The idea that all beliefs and ideologies which humans have can be divided into the simplistic Left-Right political spectrum (with “Progressivism” and Communism on the Left and “Conservatism” and Fascism on the Right) is so pervasive in our political language and thought that it can rightfully be said to completely dominate way that modern people conceive of the entire world. But, does it make sense? Does it accurately reflect the true nature of society? And what effect does thinking of the world in this way have on how we treat each other and society as a whole? In this article I not only look at the history of this idea, but I also look at the completely irrational nature of it and the entirely destructive effects it has on human society and human relationships. The left-right political spectrum is illogical poisonous nonsense that does nothing but promote idiocy and hatred.
Category: History
What Liberty Is And Why It Is So Important
Why liberty is so important? Why does it matter to us today? Why wouldn’t we want those in power to “fix” the world for everyone even if it means trading our freedom in for subservience to the social and political agenda of those in power? What is liberty to begin with? How do I even know if I am losing it or not? By the end of this article, I will have done three things. First, I will have expanded on what the nature of liberty is in greater detail, so we know exactly what we are talking about. Secondly, I will then provide an analysis of why liberty is so unpopular in our modern age. Finally, I will offer an argument for why liberty should be more popular and why it should be embraced by all people.
The Christian Origins of Individual Freedom
What does it mean to be free? How do you protect liberty? What role, if any, does the government and/or religion play in liberty, either in protecting it or degrading it? These are important questions that we need the answers to if we are to realize our potential as individuals and peoples. In order to understand what freedom is, how we gain it, how we preserve it, and how to increase it in the future, we must know the history of the ideas of liberty. All of those things is what this article is all about.
Did Joseph Smith and Brigham Young Teach That People Live on The Moon and The Sun?
In their never ending efforts to discredit the Latter-day Restoration of the Gospel anti-Mormons search for any information they can find to make the prophets sound crazy, because if you can discredit them then you can discredit the work they did. Among the accusations that are hurled at early Church leaders is that Joseph Smith taught that the Moon is inhabited by people and that Brigham Young believed that beings lived on the Sun. In this article I will present the sources for these accusations in full (as opposed to the incomplete and partial quoting that anti-Mormons usually use) and place these quotations in their historical context, showing what people from the most respected scientific minds to the most common laborer believed about possible life on the Moon and Sun. Once I have done so I will demonstrate that nothing that Joseph Smith or Brigham Young said or believed was incongruent with the scientific knowledge of their day and that their statements do not disprove or discredit the Restoration of the Gospel or the veracity of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
What Were The Political Views of J.R.R. Tolkien?
Dr. J.R.R. Tolkien is the most important fantasy writer in all of history and the most important writer of the 20th century. His two most famous works – “The Hobbit” and its sequel trilogy “The Lord of The Rings” – are the foundation of the entire fantasy genre. The themes and ideas of his writings have captivated people for almost a century now and nowhere is his keen insight into the nature of humanity, history, and society better demonstrated than in his writings about government and what we would today called the State. Tolkien in his own private letters identified himself as an anarchist. In this article I will be exploring exactly what he meant by calling himself an anarchist, why we should be paying attention to his insights about government, and the economic ideals he championed, which are fundamentally free market in nature. Using his public works and his private letters as sources, I will demonstrate that Tolkien was, in modern terms, an anarcho-capitalist.
G.K. Chesterton’s Insights Into Mormonism and Polygamy
Being mocked in the news media is nothing new for Latter-day Saints. It has been a constant part of our history since the Restoration commenced. What is rare is having non-member critics whose insight is keen enough to help even Latter-day Saints understand our faith. Just such a rare example is famed Roman Catholic essayist and writer G.K. Chesterton’s 1911 article, “Mormonism.”
Not only does Chesterton’s insight help Latter-day Saints better understand the origins of plural marriage/polygamy and why it is part of the Restoration of All Things, but he offer other keen insights as well. In this short article he ably dissects the false tolerance that dominates in the present day. He also correctly explains that if you want to understand people and history you have to understand the religion that provides the basis for the actions individuals and societies engage in. In so short an article there is great depth here that applies to the current era of history.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy – The Great Indignation Meeting
The discussion of plural marriage and the practice of polygamy among the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is dominated by a lot of ignorance, error, and anti-Mormon lies. While it is no surprise that non-members would believe these things the degree to which members of the church view polygamy as oppressive, anti-woman, and abusive is shocking and depressing. In an effort to correct these lies I have appealed directly to the words of the women who lived polygamy themselves and what they had to say about their lives. For that I turned to the printed account of The Great Indignation Meeting, a mass protest meeting held by the women of Utah in 1870 wherein they declared the ways that polygamy elevated them in society and protected their rights, denounced federal efforts to violate their human rights by making polygamy unconstitutional, and announced that they would rather die than submit to the oppressive laws of the government that would deny them their rights to plural marriage. The words of these powerful and intelligent women absolutely demolish the lies of anti-Mormons and promote the truths of the Restored Gospel.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 3
This is the final part in this series where I have been comparing the actual words from women who lived in plural marriages with the claims that anti-Mormons make about what is was like for Latter-day Saint women. Unsurprisingly they do not match up. Latter-day Saint women found polygamy to be a liberating experience and say government efforts to eliminate polygamy as tyrannical and oppressive. They called the government out on the hypocrisy of claiming polygamy was oppressive whilst using state power to actually engage in oppressing women who wanted to engage in polygamy.
In the addresses reprinted herein they also discuss how polygamy helps to limit and eliminate serious social ills such as adultery, prostitution, elective abortion, and sexual immorality.
We also get an interpretation of the Twelfth Article of Faith that contradicts how most members today understand it but which the speaker learned directly from the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Finally these women saw that as the government increasingly legislated morality it wouldn’t only cause a massive loss of liberty but it would lead to social chaos, predicting the situation we find ourselves in now. They even endorse what today we would recognize as nullification.
These women were incredible and they deserve your time. You will be enlightened.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 2
I pick up here right where I left off in Part 1 – in the middle of the Great Indignation Meeting. Threatened by new anti-Mormon legislation aimed at destroying polygamy and annihilating the church, the women of the church have come together in a mass meeting. In it they defend polygamy as one of the greatest revelations God had given, demand that the United States government honor and recognize their rights to believe and live how they choose, declare that polygamy and the doctrines of the church have helped them to have greater rights than any other place in the United States, proclaim their status as mutual helpmeets and workers with men, and denounce efforts to attack the church and end plural marriage as being inspired by Satan himself. When you listen to them it becomes clear that they were not oppressed or abused, rather these were powerful, intelligent, and empowered women who were acting to protect one of the most important factors in their independence, the Latter-day Saint practice of plural marriage. Their experiences, their voices, their truths counter anti-Mormon lies and show us why we shouldn’t be ashamed of our past practice of plural marriage. Instead of listening to the ignorant and liars, read the words of the women themselves who lived it. You might be surprised.
What Mormon Women Had To Say About Polygamy- Part 1
We all know how we are supposed to think and feel about the practice of polygamy by early Latter-day Saints. We have been told that it was sexist, oppressive, abusive, and harmful to women, something we should be ashamed of, so much that even many Latter-day Saints assume the assertions are axiomatic. But, are they? Are these statements in fact true or are they, like so many other things today, merely modern anti-Mormon drivel projected onto the past?
In order to figure this out I have decided to go back to listen the voices of the women who had firsthand experience with plural marriage, the polygamous women of Utah, to see what they had to say about the practice. Needless to say what I found is quite the opposite of the malignancies spread about plural marriage today. These powerful, intelligent, educated women saw plural marriage as an essential right of theirs that brought numerous blessings and protections to their lives which they would rather die fighting to protect than give up at the demand of the law. In this series I want to make their voices heard to counter the lies falsely spread in their name in by anti-Mormons. When it comes to plural marriage, thee truth about, like everything else, will set us free of the falsehoods we believe and reaffirm the truth of the Restored Gospel.