D-Day and Enlightenment Values


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D-Day and Enlightenment Values

By Edward Hudgins

June 6, 2014 – My late Uncle “Boots” Van Pelt was almost killed 70 years ago. He went ashore on Omaha Beach with the 29th Infantry Division on D-Day. After the initial troop landings, he was found and thought dead, but he roused as they were putting him into a body bag.

He got to Paris with the American forces and was later wounded at the Battle of the Bulge.

On the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, we reflect on the heroism of those who fought to liberate Europe. But we should also consider why the conflagration of World War II occurred and why Europe found itself in need of liberation to begin with.

Rise of Enlightenment

We need to start with history. Europe’s civilization at its best flourished because of the ideas and values manifest in its culture and institutions. Its philosophical culmination was the Enlightenment.

Enlightenment philosophy acknowledged the power of human reason to understand the world and to transform it in order to make life on earth for human beings better. It recognized that individuals are ends in themselves, with their own happiness as their legitimate goal. And it accepted that individuals have the right to live their lives as they will, dealing with others based on mutual consent, with the implication that the purpose of government is to secure those rights.

This philosophy, which transcended national borders, helped transform Europe, but only imperfectly and incompletely; that philosophy was best manifest in Europe’s stellar child, the United States.

Casus belli

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the European countries and peoples were still very nationalistic and tribal, not simply celebrating their own cultures but denigrating others. The interlocking treaty system that European nation-states set up almost ensured the outbreak of a major war.

The appalling 20 million battlefield deaths of World War I did not give leaders, citizens, and subjects of European governments the wisdom to prevent another war. The defeated Germans, for example, resented the crippling reparations with which they were burdened. They were incensed by the requirement of the victors that they sign a “War Guilt” clause acknowledging that they were solely responsible for World War I. While they were a principal cause of the war, the victors and the treaty system deserved censure as well.

Hitler is the single individual who deserves the most blame for World War II, though we should never forget the role Stalin and the expansionist Japanese government played as well. But more fundamentally, fascism and communism both arose because of an eclipse of the Enlightenment principles. Fascism and communism held the group—the “race” and the “proletariat” respectively—as superior to the individual. They rejected reason as a guide to life in favor of a mindless, emotional obedience to authority. And they accepted force as the way for individuals and nations to deal with one another.

Add to that a value malaise in France, England, and elsewhere and the stage was set for war and repression.

A new heroism

World War II resulted in over 60 million dead. And at least in its wake, the countries of Western Europe have overcome many historical animosities and avoided launching a World War III. With the help of America, Europe avoided coming under the yoke of the surviving collectivist tyranny, the Soviet Union, which finally collapsed under its own contradictions.

But Europe and the West today have not recovered the Enlightenment principles that they need to flourish. The welfare state and Euro-socialism are forms of collectivism that, though ostensibly kinder and gentler, are today going through their own version of the collapse that occurred in the East Bloc 25 years ago.

The soldiers like my Uncle Boots who landed in Normandy 70 years ago to help liberate Europe were true heroes. Today we need a new heroism, the courage to stand up for the Enlightenment principles that are necessary to make sure that the horrors of tyranny and world war never plague the planet again.
----
Hudgins is director of advocacy and a senior scholar at The Atlas Society.

For further information:

*William R Thomas, “Crimea – Russian Nationalist Imperialism.” March 19, 2014.

*William Thomas, “War: And Objectivist View.

*Edward Hudgins, “The Need for a New Individualism.” January 2005.

*David Kelley, “The Party of Modernity.” November 2003.

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The link to David Kelley's 'Party of Modernity' caught my eye.

It was obvious to virtually everyone that the World Trade Center was targeted because it represented freedom, secularism, tolerance, innovation, commercial enterprise, and the pursuit of happiness in this life.

Nuts. They attacked Cantor Fitzgerald.

In today's column, Ed makes the shocking assertion that "Hitler is the single individual who deserves the most blame for World War II" -- not unlike blaming Osama bin Ladin for U.S. recognition, finance and defense of Israel since 1948, stationing U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and our 2003 invasion and conquest of Iraq. We're totally innocent and Bin Ladin (like Hitler) was an evil svengali, huh?

The Hegelian notion of a "world historical individual" is silly, compared to cross-party political consensus of Congress; or the pre-war British parliament that appeased and enabled Nazi Germany; or the U.S.-backed mujāhidūn (“those who engage in jihad”) who gallantly won control of Afghanistan in 1989 and sheltered Bin Ladin.

I don't mind that history is written by the victors, but the victors look pretty stupid for electing and reelecting Barack Hussein Obama.

D-Day's "Greatest Generation" was worse. They elected and reelected FDR four times.

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On the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, we reflect on the heroism of those who fought to liberate Europe.

Why do alleged Objectivists continue writing such drivel about WWII? They evade what really happened and even Ayn Rand's own extensive writing on U.S. entry into that war.

I've linked to "Ayn Rand on WWII" many times, but for new members there it is again.

See also what U.S. entry allowed Stalin to do -- which is one reason Rand refused to vote for Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956.

Mark

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Seventy years!!! My goodness, how time flies!!!

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Remembering D-Day in 18 Photos

Kelsey Harris / @KelsRenHar /

2014-06-05-DDayPhotos-Harris.jpg

American troops landing on Slapton Sands in England during rehearsals for the invasion of Normandy. (Photo: Library of Congress/Wikimedia)

Seventy years ago, U.S.-led western allies invaded Normandy in an effort to liberate Europeans from Nazi power during World War II. June 6, 1944 ultimately brought down Nazi Germany. We remember those who fought for freedom today.

ddaymemorial.jpg

American veterans salute during a joint French-US D-Day commemoration ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-mer, Normandy, on June 6, 2014, marking the 70th anniversary of the World War II Allied landings in Normandy. (Photo: AFP PHOTO/DAMIEN MEYER)

968px-Negro_assault_troops_await_orders_

http://dailysignal.com/2014/06/06/remembering-d-day-20-photos/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_content=DD140606&utm_campaign=dailydigest

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The world is dying from welfare statism.

Not dying, unfortunately but suffering from.

Injustice is the steady state condition of mankind, historically speaking.

Every now and again, justice and reason break out, but it does not last.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Injustice is the steady state condition of mankind, historically speaking.

Every now and again, justice and reason break out, but it does not last.

Once liberty and justice are established for real -- based on the childishly-obvious non-initiation of force principle -- it will last. Forever. Mankind won't be intellectually or morally perfect then; but the governmental and legal system will be. Politics will be a problem solved, never to trouble us again.

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Injustice is the steady state condition of mankind, historically speaking.

Every now and again, justice and reason break out, but it does not last.

Once liberty and justice are established for real -- based on the childishly-obvious non-initiation of force principle -- it will last. Forever. Mankind won't be intellectually or morally perfect then; but the governmental and legal system will be. Politics will be a problem solved, never to trouble us again.

That is patently false and does not address what the founders addressed in terms of the nature of man and citizens.

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Injustice is the steady state condition of mankind, historically speaking.

Every now and again, justice and reason break out, but it does not last.

Once liberty and justice are established for real -- based on the childishly-obvious non-initiation of force principle -- it will last. Forever. Mankind won't be intellectually or morally perfect then; but the governmental and legal system will be. Politics will be a problem solved, never to trouble us again.

Houston, we have a problem. Kyrel is a naive Utopian.

--Brant

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Once liberty and justice are established for real -- based on the childishly-obvious non-initiation of force principle -- it will last. Forever. Mankind won't be intellectually or morally perfect then; but the governmental and legal system will be. Politics will be a problem solved, never to trouble us again.

Houston, we have a problem. Kyrel is a naive Utopian.

Kyrel has it 50% right. Once liberty and justice are establish for real, it will last -- but won't be based on non-initiation of force.

(psst, look at the sig line)

/

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WWII didn't have to happen even though WWI set the world up for it. There were so many reasons for these father and son calamities it's ignorance to say it was primarily philosophy. It took 100 years for the European balance of power favoring Great Britain to break down with the rise of the German state and relative decline of its Anglo power. Qua that war Britain sort of managed to re-get the upper-hand by finagling America into the war, but then America went home and Germany rose up again not beginning to be matched by the enervated increasingly socialist island nation and no balls France. Germany was slapped down twice. The first time helped just enough by the United States for France had not been defeated. The second by the United States using England as an airfield and debarkation point plus stupid Hitler and the Lend Lease fueled pissed off Soviet Russians. The Soviet Union, of course, was mostly made possible by WWI, not Karl Marx.

Philosophy is immensly valuable if you can get it into people--better hope it's a right and good philosophy--and people aren't sheeple, but the only practical way to major peace is for the major country to be majorally strong and led by rational, moral leaders, which is slightly easier, I suppose, to obtain. Don't hold your breath. There is now more likelyhood of thermonuclear warfare, even general thermonuclear warfare (GTW) since 1) the Cuban missile crises and 2) the Reagan presidency.

War is a problem built into the human DNA. It can't be said there's no glory in war because there is so much tragedy for the tragedy makes the glory possible--for the victors. They will revel in blood even if it's not on their formal dress.

Peace through strength. On June 25th I'll be at Arlington to bury my war-hero uncle. He got shot up a couple of times by the Japanese but almost made it to 96 instead of dying in 1943 in his B-17. B-29s in Korea, but he was most valuable to his country and countrymen as a navigator on B-36s out of Puerto Rico in the 1950s, each carrying a single gigantic nuclear bomb with a Soviet Union target. His mission was to fly over his father's Ukrainian birthplace and go another one or two hundred miles and drop it. That war never happened. I suppose that gave him a few of his seven air medals to go along with the Purple Hearts, Distinguished Flying Croses and Silver Star, but not one ounce of glory, though a mountain of thanks from those who knew and know what was going on.

--Brant

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Once liberty and justice are established for real -- based on the childishly-obvious non-initiation of force principle -- it will last. Forever. Mankind won't be intellectually or morally perfect then; but the governmental and legal system will be. Politics will be a problem solved, never to trouble us again.

Houston, we have a problem. Kyrel is a naive Utopian.

Kyrel has it 50% right. Once liberty and justice are establish for real, it will last -- but won't be based on non-initiation of force.

(psst, look at the sig line)

It needs to be closer to your text. I only recall reading it once before. Hint: stop hitting enter,enter,enter,enter or sign your posts so your name will be right above it drawing the lazy eye.

If I were a youngster people would call me a "whippersnaper."

--Brant

edit: opps, doesn't work for me--you might make it longer, larding on words like I did for mine

edit 2: edit your post then enable "Show 'Edit by' line"--indicates the sig. line nicely

edit 3: please drop your sig. line so I can steal it

Edited by Brant Gaede
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Philosophy is immensely[sic] valuable if you can get it into people--better hope it's a right and good philosophy--and people aren't sheeple, but the only practical way to major peace is for the major country to be majorally strong and led by rational, moral leaders, which is slightly easier, I suppose, to obtain. Don't hold your breath. There is now more likelyhood of thermonuclear warfare, even general thermonuclear warfare (GTW) since 1) the Cuban missile crises and 2) the Reagan presidency.

War is a problem built into the human DNA. It can't be said there's no glory in war because there is so much tragedy for the tragedy makes the glory possible--for the victors. They will revel in blood even if it's not on their formal dress.

Correct...here is a keeper...

THIS IS THE WAY IT IS

A...

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Once liberty and justice are established for real -- based on the childishly-obvious non-initiation of force principle -- [they] will last. Forever. Mankind won't be intellectually or morally perfect then; but the governmental and legal system will be. Politics will be a problem solved, never to trouble us again.

That is patently false and does not address what the founders addressed in terms of the nature of man and citizens.

No, it's entirely true. The Founding Fathers were grossly wrong about the nature of man and citizen, and many other political things. Especially Thomas Jefferson who supposedly said: "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." And James Madison [Federalist Papers #51] who said: "If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

But being forever agitated isn't the solution. And men's moral imperfection isn't the problem.

The answer to everything is correct political theory. This isn't "naive utopianism" at all.

For the record: No-one has a lower opinion of the mass-man than myself. I agree with Horace who said: "I loathe the ignorant masses, and I keep them away from me." But even they defer to truth if it is the truth. America's constitutional framers lacked it. Rand possessed it. Anyway, the masses don't rule -- not even in a democracy. The intellectual elite do. Once they figure out the non-initiation of force principle, that will terminate the discussion and problem. Yes, forever. Read it and weep.

Good is stronger than evil. Truth is more powerful than ignorance and lies. Humans progress. None of this is naive or utopian. It's the nature of reality.

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Houston, we have a problem. Kyrel is a naive Utopian.

--Brant

Nah. I'm a clear-eyed, hard-bitten, ultra-cynical realist. But man ascends. And I know how and why.

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Kyrel has it 50% right. Once liberty and justice are establish for real, it will last -- but won't be based on non-initiation of force.

What will it be based on?

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Houston, we have a problem. Kyrel is a naive Utopian.

--Brant

Nah. I'm a clear-eyed, hard-bitten, ultra-cynical realist. But man ascends. And I know how and why.

Well, he ascended from hunter-gatherer cave to agriculture city-state--raider to industrialized warfare. Frankly, I'm not sure what he's ascending to. Hell? I'm reading your book and I expect "how and why" to be in there.

--Brant

short term pessimist (the rest of my lifetime), intermediate term optimist (then to the end of the century), long term pessimist (the Martians are coming)

the general human homoginization of risk and disaster: As Europeans explored the world they brought disease and death to native peoples who lacked immunity and sometimes brought something nasty back to Europe; today the de facto uniformation of central banking's currency, credit, risk, policy, etc. means a setup for general world-wide economic disaster with no possible significant rescue one part to the next for rescue is what has been going on now at least since 2008 and the rescuers are all tuckered out and can't do much more with policies basically flawed from the start--policies based on avoiding political pain and maintaining political and economic power for a stupid elite pulling levers behind the curtain

the role of gravity in cultural and religious warfare: Muslims' society just bumps along, low to the ground with no creations or innovations to speak of and Jihad is merely one Muslim way of holding everyone else down by knocking everyone else down, letting gravity aid in the conquest of destruction, which is what happened on 9/11

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Kyrel has it 50% right. Once liberty and justice are establish for real, it will last -- but won't be based on non-initiation of force.

What will it be based on?

Short answer: separation of law and state.

The way to avoid the creation of a state is simply to let go of the legal profession. Attorneys are freemen, too, you know. [COGIGG, p. 55]

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the State is already separated from the law--i.e., the Constitution

U.S. Constitution created and ordained a state, gave it monopoly jurisdiction (supremacy clause), empowered Congress to make law.

It's difficult to conceive of an alternative, but an alternative is possible:

The rule of law has nothing to do with a sovereign state, except in the narrow sense that such states exist and when they comply with the rule of law they are viewed as 'legal persons' (litigants) possessed of competent legal standing to sue or be sued with the presumption of innocence, no greater or lesser in legal character than a single infant child. [COGIGG, p. 54]
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t's difficult to conceive of an alternative, but an alternative is possible:

The rule of law has nothing to do with a sovereign state, except in the narrow sense that such states exist and when they comply with the rule of law they are viewed as 'legal persons' (litigants) possessed of competent legal standing to sue or be sued with the presumption of innocence, no greater or lesser in legal character than a single infant child. [COGIGG, p. 54]

Hobbes conceived of the Sovereign as an "artificial person" in Leviathan

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Hobbes conceived of the Sovereign as an "artificial person" in Leviathan

I deal in very simple ideas. The rotten timber is a fiction, so let's blast the fictions. In reality, there are living human beings whose freedom and interest are the subject of this debate. There is no divine right of incorporation, whether as a government, or Subchapter S tax dodge, or a family trust that never dies like a natural person. I hereby propose that the law abolish all corporations. Let each parcel of land, each railroad and airline, every road and factory be the property of some individual (or partnership of individuals). Legal cases shall be A vs B, two natural persons. I don't care if embryos, animals, and plants qualify for legal standing. Fine. Whatever. But no more fictitious, disembodied, immortal “corporate persons” like the United States of America or CBS Inc. Let's get the bullshit out of the way and call some real defendants in court, to explain their guilt or innocence. [COGIGG, p. 146]

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Hobbes conceived of the Sovereign as an "artificial person" in Leviathan

I deal in very simple ideas. The rotten timber is a fiction, so let's blast the fictions. In reality, there are living human beings whose freedom and interest are the subject of this debate. There is no divine right of incorporation, whether as a government, or Subchapter S tax dodge, or a family trust that never dies like a natural person. I hereby propose that the law abolish all corporations. Let each parcel of land, each railroad and airline, every road and factory be the property of some individual (or partnership of individuals). Legal cases shall be A vs B, two natural persons. I don't care if embryos, animals, and plants qualify for legal standing. Fine. Whatever. But no more fictitious, disembodied, immortal “corporate persons” like the United States of America or CBS Inc. Let's get the bullshit out of the way and call some real defendants in court, to explain their guilt or innocence. [COGIGG, p. 146]

Laws respecting the establishment of corporations--and marriages--have no justification in libertarian or Objectivst political theory I can think of. That's why all capitalism respecting corporations is crony capitalism, almost right out of the gate.

--Brant

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Wolf, Brant:

This makes sense to me.

Count me in.

A...

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