‘Veritas’ is the Latin word for ‘truth’ and is also the name of a Roman goddess who represents truthfulness and virtue. One individual well known for having his name associated with this word is James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas.
His expressed experience after having been ‘fired’ from his own organization reflects certain principles in common with politics, as recently illustrated by seemingly unrelated accounts of life in North Korea today and life during the fall of the Roman Empire.
In speaking truth to freedom, all of these accounts cite the reality that truth itself – veritas – is a key value and virtue upon which any free society depends. Is it any wonder then that unfree collectivist societies and globalists fear the truth more than almost anything else on the planet?
The eternal fundamental political struggle represented by the political polarities of Left and Right is that between collectivism and individualism. To the degree that a society is collectivist, its citizens have less freedom and less prosperity. To the degree that a society is individualist, both freedom and prosperity are the result.
Yet despite the ‘lessons of history’ and publicized current events presenting horrific evidence against collectivist ideologies, the popularity of ‘socialism’ is nevertheless gaining traction among many. For example, the Democratic Socialists of America have claimed that they “are committed to transforming our society into one based on collective ownership” under the delusionary belief that this will bring “freedom, equality, and solidarity” to society.
But the flaw in this plan is that there simply is no such thing as ‘collective’ ownership. As Isabel Paterson, author of The God of the Machine warned in 1943, “Group ownership as the norm of property requires the denial of liberty to persons.” (Which is exactly why those on the Left support it.)
Ownership and property are ‘private’ concepts, and cannot be applied to any collectives. ‘Public’ property is a fiction that is easily exposed in any attempt to exercise it. Worse, the word ‘public’ in this context invariably means ‘government’ and the state. ‘Public education’ is a euphemism for ‘state education,’ just as ‘public health care’ is a euphemism for a state monopoly in healthcare. Indeed, socialism and communism alike have been defined as ‘state ownership and control of the means of production.’
We are living at a time when the Left is calling for both ‘collective ownership’ and for a society in which ‘we will own nothing and be happy.’ Ironically, a society in which we own nothing is a perfect description of a society based on ‘collective’ ownership. They’re one and the same thing.
Like property and ownership, citizenship too is a private concept, given that each citizen is a private individual. And it is as individuals that each citizen has a stake in his or her society, which must be exercised responsibly. And just as there is no such thing as ‘collective’ ownership, so too there is no such thing as a ‘collective’ responsibility.
Freedom and responsibility are indivisible and only applicable to individuals.
But until the concepts of ‘public’ and ‘private’ are understood and contrasted in a way that is Just Right, the distinction between them will continue to be lost, as will the possibility of restoring or preserving a free society comprised of free citizens.
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