The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1956-02-11
Broinwoshed


tenn is that, for the first time
in recorded history, a great
people, formally and explicit
/ ~, made human rights the
corner stone of its political
structure = and did so in the
form of definite profession
of politico-religlous faith. Ours
is a country with a God; and,
| precisely. for that reason our
is a country whose philosophy
exalts and respects the dig
nifty and liberty of His human
creatures.
The tragic irony Of democ-
racy Is that at the very mo-
ment when our American Re-
public was born In a grand
profession of politico-religious
faith = faith in the existence
of God, in the reality of His
natural law, in the fact of
inalienable rights beyond the
reach of any government, at
that very moment the found
ations of that faith were al
ready shaking in a large part
Of what we used to call Chris
tendon. The young Republic
had not yet attained it's mat
urity before it was aSsailed
and buffeted from across the
sea by political and social
theories which pounded away
at the foundations of her po-
litical philosophy. Thomas
Hobbies theory of the Levia-
than State laid the foundation
of modern Totalitarianism.
David Hume's Skepticism cast
doubt upon the ability of the
human mind to attain to any
objective truth. Jean Jacques
Rousseau'S Anti-Intellectual-
ism cast aspersions upon any
rational explanation of hui
man life. Jeremy Bentham'S
Utilitarianism repudiated the
age-old norm of mortality.
Emmanuel Kant drove a
wedge between the legal and
the moral orders. Herbert
Spencer's Sociological Evolu-
ton cast aside fixed princi-
pies of morality and of the
natural law. John Austin'S !
jurisprudence completed the
legal bridge to the modern
totalitarian state. These phil
osophies, and the Materials !
tic concepts of Illegal, Marx, !
and Engels, - melted down |
into an anonymous philosophy I
OF so-called positivism and |
pragmatism, these are the !,
ideas fighting for dominance i
in this country and in the
world today.
The battle is on, make no /,
mistake about it. Our modern
legal and sociological positiv- |
lists pooh-pooh the very no.
ton of the natural law as a
medieval fiction, which served |
a useful purpose in its day. |
but is now obsolete - and |
never had any objective exis- |
tence, To them, inalienable !
rights are metaphysical non
sense. There are no duties in
conscience: because morality. |
in its last analysis, is merely |
current good taste. There are |
no principles; there are mere
ly prevailing formulate of ex-
pediency. Above all, there are
no absolutes; that is except
pragmatic public policy II
which means the Absolute
State.
The rise of positivistic state |
absolutisn to challenge the
American philosophy of Gov
eminent so impressed the late |
Justice Robert Jackson. of |
the United States Supreme
Court, that in a lecture, which |
his untimely death prevented |
him from delivering, he wrote: |
F." The nineteenth cen
tury closed NTH Anleri-
cans repeating the phraS-
eS OF the Declaration of
independence about the
lGi0S OF nature and of ma
lures God, but the real
attitude lUaS that dttri-
buted by Rnickerbocker to
the Connecticut Yankees,
l0ho reSolDed to be gopern-
ed BIZ the lai0s of God -
until they found time to
make better ones. The So
called posittyiSts took oUer,
and any command that
some authority had phys
zeal pot1er to enforce be- i
came lat0. Since the Nurn-
berg postnlortem of the
Hitler regime, fen l0tH be- !
lieUe that these poSitiUiSt I
doctrines are ,oedponS in /
the struggle to preSerUe !
liberty.
Meanwhile, Mara and
EngelS, tho strangers to
the actual workings OF our
American system, had for
muldted the revolutionary |
scheme of UalueS Uhtch
under net0 leadership is
not0 our t0orld-totde riUaI.
Their doctrine teaches
TINT there je M o,,cb