Big Laws, Little Laws

Donald J. Trump

This year we had a presidential election.  I say that in case there's a person reading this that has been under a rock.  The way things are going in America, perhaps it's not such a bad idea.

Here's the thing... The general election was between Donald J. Trump and Hillary R. Clinton.  If there were ever two more controversial candidates in American history, I'm not privy.

Hillary R. Clinton

There are just so many things to be said about all of it.  It's hard to know where to begin.

Perhaps I should make my political position clear before I proceed.  I am a conservative.  I always have been, even as a child.  That's not to say that I haven't changed in many ways, for I have.  But it is to say that the conservative position is the one that has always made the most sense to me, and it still does.

Note that I didn't say that I was a Republican.  Actually, I am a Republican, but the only reason that I am is that, at least in my lifetime, the Republican Party has been closer to conservative than has the Democratic Party.  There was a time when southern democrats were pretty conservative, but not so much in my lifetime.  So, I'm a Republican.

If the Republican Party were to stray from conservatism, I would stray from them.  The point is that, although I'm a conservative diehard, I'm not necessarily a Republican diehard.

That leads to the obvious question, "What does 'conservative' mean?"

I have to say that, although I've looked up the definition in the past, I've not thought much about what it really means to be conservative.  The usual definitions are usually about preserving the past, etc.  Perhaps that's why liberals like to say that they are progressive.  Progressive has a nice modern feel to it.  It also makes it seem like one who isn't 'progressive' is an old, fuddy-duddy, stuck-in-the-past stick-in-the-mud.

Something I heard on the radio yesterday really helped me understand how I might explain conservatism, both to myself and to you.

It's a quote from G.K. Chesterton, one of my all-time favorite authors:

G. K. Chesterton

When you break the big laws, you do not get liberty; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws.

Daily News, July 29, 1905

The thing that I love about Chesterton is that he had a knack for compressing big ideas into sort of a small riddle.  His books seem wordy, but they are usually fairly short.  I think the reason for this is that he packs so much into sentence that it takes a long time to unpack each one.

So that's the point of this quote?  It's the big laws that matter.  The original ones.  When these are in place, they guide us fairly easily along our way.  When they are not, it all gets confusing and we are then forced to make a rule about each little situation that comes along, thus, "small laws."

So far, so good.  Now we have to define what the big laws are.  Coming from Chesterton, a once atheist, then devout Catholic, it's fairly obvious that he means orthodox Christian laws.  (For what it's worth, his book Orthodoxy is my all-time favorite.)

Western civilization abandoned orthodoxy during the enlightenment and we now see the result across Europe and North America: laws which seem to make no sense.  Thus, the "small laws" overshadow the "big laws," leaving many of us wondering where common sense went.

The interesting thing about the "big laws" is that, because they are written on the human heart, they are fairly obvious to most humans.  When we do something wrong, we feel bad.  Believe it or not, in America that used to be acceptable.  Feeling bad when you did wrong was part of the natural order.  Now, of course, there is no shame.

So, this all reminded me of my thoughts about conservatism.  Conservatism isn't about preserving old rules or laws or culture, it's about the "big laws."  Liberalism has rejected the old-fashioned, out-of-date "big laws," and are thus forced into concocting rules about every facet of human life: "small laws."

Liberals have no overarching principle or purpose other than to exert their will upon others.  Conservatives, on the other hand, don't want to force their will upon others, we simply want to be guided by the big laws.  Ya know, hard to understand things like:  don't kill people, respect human dignity, don't lie, etc.  I know, it's hard to really wrap one's head around such difficult ideas.

So, there's a start to politics.  To which laws are you committed?  That will define your politics.

Is there some over-arching truth in the universe, or are we here by the happenstance of innumerable random acts?

Is there actual right or wrong, or are the concepts of morality simply constructs of each societal group?

These are the kinds of questions one must ask of oneself in order to define one's politics.

Give it a go.  Who are you really?

Conservatively yours,

TheCurmudgeon