5,000 Year Leap

Glenn Beck promotes a book called The Five Thousand Year Leap. It contains "28 Ideas that Changed the World." Since I've already been Banned by Beck for digging deeper than the principles of his "9-12 Project," I might as well incur further wrath for digging deeper than the "5,000 Year Leap." Especially since I admit I haven't even read the book. Don't even own it.

Here are the 28 principles, with comments and links to my campaign website:

1. The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is natural law.

I have explored the meaning of the phrase "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" on my website. It means the Bible. It does not mean that we look at "nature" and see that lions eat gazelles, and conclude that therefore Democrats should tax the rich. In this sense, "natural law" is a myth. The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is God's Law, or "Theonomy," rather than autonomy.

America's "Organic Law" declares that "religion, morality, and knowledge" are "necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind." "Religion" means revelation from God. It is not "natural," but supernatural.

2. A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.

This is correct, provided that "virtue" and "morality" are defined by the Bible.

3. The most promising method of securing a virtuous and a morally stable people is to elect virtuous leaders.

I agree that electing virtuous leaders is better than electing leaders without virtue. But this principle is wrong-headed. Education is more important than leaders. Bad education will produce voters who elect bad leaders. You can have a prosperous society without leaders, not but without parents who take control of their children's education and make every child a leader in the life of someone else in society. Not a leader by control, but a leader by influence. Compare #26.

4. Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.

True, but true only for the true religion, not true for any false religion. A false religion, like the religion of Secular Humanism, leaves people in darkness, not freedom.

5. All things were created by God, therefore upon him all mankind are equally dependent and to him they are equally responsible.

True.

6. All men are created equal.

True.

7. The proper role of government is to provide equal rights, not equal things.

True.

8. Men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.

OK. I prefer speaking of duties rather than rights. [And is it "Unalienable or Inalienable?"]

9. To protect man's rights, God has revealed certain principles of divine law.

The second part is true. But it's not as though God is somehow obligated to protect man's rights; that man backed God into a corner through collective bargaining, and won a concession of "divine law" to protect his rights. See the link on "duties" above.

10. The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.

"Governing" others is not a God-given right. It is historically true, however, that "the consent of the governed" is a concept that was derived from the Bible.

11. The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.

True, but not through violence.

Why may not a minority abolish a tyrannical government if the majority are apathetic and don't object?

12. The United States of America shall be a republic.

Well, at least not a democracy.

13. A constitution should be structured to permanently protect the people from the human frailties of their rulers.

Not "frailties," but depravity. Things like the desire to rule over others, the desire to take vengeance, the desire to get something for nothing, the desire to punish the rich. Not "frail" people, but evil sociopaths. The Constitution was not designed to empower the frail, but to bind down as with chains those who would be as gods.

14. Life and liberty is secure so long as the right to property is secure.

True.

15. The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free market economy and minimum of government regulations.

True, true and true. Even people who maximize government rather than minimizing it like to quote Thoreau, "That government is best which governs least," without reading further: "Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe—'That government is best which governs not at all'; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which the will have."

16. The government should be separated into three branches—legislative, executive and judicial.

God's government is separated into "three branches":

Isaiah 33:22
For the LORD is our judge,
the LORD is our lawgiver,
the LORD is our king;
it is He who will save us.

Do we need to create an earthly government when we already have God's government?

17. A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power.

The problem is not the abuse of power, but the power to abuse. Human government is the power to abuse.

18. The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written constitution.

Likely, but obviously not infallibly, as our own written constitution has failed to preserve our rights.

19. Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to the government, all others being retained by the people.

True. I am the only candidate in this race who believes in the concept of strictly enumerated powers and the 10th Amendment.

20. Efficiency and dispatch require government to operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.

Sounds good. Has it ever happened in the history of human government? Does the minority get to withhold taxes for government programs it didn't vote for?

21. Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.

True.

22. A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of man.

True. But if the majority votes to tax the minority, is this not "whim," even if it is enacted "according to law."

23. A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.

False. A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad spectrum of competing educational choices available to the public. We must affirm "the separation of school and state."

24. A free people will not survive unless they remain strong.

"Strong" morally? "Strong" enough to obliterate tens of millions of innocent non-combatant civilians?

25. Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations—entangling alliances with none.

True, and utterly neglected by the Bush-Obama regime.

26. The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore, the government should foster and protect its integrity.

The first part is true, but given #19 above, what does "foster" mean? Should the government tax families to fund some cockamamie federal program to "promote stronger families?" I wonder how many government programs claim to "strengthen families" in some way.

27. The burden of debt is as destructive to freedom as subjugation by conquest.

Good point. A 3,000 year-old idea.

28. The United States has a manifest destiny to be an example and a blessing to the entire human race.

I don't know this to be a fact. The U.S. may have a "manifest destiny" to be an example to the world of how a once-Christian nation is utterly destroyed for repudiating that heritage.

I pulled the summary of these 28 points from Wikipedia, as well as these references:

W. Cleon Skousen - The Man Behind Glenn Beck By Bill McKeever. Mormonism Research Ministry

Meet the Man who Changed Glenn Beck's Life. Zaitchik, Alexander (2009-09-16). Salon Magazine, September 16, 2009.

Five Thousand Year Leap

Glenn Beck Re-Energizes the Conservative Movement by Mark Skousen 19 March 2009. Human Events

Excerpts from The Five Thousand Year Leap – The New Yorker