Editor, John Andrews

Principled Ideas from the Centennial Institute

Volume 6, Number 10 November 2014
Publisher, William L. Armstrong
We have to
speak in
moral terms.
Ive been asked to talk with you
today about why freedom succeeds
and collectivism fails. The answer,
of course, is that diffuse knowledge
beats centralized knowledge.
If you combined all the individual
knowledge in this room, wed all
know more together than Einstein
did. Thats why no one person is qualified to run a country
or run our lives.
But theres a broader question, and its more
difficult. With our long history of collectivism
failing and freedom succeeding, why is it that
collectivism actually seems to win a lot of the
time? It wins because we dont recognize its
evil and say so.
Youre Seen as Bad
We assume that the people promoting collectivism are good
guys. They believe in the Declaration and the Constitution,
they have all the best intentions. No, they dont.
Their intention as collectivists is to shut you down,
because they see you as a bunch of racist, sexist, bigoted
homophobes who hate the poor. Collectivism is justified
because youre all bad people.
Collectivists are emissaries of an evil ideology, and we have
to call it by its name. We have to speak about these things
in moral terms.
Look at the hundreds of millions of dead bodies strewn
around the globe, thanks to the Soviet Union, China, North
Korea, and various other Communist countries.
Look at the crushing poverty that the collectivists have
produced in places across the globe today, ranging from
South America to Africa to Asia to Detroit.
Or look at the way collectivism violates the Ten
Commandments. That is the very definition of evil to me.
Lets go through all ten and see how collectivism is a threat
to each and every one.
Ben Shapiro is a political commentator, radio host, author, and attorney. He
became Americas youngest nationally syndicated columnist at 17, after
entering UCLA at 16. His books include Bullies, Brainwashed, Porn Generation,
Primetime Propaganda, Project President, and The People vs. Barack Obama. He
delivered these remarks at the Western Conservative Summit on July 20, 2014.
Centennial Institute sponsors research, events, and publications to enhance
public understanding of the most important issues facing our state and nation.
By proclaiming Truth, we aim to foster faith, family, and freedom,
teach citizenship, and renew the spirit of 1776.
First Commandment
Start with this: I am the Lord thy God who brought
you out of Egypt, out of the land of bondage. This
is fundamentally opposed to collectivism. If were all
individuals created in the image of God, were special and
precious. No one gets to invade our rights just because
they think they are superior to us.
Our rights matter more to us than the government.
Across three millennia for the Jewish people, and for more
than two centuries here in America, the working theory
has been that if you tell me I am supposed to respect
government above God, I will resist you with force.
Millions of people have died for their God, and speaking
for myself, I will go to jail or even pick up a gun before the
government of the United States tells me Im
supposed to violate my religious precepts.
Second Commandment
Thou shall have no other gods before me.
No others. Not government, not fairness,
and not a certain someone about whom his
wife said, Our souls are broken in this nation and Barack
can heal you.
Being at the 2012 Democratic National Convention was
one of the scariest experiences in my life. It was such a
cult-like atmosphere.
Theyd actually removed the iconography of the
Democratic Party. The donkey was gone. It was all Barack
Obamas face or that supremely creepy Obama icon
with the blue O. There was an idolatrous worship of the
president, such as weve never seen in American politics.
We on the right, we like Ronald Reagan, sure. But when
we go to bed at night we dont light a little candle in our
closet for him. We understand that Reagan was a human
being who did some wonderful things and also some stuff
that wasnt so great.
COLLECTIVISM VERSUS
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
By Ben Shapiro
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Collectivists cant afford to think like that. They have to
worship something, because thats how human beings are
made. If its not God, its going to be government or some
other idol.
Third Commandment
Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in
vain. This gets broken by collectivists on a routine basis.
Collectivism always masquerades as godly, manipulating
Scripture to pose as moderate.
Look, Im an Orthodox Jew. Jesus is not
even my guy. But if I have to hear President
Obama one more time misquote the book of
Matthew. And when hes not misquoting
the Bible, hes berating the Bible.
In 2006 he gave a speech pointing out all the alleged flaws
in the Bible. Which passages of scripture should guide our
policy? Should we go with Leviticus which suggests slavery
is okay and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Obama
likes the Bible the same way he likes the Constitution:
roasted with barbecue sauce.
Fourth Commandment
Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. This is the
idea that your labor belongs to God, not to government.
Its the idea that you get to act out your religion in public
life.
The Sabbath is a wonderful thing for all religious people
because its an acknowledgment that all of this is not ours.
This is Gods. So collectivists hate the Sabbath because they
believe all of this is not ours or Gods its theirs.
The Sabbath is also what keeps us a charitable people. The
recognition that this is not ultimately our property is what
Centennial Review November 2014 2
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CENTENNIAL REVIEW is published monthly by the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University. The authors views are not necessarily
those of CCU. Designer, Bethany Bender. Illustrator, Benjamin Hummel. Subscriptions free upon request. Write to: Centennial Institute, 8787
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- John Andrews, Director
You belong
to God, not
government.
keeps us giving charity. The minute you take away Sabbath
and the notion that everything is Gods, then charity goes
away. Charity and the Sabbath are there to make us good
people. Collectivists are there to brand us as bad people,
because thats what justifies collectivism.
Fifth Commandment
Honor thy father and thy mother. The left is not big into
this at all. The Communist Manifesto reads: On what
foundation is the bourgeois family based? On capital, on
private gain.
First of all, friends, remember that the word bourgeois
here does not mean rich people. It means that vaunted
middle class that the other part claims to care so much
about. So much for that talking point.
Then, notice that the breakdown of the family is necessary
for communitarianism, because the family is the core
element that protects you against the vicissitudes of life.
It means you dont need government and youd prefer
government to leave you alone.
Whereas if you break down the family, youre building up
the government, and thats what the collectivists want.
In addition, honoring your father and your
mother means that you have to respect the
wisdom of the past, which is another thing
the collectivists dont do. They want to
remake the world every generation. Theyll
tell you that youth are the people who know
what theyre talking about.
Oh really? Im 30, and Im afraid the fact is a lot of young
people are morons. Especially now that were on our
parents insurance until were 26, and were still in mom
and dads basement playing video games and smoking pot
here in Colorado, legally. And that makes youth the wisest
among us? Right.
Sixth Commandment
Thou shalt not murder. This one is probably the worst
of all if you violate it. But in order for collectivists to have
their way, they have to be in utter and complete control
of human life. Which, unfortunately, means that murder is
nothing to collectivists.
Now I understand that its bad form to talk about things
like abortion. Those pro-life demonstrations with horrific
pictures of aborted babies make people feel bad. Its the
you ruined my day syndrome. In leftist areas like Los
Angeles or Cambridge, where I grew up, youre reflexively
trained that this is gauche, this is rude.
No, this is reality. Abortion is evil because abortion is murder.
But collectivists have to demean the value of human life so
that everybody just becomes a scrambled egg in the omelet
theyre cooking. Thats wrong.
People are deprived of a fundamental right when you
personally, based on how you feel that day, get to define what
is or is not a human life. That is exactly the same argument
the slaveholders in the 1850s made. They would get to define
what constitutes property and what constitutes human life.
But we do not get to decide what constitutes human life.
None of us do. God did it, and its pretty clear.
Seventh Commandment
Thou shall not commit adultery. This one is routinely
violated by the collectivists. They love the idea of there
being no difference whatsoever between the sexes, so that
everybody is merely a widget in their magical system.
Nothing has created more unhappiness in the Western world
than this idea that men and women are created identical
except for their genitalia. Yet anybody over three can tell you
this is not the case.
It does not take a higher intellect to recognize the differences
between men and women. But by
pretending that those differences do
not matter and that they are in fact
dangerous, youre undermining any
possibility of a viable relationship
between a man and a woman.
To the collectivist, adultery means nothing, because sex
means nothing, because family means nothing, because in
the end commitment means nothing.
When pursuing utopia, you see, everything is either just a
tool or an obstacle. Those are the only things collectivists
are interested in, and so for them, fidelity and family are
obstacles.
Eighth Commandment
Thou shall not steal. This one I shouldnt even have to
explain. Collectivism is legalized thievery. It hardly even
pretends otherwise. If you and I decided today that were
going to vote amongst ourselves and then drive over to Bill
Gates house and put a gun to his head and steal his wallet,
because weve decided his money is actually ours, that would
make us evil.
But if we decided to vote and then drive over to a convent,
put a gun to a nuns head, take her down to Rite Aid and
force her to buy a pack of condoms, that would make us
Sandra Fluke. Or the editors of the New York Times or the
President of the United States or a four-member minority of
Centennial Review November 2014 3
Just another
egg in their
omelet? No.
WHAT IS BIBLICAL ECONOMICS?
By David Kotter
The Bible does not endorse American-
style capitalism. Nor did the early
church practice communist central
planning in the Book of Acts. You will
find neither Karl Marx or Adam Smith
prophetically foretold in the Scriptures.
Yet the Bible does contain clear
economic principles, and the early church grew in
an environment of buying, selling, borrowing, and
hiring. In essence, an economy of free markets and
entrepreneurship follows from the commands given by
God, though sin has marred the business practices that
we experience today.
Without question the Bible requires people to recognize
the property rights of others. You shall not steal was
not only commanded to Israel (Exodus 20:15), but was
repeated both by Jesus and Paul (Mark 10:19, Romans
13:9).
Further, Jesus approved of buying and selling, and
he never would have allowed his disciples to sin in
making purchases (John 4:8; 6:5; Luke 22:36; see also
Jeremiah 32:8, 25). Engaging in such commerce is even
considered virtuous, and those who sell grain are blessed
as opposed to those who hoard (Proverbs 11:26).
The Bible favorably presents the elements of an
entrepreneurial economy where wages and profits are
earned and people prosper. The right to profit was so
obvious to the apostle Paul that he asked, Who plants a
vineyard without eating any of its fruit? (1 Corinthians
9:7). Jesus himself must have earned a profit to support
himself for more than a decade as a small business owner
(Mark 6:3).
The free markets of an entrepreneurial economy
provide many opportunities to bring glory to God by
unleashing the creativity of human beings at work and
enabling them to serve one another in love. As a result,
poverty is declining throughout the world and human
beings are flourishing more and more.
David Kotter joined the Colorado Christian University
faculty this fall as an associate professor of New Testament
studies. He is also a visiting fellow at the Institute for
Faith, Work, and Economics.
Voi ces of CCU
Centennial
Institute
Colorado Christian University
Remember that slogan at DNC 2012, Government is the
only thing we all belong to? They actually put this up
on their big boarduntil the pushback forced the Obama
campaign to disown it. That can happen.
Im a new father, just six months. Our little daughter is
the most beautiful baby that was ever made. Sometimes at
night, rocking her to sleep, I find myself tearing up with
the realization that theres going to come a point where my
baby is crying and Im not going to be there.
God willing its many years down the road,
but when that happens shell need to have
the freedom and the power to solve the
problem for herself. The evil of collectivism
takes that power away from us.
Evil enervates us. It takes away our ability, our will. It saps
us of our God-given capacity to solve problems on our
own and to make the world a better place and to rock our
children to sleep at nightbecause, after all, you know,
thats not our job, it takes a village.
Isaiahs Defiance
Freedom is about the future. Its about what we want to
give our kids, and in order to do that, our job is to fight
collectivist evil. Yes, freedom does succeed, freedom wins
but only if we fight.
Dont be afraid, though. One great thing about the Ten
Commandments, there are all these books that come with
them, books of Scripture. We learn in one of those: God
is with us.
Thats from the Prophet Isaiah, where he defies the enemies
of the Lord: Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;
propose your plan but it will not stand, for God is with us
(Isaiah 8:10, NIV).
He is and will always be, for so long as we forge forth to
fight for the freedom that He granted us. God is with us
indeed.
Centennial Institute
Colorado Christian University
8787 W. Alameda Ave.
Lakewood, CO 80226
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Centennial Review November 2014 4
Freedom wont
win unless
we fght.
Collectivism versus
Te Ten Commandments
By Ben Shapiro
Collectivism often prevails polit-
ically despite its policy failures.
We should not credit the good
intentions of this evil ideology. It
violates the Decalogue beginning
to end. Friends of freedom need to
fght back in moral terms, trusting
God.
the Supreme Court. It would be no less evil, though. Just
because you think you have a right to something doesnt
mean you have a right to take it from your neighbor.
Ninth Commandment
Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Lies mean nothing to collectivists. As Dennis Praeger
says, to the left, truth is not a value. No, they have higher
values; theyre pursuing something more important. Even
when you catch them lying, theyll pretend it
doesnt matter.
Truth is a belief that I owe something to the
individual. I owe you the truth. Collectivism
doesnt believe anything is owed to the
individual; all is owed to the state. So if the
state decides to lie to you, then its justifiedbecause after
all, youre bad, the state is good.
Tenth Commandment
Then finally this the last one: Thou shall not covet thy
neighbors [property]. This is the one that collectivism
violates most of all, since collectivism is inherently based
on jealousy. Its the idea that your neighbors stuff is yours.
Pure covetousness.
Thats why we keep hearing about income equality. They
dont care about the poor. They want the poor to stay
that way so they can talk up the issue. But the real issue is
economic growth, upward mobility. When you have that,
income inequality becomes a stupid argument.
If everybodys getting richer, why do you care what your
neighbor has? I would rather live in a nice house next to Bill
Gates and be income-unequal with him than be income-
equal in Detroit.
Pushback Works
To wrap this all up in a bow: Collectivism does lose in the
long run. But the reason it wins in the short run is that we so
often refuse to speak in moral terms, where the collectivists
always speak in moral terms. Allegedly were bad and theyre
good; were violating rights and theyre standing up for
rights. We have to push back in moral terms of our own.