Season 4 Podcast 62 Self-Reliance Concept 7 Self-Reliance
Season 4 Podcast 62 Self-Reliance Concept 7 Self-Reliance
I have selected ten concepts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance. Each concept expands the virtues and variations of Self-Reliance or warns of the vices of the ways we forfeit Self Reliance:
· Concept 1: Blind Obedience
· Concept 2: False Charity
· Concept 3: Truth
· Concept 4: Faith
· Concept 5: Non-Conformist
· Concept 6: To Thine Own Self Be True
· Concept 7: Self-Reliance
· Concept 8: Character
· Concept 9: God
· Concept 10: Solitude
In this podcast we shall explore Concept Number Seven, Self-Reliance.
It is appropriate that we include in our discussion of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essay Self-Reliance an episode containing the main title. Inherent in democracy is the principle of self-reliance. Inherent in Socialism and Communism is the principle of slavery and subjugation. The totalitarian state controls its citizens by keeping them in permanent bondage, oppressed by fear that they cannot make it in the world alone. The leaders of all totalitarian states operate on the premise that they know better than you do what is best for you. As Emerson said,
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.
The greatest drive on earth is the drive of man to have power over others. Selfishness is the primary source of evil. The noblest goal of man is to have power over himself. Only then can he Love the Lord with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. Godlike love is the primary source of good. The natural man is the primary source of evil. Agency requires that we have a choice between good and evil. Christ is the author of all good. Satan is the author of all evil. For agency to exist it is necessary that we be enticed by both Christ and Satan, thus giving us a choice. Evil always leads to bondage and captivity. Good always leads to freedom and liberty. Freewill is possible only because of the existence of absolute law. Obedience to law gives us freewill. Disobedience to law leads to captivity. Obedience to temporal law gives us freedom. Obedience to spiritual law gives us agency. Only when manmade laws are in harmony with the laws of God do we have liberty. A democratic republic can only survive when the majority of its citizens voluntarily obey the commandments of God.
One of the primary virtues necessary for a democratic republic such as the United States of America, which is based on a Constitution, Bill of Rights, free elections, perfect balance of power, voice of the people, belief in God, belief in absolutes, and a belief in equality, is self-reliance. As government increases in power, the power of the individual decreases. As laws of government increase, freedom decreases.
The following are the ten primary signs of a decaying democracy:
1. Rise of Atheism
2. Rise of Tribalism
3. Rise of Hedonism or moral relativity
4. Rise of Socialism, Communism, or Totalitarianism
5. Decline of Freedom of Speech
6. Decline of Freedom of the Press
7. Decline of Freedom of Religion
8. Decline of States Rights
9. Decline of Balance of Power
10. Decline of Self Reliance
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