned by fixed laws. All other government than that ofpermanent known laws is the government of mere willand pleasure. - Adams


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` A free society cannot survive as a republic withouta broad program of general education. Clear back in 1647 the legislature ofMassachusetts

passed a law requiring every community of 50 families

[page 250] or householders to set up a free publicgrammar school to teach the fundamentals of reading,writing, ciphering, history, geography, and Bible study. Inaddition, every township containing 100 families or morewas required to set up a secondary school in advancedstudies to prepare boys for attendance at Harvard.


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` Liberty cannot be preserved without a general

knowledge among the people.... They have a

right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible,

divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind

of knowledge -- I mean, of the characters and

conduct of their rulers. John Adams


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` By 1831, when Alexis de Tocqueville of France visitedthe United States, he was amazed by the fruits of thiseffort. He wrote: "In New England every citizenreceives the elementary notions of human knowledge;

he is taught, moreover, the doctrines and theevidences of his religion, the history of his country,and the leading features of its Constitution. In thestates of Connecticut and Massachusetts, it isextremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted

with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant ofthem is a sort of phenomenon."


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` A textbook for children It was called a "Catechism on the Constitution," and it

contained both questions and answers concerning the

principles of the American political system. It was written

by Arthur J. Stansbury and published in 1828.


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` A free people will not survive unless they stay strong. "Our security lies, I think, in our growing strength, both in

numbers and wealth; that creates an increasing ability ofassisting this nation in its wars, which will make us morerespectable, our friendship more valued, and our enmityfeared; thence it will soon be thought proper to treat us notwith justice only, but with kindness, and thence we may expectin a few years a total change of measures with regard to us;unless, by a neglect of military discipline, we should lose allmartial spirit, and our western people become as tame asthose in the eastern dominions of Britain [India], when we mayexpect the same oppressions; for there is much truth in the

Italian saying,"M

ake yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eatyou. Benjamin Franklin


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` "To be prepared for war is one of the most

effectual means of preserving peace.

` "A free people ought not only to be armed, but

disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite.

` "And their safety and interest require that they

should promote such manufactories as tend to

render them independent of others for essentials,particularly military supplies.

- George Washington


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` "It is the greatest absurdity to suppose it [would be] in thepower of one, or any number of men, at the entering intosociety, to renounce their essential natural rights, or themeans of preserving those rights; when the grand end ofcivil government, from the very nature of its institution, is forthe support, protection, and defense of those very rights;the principal of which ... are life, liberty, and property. Ifmen, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in termsrenounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternallaw of reason and the grand end of society wouldabsolutely vacate such renunciation. The right to freedombeing the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of manto alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave. Samuel Adams


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` "It is the business of America to take care of

herself; her situation, as you justly observe,

depends upon her own virtue. Samuel Adams


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` "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all

nations -- entangling alliances with none. "Friendship with all ... alliances with none." -- Thomas

Jefferson These are the words of Thomas Jefferson,

given in his first inaugural address.


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` As the United States emerged on the world scene inthe eighteenth century, American leaders took a unitedand fixed position against entangling alliances withany foreign powers unless an attack against the

United States made such alliances temporarilynecessary. This was the Founders' doctrine of"separatism." This was far different from the modernterm of"isolationism." The latter term implies acomplete seclusion from other nations, as though the

United States were to be detached and somehowincubated in isolation from other nations.


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` The core unit which determines the strength of anysociety is the family; therefore, the governmentshould foster and protect its integrity. The American Founders felt that the legal, moral, and social

relationships between husband and wife were clearlyestablished by Bible law.

In theory, God's law made man first in governing his family,but as between himself and his wife he was merely first amongequals. The Apostle Paul pointed out in his epistle to theCorinthians: Neither is the man without the woman, neither

the woman without the man, in the Lord. (1

Corinthians11

:11

.)


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` It will be appreciated that the strength and

stability of the family is of such vital importance to

the culture that any action by the government to

debilitate or cause dislocation in the normal

trilateral structure of the family becomes, not

merely a threat to the family involved, but a

menace to the very foundations of society itself.


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` The burden of debt is as destructive to freedom

as subjugation by conquest. "Think what you do when you run in debt; you give to

another the power over your liberty." -- Benjamin

Franklin Slavery or involuntary servitude is the result of either

subjugation by conquest or succumbing to the bondage

of debt.


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` The United States has a manifest destiny to be an

example and a blessing to the entire human race. "I always consider the settlement of America with

reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene

and design in Providence for the illumination of theignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of

mankind all over the earth." - John Adams


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` "With equal pleasure I have often taken notice that

Providence has been pleased to give this one

connected country to one united people -- a people

descended from the same ancestors, speaking the

same language, professing the same religion,attached to the same principles of government, very

similar in their manners and customs, and who, by

their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by

side throughout a long and bloody war, have noblyestablished their general liberty and independence.

John Jay


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` "This country and this people seem to have been

made for each other, and it appears as if it was the

design of Providence that an inheritance so proper

and convenient for a band of brethren, united to

each other by the strongest ties, should never be

split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien

sovereignties. John Jay

The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World

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