Website owner:  James Miller

On social problems




   We have many social problems in this country.  Crime, drug 
   addiction, alcoholism, homelessness, poverty, environmental 
   pollution, etc..  The liberal Democrats think the answer to 
   everything lies in spending money.  Throw enough money at any 
   problem and that is the way you solve it (and to get that money 
   they raise taxes).  I simply can't accept their basic 
   assumptions.  I don't believe most of our social problems can 
   be solved by just spending money.  I don't have any confidence 
   in government programs (I don't think most of them work).  Let 
   us take an example.  Schools.  Kids are graduating from our 
   schools and can't read or write, they tell us.  What is the 
   solution?  The liberal Democrat's solution would be to raise 
   the salaries of the teachers and to have lots of special 
   programs and spend lots of money on school equipment, etc..  
   But what is the real problem with our schools?  In my opinion 
   the primary problem lies in the assumptions, philosophies, 
   values, attitudes and teaching methods of the teachers.  And, 
   also, it lies in wrong priorities in regard to the subject 
   matter that is taught.  The solution would lie in changing the 
   way the teachers are taught to teach (I believe in a strong 
   emphasis on teaching fundamentals and in the importance of 
   order in the classroom).  

   How does one solve the social problems of our society?  Let me 
   ask some questions:  How does one save an alcoholic from 
   himself?  How does one save a drug addict from himself?  Or a 
   gambler?  How does one save such people from the powerful 
   desires and forces within them that are carrying them to their 
   destruction?  By social programs?  By psychological therapy?  
   Perhaps psychological therapy and social programs of the right 
   type, based on correct understandings of the problems, could be 
   of some use but I simply have no confidence in the social 
   programs or psychological therapy of my particular society --- 
   an amoral society that has forgotten God.  I have no confidence 
   in any secular, non-religious solutions to any of these 
   problems.  Our society is so spiritually and emotionally messed 
   up that it is in no position to act as a psychological guide or 
   advisor to anyone.  I think our psychological therapy is all a 
   hoax and a delusion.  I don't think it does anyone any good.  I 
   think psychiatrists mess people up more than they help them.

   How does one save man from himself?  How does one save the 
   foolish from their own foolishness?  How does one save a 
   prodigal or spendthrift from himself?  How can one save a man 
   who cares not for the morrow from his destruction?  Or how does 
   one save a lazy man from his own laziness?  Can you?  Is it 
   possible?  If these people can't help themselves, can you help 
   them?  Religion.  That is the best I can suggest.  Instill a 
   belief in God and commitment to moral principle.  Without it 
   they are lost. 

   Our society has many problems.  Children can become twisted as 
   they grow up through the neglect or abuse of their parents.  
   How do you solve that?  Take them away from their parents?  Who 
   decides what constitutes neglect or abuse?  Who acts as judge?  
   Who do you give the children to?  Are you sure they will be 
   better off?  We have the problem of homelessness in America.  
   We also have the problem of millions of people who are 
   unemployed and living off welfare.  What is the solution?  In a 
   perfect world everyone would have a job in which he was making 
   ample money to provide a good standard of living for himself 
   and his family.  In addition to that, the job would be 
   interesting and fulfilling and he would love it.  And if he 
   didn't like it he would be given another job.  But how do you 
   create a system that gives that kind of ideal?  How do you 
   insure that an economy can produce a job for everyone, let 
   alone an interesting and satisfying job?  And if there are not 
   enough jobs for everyone what do you do about the people left 
   out without one?  Let them starve?  And if you start offering 
   free room and board to people who have no jobs how do you stop 
   people who do have jobs (but dislike working for a living) from 
   quitting them and getting in line to collect the freebees?  
   When most of the jobs in an economy require a certain level of 
   education and knowledge what do you do when the young people in 
   school refuse to work, learn and strive for that level of 
   attainment needed?  Supply them with free board and room when 
   they become older and cannot find a job that they can qualify 
   for?  How do you handle single women who deliberately get 
   pregnant in order to qualify for welfare? 

   In a perfect world the deer could live a free and easy life 
   without fear.  In the real world, however, he has to keep a 
   wary eye out for the lion or he will be eaten.  And the same 
   goes for the most of the other creatures in the natural world.  
   They have to look out for themselves or they will be eaten.  
   That is just the way the world was created.  For the imprudent, 
   the improvident, and the unwary nature is brutal and merciless.  
   That is just the way nature is.  Nature is brutal with the 
   imprudent.  And sometimes it is just brutal, period.  And, 
   although man may not always realize it, the same hard, 
   unforgiving laws that rule in the natural world of wild 
   creatures also rule in human society.  Man in his concern for 
   his fellow man, his compassion for him, has a hard time leaving 
   him to the fate that his foolishness brings upon him, but, in 
   trying to spare him the punishment of his own foolishness, is 
   really fighting against nature.  He is bucking nature.  He is 
   trying to soften nature.  Nature has a way of taking care of 
   all its problems.  The way is very often harsh but it has a 
   way.  In the natural world if the population of deer, or some 
   other species of animal, becomes too large for the food 
   available nature corrects the problem in a harsh way: the weak 
   starve to death.  Moral man has a difficult time accepting such 
   harsh "corrections" for his fellow man.  He has a difficult 
   time, in his compassionate heart, accepting nature's 
   "solutions" and wishes to soften them.  But nature does solve 
   it's problems.  If man doesn't solve his problems nature does 
   it for him.  The root of a great many of our modern social 
   problems, especially those of environmental pollution, is over-
   population.  The earth is becoming over-populated, populated 
   beyond what it can bear.  Man is multiplying too fast.  If man 
   doesn't solve this problem nature will solve it for him. 

   Are all social problems solvable?  Many of the problems of this 
   world are caused by the weaknesses, sins and imperfections of 
   man himself.  But even if you could completely transform all 
   humanity and make everyone good, caring, just, honest and 
   perfect in character would the world be just, fair and without 
   misery?  Or is the world so designed, so created, that it is 
   not possible to have a society without injustice and hurt?  
   What about all the social misery arising from such things as 
   droughts, famines, and natural disasters?  Is not a certain 
   amount of brutality just an essential, innate part of nature?  
   Is not the search for the ideal society perhaps like the search 
   for the solution to a mathematical problem which, in actual 
   fact, has no solution? 

   Through the ages many intelligent, well-intentioned, caring 
   people have tried to devise and create social and economic 
   systems that they felt would be more just and fair than any 
   other.  But all have had weaknesses and shortcomings as well as 
   strengths.  Is it possible to create anything even close to a 
   perfect social or economic system? 


   Jan 1989




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