Government is for the Purpose of Securing Our Rights to Pursue Happiness

Principle #4: Governments is Instituted for the Purpose of Securing to the Individual Their Rights

The driving political ideologies of our times are driven by the humanist philosophy of moral relativism. This is the view that "moral judgments are true or false only relative to some particular standpoint (for instance, that of a culture or a historical period) and that no standpoint is uniquely privileged over all others. It has often been associated with other claims about morality: notably, the thesis that different cultures often exhibit radically different moral values; the denial that there are universal moral values shared by every human society; and the insistence that we should refrain from passing moral judgments on beliefs and practices characteristic of cultures other than our own." (Moral Relativism)

Our Founding Fathers made extensive study of philosophy, government, civil societies and not so civil societies. Their studies and observation informed their conclusions that there are superior forms of society and government, superior because of their ability to secure and preserve human liberty and therefore provide the greater opportunity for individual progression and happiness.

John Adams said: "Nothing is more certain from the history of nations, and the nature of man, than that some forms of government are better fitted for being well administered than others.” (“Thoughts on Government,” John Adams, April 1776)

The foundations our founders laid for the security of our liberty are of the best form for securing the happiness of man that the world has ever known. The extent to which we observe our nation's institutions failing we can be sure that these failings are not derivative of the foundations laid but rather the altering of those foundations.

The good news is that we know the way to secure liberty. We need not look to some new human experiment, nor to the latest iteration of benevolent tyranny to save us. We have the better fit before us, one framed upon a sure foundation. Let us shore up the foundation and apply the appropriate renovations that our Constitutional Republic might stand once again as a light to all those who love freedom.