The
People versus the Experts
Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 4/19/20
In our current age of
relativism when people speak of “my truth” and “your truth,” a little
absolutism can be refreshing. Not the kind offered humorously by former U.S.
Senator Everett Dirksen and quoted recently in the Marietta Daily Journal
feature, “The Thought for Today.”
Dirksen’s
quote read, “I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which
is to be flexible at all times.”
Dirksen’s
playful “unbending principles” were not as unbending as those of my father or
of the American patriot Patrick Henry. After a family supper table conversation
about a rare robbery that had occurred in my hometown, my father ended the
discussion by saying, “Well, starve to death and go to heaven, but don’t ever
steal, not even for food.”
That’s
absolutism. Patrick Henry’s famous speech that revealed his moral absolutism
was more eloquent than my father’s but no more strongly held. Unfortunately we
typically quote only the last sentence of Henry’s famous words. His four
preceding sentences actually power his famous utterance.
Addressing the Virginia
Convention in 1775 and arguing that Virginia “be immediately put into a posture
of defense” against England, Henry spoke the following: “What is it that
gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to
be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God. I know
not what course others may take but as for me, give me liberty or give me
death.”
Not often does one
fiery speech catapult someone from obscurity to fame, but this is what happened
to the 29-year-old Henry, a representative in the Virginia legislature. After
listening to several speeches that favored compromise with the British, Henry
rose to present his resolution to prepare for war. With manifold conviction
akin to that of fellow Virginians Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, Henry
persuaded the Virginia House to take up arms against England.
“Is life so dear … ?”
Already Henry is implying that life is not (to him at least) the most precious
value. What husband/father reading this column would not rise up at 3 AM and
defend to the death his wife and children from an armed intruder? How much does
his own life matter to him in that moment?
“… or peace so sweet
…?” With these words Henry expands his scope of affection. He is not referring
now just to his own life or his own brood, but to all Virginians. It is civil
peace that Henry mentions here.
Decisions that America’s
president and governors now face are not too dissimilar to those of the
colonies who were being oppressed by the British. Though ours is not a military
war, it is a war still and voices of reason and courage are needed. Instead of
13 rural colonies against the western world’s third greatest empire, we now
have the people versus the powerful proponents of consensus science. Consensus
science has its experts, numbers, charts, graphs, and prognostications. The
people have common sense and arithmetic. But they lack a Patrick Henry to point
out that small business owners and employees are suffering most. Those with microphones
and power – the media, politicians, government officials, and corporate heads –
are doing quite well. The “little man,” the real creator of wealth and the
sustainer of our economy, is the frontline foot soldier in our current war.
What will he go home to?
Our president and
governors are receiving counsel from doctors and numbers crunchers. The people
are hesitant to criticize doctors, realizing that medical workers are
sacrificially saving lives. Still, our healthcare system is a distinct part of
our free enterprise economy and indeed flows from it. Yet, the two have been
pitted against each other: saving lives versus saving the economy.
What a false and dangerous
dichotomy the president and governors have embraced. Let’s recast Patrick
Henry’s questions. Is life so dear that the world’s most successful anti-poverty
program – capitalism – must now be socialized? That’s what government largesse
leads to. Is peace so sweet that we cannot speak out against the statistical
calisthenics of medical experts? Is our collective intelligence in such throes
of death that we cannot figure out how to medicate the sick and allow those
well to go to work? Whence comes healthcare if the well from which it is drawn
runs dry?
There are different
kinds of death, financial and emotional among them. As for absolutism, we are
absolutely causing deaths of different kinds, all because we have shut down the
country. Many livelihoods have already been destroyed. The “little man” is sick
and suffering, all because of a wrongheaded war strategy.
Roger Hines
4/15/20
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