TEN REMARKABLE STEPS TO HUMAN LIBERTY 1. Three related developments put early limits on government. Beginning in the 11th century, people in Western Europe began to develop ways to limit the power of the state and to divide authority among different sections of society. First and foremost, the autonomy of church and state. In most societies throughout history, the government closely controlled or used religion for its own purposes. The "investiture controversy" in Europe began in the late 11th century when the Catholic Church began insisting that it, not the monarchs, ought to appoint all bishops. At the famous meeting at the castle of Canossa in Italy, German Emperor Henry IV gave in to the demands of Pope Gregory VII that government not interfere in church business. By limiting the state and breaking up power this way, an avenue was paved for the independence of the individual conscience. In America, our First Amendment codifies this right of the freedom of religion from government control. The struggle isn't over. In places like China, the government still tries to control churches, setting up "patriotic" churches loyal to the Beijing regime and forcing underground independent churches. The development of autonomous universities. Although schools for advanced study existed in some parts of the world in earlier times, in the early Middle Ages the first truly independent universities grew up separate from governments. The first true university was founded at Bologna late in the 11th century, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. "It became a widely respected school of canon and civil law. The first university to arise in northern Europe was the University of Paris, founded between 1150 and 1170." Soon, universities were sprouting up all over Europe, notably at Oxford and Cambridge in England. This precipitated a flourishing of learning, including the development of such things as eyeglasses and firearms (from gunpowder, an idea imported from China), and the beginnings of scientific inquiries. The institution of parliaments. Developing from the feudal counselors who advised the king -- and whose cooperation the king needed for major actions -- in the 13th century, parliaments grew into more representative bodies. Although their membership still included only the rich and powerful, the principle was established that people other than the king should have some control over government. This set the stage for such later beliefs as those outlined in the Declaration of Independence, that government derives its "just powers from the consent of the governed." When the founders attacked King George III "For suspending our own Legislatures...", they meant he had revoked rights to self-representation going back 500 years (or 700 years today). 2. Invention of the printing press and ... 3. the Internet. Freedom of speech is a wonderful concept, but it's of limited usefulness without the means to reach other people with one's ideas. The development of the modern printing process is credited to Gutenberg in 1452, whose idea for movable type didn't instantaneously change the world. But, accompanied by related developments in book-making, it allowed for the mass production of written materials, thereby sparking intellectual developments as well as the Protestant Reformation. More than 500 years later, the development of the Internet -- with or without the contributions of its self-described inventor, Al Gore! -- already is revolutionizing the way ideas are transmitted around the world. Previously, people were dependent on media gatekeepers to find out what's happening or to disseminate their ideas to others. Now, an abundance of information -- some accurate, some less so -- and opinions are available to anyone with a low-cost computer. And it's surprisingly inexpensive for even a novice to use e-mail or start a Web site. The changes are just starting to be felt, but this technological revolution is sure to be as meaningful in the next millennium as Gutenberg's invention was in this one. 4. The Scientific Method. Few developments of this millennium were as important to human progress and freedom as the development of the scientific method of open-ended experimentation (rather then reference to authority) designed not just to express natural phenomena in the precise language of mathematics but to test hypotheses objectively. Ideally, scientific experiments should be designed not just to prove a favorite theory but to have the potential to falsify them as well, and to be replicated by other scientists to determine if a consensus emerges from repeated experiments. Perhaps appropriately, the scientific method didn't emerge full-blown from some genius's speculations but evolved over centuries. And it was far from a sure thing that it would happen. If a few brilliant Islamic caliphs in Baghdad (who turned out to be atypical of Islamic rulers) hadn't sought out and translated Greek manuscripts, especially of Euclid and Archimedes, in the 800s, the scientific revolution in medieval and renaissance Europe might never have occurred. As it was, it still had to contend with the keepers of church dogma who saw scientific investigation as a threat to faith, and the keepers of Aristotle's legacy who viewed the great Greek philosopher as the summa not only of wisdom but of scientific knowledge. The spirit of enterprise fed the advancement of science. Commerce in the 1400s led to treatises on geography, accounting and weights and measures. The horse saddle, horseshoe, wheelbarrow, water mill, windmill, paved streets and eyglasses were all developed before the 15th century. Newly wealthy burghers patronized not only artists but scientists, especially Cosimo de Medici in 15th-century Florence. The rediscovery of Greek scientific treatises in the 12th Century, coinciding with the age of geographical exploration and discovery, was of great importance. A passage from Archimedes led Copernicus to the theory of a heliocentric universe. Archimedes also taught Leonardo, Benedetti and Galileo to use mathematics in their study of nature. The Greeks also influenced Robert Grossteste and Roger Bacon at Oxford. Perhaps most influential was Galileo's "Dialogue on Two Chief Systems of the World," which presented Copernicus and Ptolemy's astronomical observations as hypotheses. The church banned the book, but in subsequent proceedings Galileo's argument that Scripture was authoritative on matters of faith and morals but observation and experiment should predominate in astronomy, physics and the like gained currency and eventually won the day. At the beginning of the 17th century there was not a single chair of mathematics in a European university. After Galileo they multiplied. 5. Free markets arose. The practice and theory of free markets -- with the practice often preceding the theory -- grew slowly and in part through historic accidents over the millennium. By its end, however, all but the intellectually dishonest and those who benefit directly from control and intervention had to acknowledge the truth of the free market's benefits. Free markets built on private property rights and the right to engage in voluntary transactions with minimal hindrance are the most efficient way to increase prosperity, make it possible for as wide a range of people as possible to live decently and give those who don't start life with advantages a fighting chance. There was commerce and trade in the ancient world (even a few proponents of free trade) but in general Greco-Roman societies viewed providing material necessities and profit-seeking as the work of the lower orders, beneath the dignity of the proper citizen. During much of the Middle Ages there was little exchange of rural property, the basic economic unit, except by war or pillage, and society was hierarchical and static. Coercive corporations and guilds enforced monopolies and made economic mobility difficult. As trade among cities emerged in the 1300s and 1400s the first inklings of international law developed, spontaneously and commercially. As Bruce Benson explains in his invaluable book "The Enterprise of Law," a traveling merchant coming to a new city would go first to a Law Merchant who would explain (for a price) the local commercial practices and precedents. Law Merchants competed to keep the best, most relevant records and the most useful local practices eventually became international in scope, easing and safeguarding international commerce. The age of discovery in the mid to late 1400s increased wealth in Europe and led to more attention being paid to wealth and its accumulation. The Age of Mercantilism became a transitional phase between the Middle Ages, with its emphasis on status and the age of modern capitalism, with its emphasis on contract. Mercantilists thought national wealth meant lots of gold in the King's treasury and a "favorable" balance of trade, with more goods going out than coming in. Thus exports were encouraged by subsidies and imports discouraged by tariffs and other beggar-thy-neighbor barriers. The French Physiocrats (Quesnay, Turgot) and Adam Smith in Scotland came to understand national wealth differently, as the ability of consumers to satisfy their needs and desires most effectively. They understood that wealth was not finite, but could be increased almost indefinitely through specialization and trade. Mercantilism, they argued, leads to hostility, militarism and war, while free trade leads to cooperation and the substitution of contract for force. 6. Adam Smith's magisterial "The Wealth of Nations," published in 1776, explained that economic order and prosperity grew naturally out of the psychological motives that govern people. Everyone seeks to attain his own interests and satisfaction most cheaply, and in a society based of free exchange people are led to serve others to satisfy themselves. Free competition and the free interplay of prices keep supply and demand in balanced tension, preventing prices from going too high and wages from dropping too low. Intelligent public policy, then, should be to promote the greatest possible freedom of trade, at home and abroad, without trying to "guide" the economy from above. Smith's book was remarkably influential, attractiung adherents throughout Europe and America and being translated into several other languages. Smith's disciples went about dismantling the stifling institutions still hanging over from the Middle Ages. France abolished guilds in 1791 and England did likewise in 1813. Largely under Smith's influence England repealed the Corn Laws, which had regulated and stifled agricultural production, in the 1840s. These reforms, combined with the development of the steam engine and mechanization, led to an explosion of economic activity. From 1785 to 1935 world coal production rose a hundredfold and world steel production rose four hundredfrold. Life expectancy increased from 25 years in Western Europe in 1800 to 72 in the mid-1900s. The industrial revolution led to the development of an urban proletariat, which led to sympathy for various brands of socialism, including Marxism. But socialism in practice turned out to involve coercion, oppression and central control, while deterring rather than encouraging economic growth. Only heedless intellectuals and professional people-pushers invoke it any more. 7. Thomas Aquinas on and free will just war. Free will. Freedom of choice stems from free will. If we are just robots, as some thinkers contend, then our freedom is an illusion. When St. Thomas Aquinas began writing in the middle of the 13th century, strong currents were denying the existence of free will. He refuted those beliefs in classic statements that rang forward through the years to this day. He first quoted scripture, Ecclasisticus 15:14, "When God, in the beginning, created man, he made him subject to his own free choice." Aquinas then reasonsed that "man acts from judgment, because by his apprehensive power he judges that something should be avoided or sought. But because this judgment, in the case of some particular act, is not from a natural instinct, but from some act of comparison in the reason, therefore he acts from free judgment and retains the power of being inclined to various things. And forasmuch as man is rational is it necessary that man have a free-will." (Summa Theologica, Q. 93.) Just war. In ancient times, victors on the battlefield would completely slaughter or enslave the vanquished. There was no mercy. During the Middle Ages, Christian theologians, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, began writing that if war could not be avoided, at least it could be made less harsh. Later on, such Protestant writers as Hugo Grotius also developed the theory. Llewellyn Rockwell of the Mises Institute explained of just war theory, "It must be defensive and never aggressive. It must be the last resort, undertaken after all possible means of negotiating a peace have been exhausted. It must be conducted by legitimate civil authority. (And an oppressed lower order may take up arms against a leviathan central power.) The means used must be proportional to the actual threat. "There must be a good chance of winning (no sending soldiers to their death for no purpose). After the fighting is over, there may be no acts of vengeance. Finally, and extremely important in our own century: no military action can be undertaken that seriously threatens civilians." Unfortunately, just war theory often has been violated, even by purportedly Christian rulers and generals. On the other hand, tens of millions of people's lives have been spared because wars have been fought less brutally than they otherwise might have been. 8. Movement against slavery. The idea that some men could own others is such an anathema to human dignity that it's hard to imagine that anyone ever accepted it. Yet slavery was such an accepted concept throughout most of this millennium in so many places in the world, that people who opposed it often faced stiff retribution. For a sense of the significance of abolishing it, consider what it meant to the American abolitionist and one-time slave, Frederick Douglass. After having just attained his freedom, he "put on the clothes of a common laborer, and went upon the wharves in search of work." After completing a job putting away a pile of coal, "the dear lady put into my hand TWO SILVER HALF-DOLLARS. To understand the emotion which swelled my head as I clasped this money, realizing that I had no master who could take it from me -- THAT IT WAS MINE, THAT MY HANDS WERE MY OWN, and could earn more of the precious coin -- one must have been in some sense himself a slave." Debate still rages about whether the United Stated needed to fight a bloody internal war to end this "peculiar institution," given that most other western nations in the 19th Century abolished it with nary a gunshot fired. But there's no denying that the awareness of slavery's evil and the many worldwide movements that sought to end it -- and currently seek to end it in the Sudan and elsewhere where it, amazingly, still persists -- are among the greatest triumphs of modern civilization. 9. Magna Carta, the American Revolution, and U.S. founding documents. With his signing of the Magna Carta in 1215, King John "granted to … all freemen of this our realm, these liberties following, to be kept in our kingdom of England for ever." As the National Archives explains it, the king "placed himself and England's future sovereigns and magistrates within the rule of law. Scant generations later, when these American colonists raised arms against their mother country, they were fighting not for new freedoms but to preserve liberties that dated to the 13th century." The new nation's founding documents – the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution – rest on the principle of natural, unalienable rights for each individual. The founders limited the sphere of the national government in relation to the states, and they created a separation of powers at the federal level -- with the goal of protecting the individual from the government. Modern proponents of a large, centralized government have turned these documents inside out, arguing, essentially, that the feds have virtually unlimited powers to do whatever is in the interest of the majority, from redistributing wealth to exerting control over education and gun ownership. Fortunately, when Americans become serious about restoring lost liberties, they needn't turn to new revolutionary doctrines. They need only re-embrace the ideas of the founders, and use the existing framework to restore what is rightly theirs. 10. The fall of the Berlin Wall. No other event symbolizes the end of the communist era more than the crumbling of the hideous Berlin Wall -- that barbed wire, machine-gun-turreted monstrosity meant to keep people inside a nation that resembled a prison camp. Every bad modern notion, from egalitarianism to militarism to eugenics, was embodied in the communist ideology, which spread itself across the globe with frightening speed. Leaders of communist states boasted that their system was inevitable, that soon the entire world would be singing "Our Socialist Motherland." Given communism's broad pretenses, the peaceful crumbling of the Soviet bloc and the erosion of totalitarianism in China are among the great stories of the millennium, not just the century. Not that similar ideologies won't always be with us, advancing in one form or another. Nor will a full accounting ever occur of the mass murders, the forced starvations, the prison camps, the gulags and the role of western sympathizers. But at least the 21st century begins unshackled by this most destructive of ideologies, and with the broad realization that free markets and democracy are more conducive to human well-being than tyranny. http://www.ocregister.com/liberty/articles/list1.shtml Bard Come the November 7, 2000 if you people make the wrong choice we're not going to have any Liberty left. Demo/Repubs are two wings of the same bird of prey; don't you get yet? I know there is a God and I know he hates injustice. I see the storm coming and I know His hand is in it. But if there is a place and a part for me, I believe that I am ready. -- Patrick J. Buchanan Reform Party News http://www.reformparty.org <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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