Freakin' awesome...

Mellowing out with Monty

Since Montesquieu has been less contentious, I'll post another smattering of his writings before returning to Paine and almost certain disagreement over his thoughts on 'natural rights'.

From Montesquieu, Book 3: 'Of the principles of the three kinds of government'

This statement needs some context. He is trying to explain what holds up a government (what he calls 'springs'), based on each type of government. Here, he is contrasting democracy with monarchy and despotism by highlighting it's most significant difference:

But in a popular state (republican), one spring more is necessary, namely, virtue.

Other statements:

When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community.

As virtue is necessary in a republic, and in a monarchy honor, so fear is necessary in a despotic government...

Fear must therefore depress their spirits, and extinguish even the least sense of ambition.

Montesquieu's observations about the requirement of 'virtue' (I think what we would now call character) for a successful republic are based on studies of Greek and Roman systems, which both eventually failed. This is very consistent with the thinking of a least some of the Founders:

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other. Letter to the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts (1798-10-11)

If Montesquieu and Adams are correct, then the most fundamental civic duty that anyone has is to both practice and to teach virtue/morals/character. As Christians, this is already part of our core mission, a.k.a. the great comission,; so Christians ought to be the most desirable of all citizens!

On the note of fear, both under Barry and under W, we have been constantly bombarded with messages of fear. Fear the terrorists, fear global warming, fear pandemics, fear economic collapse. It's not difficult to see that this is nothing but power grabbing by the Federal government. As noted by Monty, that type of leadership is a trademark of despotic rulership.

Thomas Paine

Finally! My wife found the missing book tonight, so now I can post some of Thomas Paine's quotes from The Rights Of Man... that is, in between the crippling coughs...

Paine wrote this book largely in response to another work, Reflections On The Revolution In France by Edmund Burke. They are typically published as a single piece. Burke takes an ill view of the Frog's revolution while Paine ardently defends it. My own, very stunted, understanding of the French revolution has left me with the impression that it was a victory of unhalted humanism. It has been a great surprise to find out the details of this and to see it in an entirely new light.

Since this quote is a bit longer, I'll just post this one for the day:

It was not against Louis XVI, but against the despotic principles of the government, that the nation revolted. These principles had not their origin in him, but in the original establishment, many centuries back; and they were become too deeply rooted to be removed, and the Augean stable of parasites and plunderers too abominably filthy to be cleansed, by anything short of a complete and universal revolution.
When it becomes necessary to do a thing, the whole heart and soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it. That crisis was then arrived, and there remained no choice but to act with determined vigor, or not to act at all.

This one stuck out to me because he's basically saying the government was so broken, it was beyond repair and revolution was the only recourse. That gave me pause to consider our own circumstance! Have the parasites and plunderers so infected Washington that it is ill beyond all healing, or is it simply the most daunting task ever faced by our nation?

Bathroom update

Just over a year ago I took some construction shots, so this is an anniversary update.

before	after

And here's an extra shot of some of the laborious tile work next to the faucet.

Laws derived from the nature of government

From The Spirit Of Laws, Book 2

...indeed it is important to regulate in a republic, in what manner, by whom, to whom, and concerning what suffrages are to be given...

(a quote from Declam, 17 and18) Libanius says that at "Athens a stranger who intermeddled in the assemblies of the people was punished with death."

The constitutions of Rome and Athens were excellent- the decress of the senate had the force of laws for the space of a year, but did not become perpetual till they were ratified by the consent of the people.

...but in a republic, where a private citizen has obtained an exorbitant power, the abuse of this power is much greater, because the laws foresaw it not, and consequently made no provision against it.

But the most imperfect of all (types of aristocracies) is that in which the part of the people that obeys is in a state of civil servitude to those who command, as the artistocracy of Poland, where the peasants are slaves to the nobility.

The notion of interfering with domestic politics being a capital offense is rather novel. Surely with China and Arab nations, practical enemies to our way of life, owning so much of our national debt, we are at great risk to rule ourselves. We ought to at least cast off foreign debt!

I especially am fond of the idea that all laws ought to have a short expiration date, unless they are approved by the people. This brings them under constant review and keeps the policians busy digging holes and filling them up again. The actual idea behind this was to allow for a 'proving time' for laws, which is something we lack. They are hardly ever repealed, and then only with great effort. Gridlock is good.

Bike Repainting

My youngest daughter, codenamed 'Boo' for inet anonymity, received a hand-me-down bike last year. In order to coax her into ditching the training wheels, I promised her that if she learned to ride without those that we could repaint her bike. There are several other repainting projects that I'd like to do someday as well and I definitely would like to learn how to apply a glassy finish to objects, so this is a great way to get into all that.

Also, my last post probably had too many words and was conceptually challenging for some of my audience, so this post will be much much easier to understand (I'm thinkin' of you, Unabashed! ;-)

Mmmkay, here's the "before" shot:

A pretty, pink Disney princess bike. Boo says she doesn't care for all the princess crap and, while she likes pink, it's not her fav. She has selected a lovely purple sort of color called French Lilac (#796878 in 'man-speak').

The first step is to strip off the old point. We are using wire disks and cups in a high speed drill. It's taking off the stickers and paint in one fell swoop:

How cute- A father couldn't be more proud! She did quite a bit of the stripping, too. I figured she'd get bored with it but really I'd have to take the darn thing from her to use it myself. We got most of it stripped off tonight but not all. I need to get a chain tool to pop that off as well and will likely need some dremel attachments to get some of the hard to reach spots.

Gleanings from Montesquieu

The copy of Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man in which I had made my notes has been misplaced, so my intentions to post some highlights from that book will have to wait until it turns up. In the meanwhile, I have undertaken to read The spirit of laws by Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu. This writing was very influential for our founding fathers and is most often credited for instructing them on the separation of powers, which is critical to the structure of our government. The book itself is a comparative study between the nature and laws of the three (as he identified them) types of government: republics, monarchies and despotisms.

All of these are from the first book, which deals with the origin and nature of laws.

...even most of them (brutes, animals) are more attentive than we to self-preservation, and do not make so bad a use of their passions.

Such a being (man) might every instant forget his Creator; God has therefore reminded him of his duty by the laws of religion. Such a being is liable every moment to forget himself; philosophy has provided against this by the laws of morality. Formed to live in society, he might forget his fellow-creatures; legislators have, therefore, by political and civil laws, confined him to his duty.

As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.

The strength of individuals cannot be united without a conjunction of all their wills.