Opinion
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April 26, 2018 (American Thinker) – The United Kingdom, a nation once revered for its promotion of individual freedom and the promulgation of limited government throughout the world, has accepted, as a governing principle, the foundation of Marxist philosophy: the individual human being is the property of the state.

Per Daren Jonescu

The British government, eager to prove its merit as a proper socialist state, has made a cottage industry of delineating the conditions of collective ownership of the individual in the starkest terms. Last year, their poster child for the principle of the individual as dispensable cell of the socialist collective was named Charlie Gard. This year, he is known as Baby Alfie. In both cases, the parents are outright denied the freedom to seek further treatment for a child the State has decided is not worth trying to save. In both cases, the further treatment in question would not cost the British government, in the form of the National Health Service, a penny. In both cases, the Catholic Church has offered to treat the baby in Rome for free. In both cases, the child's parents – in Alfie's case, Tom Evans and Kate James – have fought long sickening court battles against their owners, the British Government, only to be denied every time in favor of “the best interests of the child,” i.e. premature death by starvation.

The evolutionary genesis of this mindset over the past 150 years is the gradual and inexorable erosion in respect for the uniqueness of each human life, a basic tenet of Judeo-Christian teachings. Thus, Marxist-socialist theory is unbending in its rejection and suppression of organized religion and belief in a supreme being.

The increasingly agnostic and secular societies of Europe are not only willfully choosing to ignore the existence of God, but rejecting the moral and behavioral guidelines established by Judeo-Christian teachings.

National moral fiber, along with the religious basis upon which the United States and European nations developed, is being replaced by a misguided faith in man and his institutions. Although mankind has accomplished great things, the human race has always been overwhelmingly susceptible to its base nature. It is the succumbing to this base nature that has been the downfall of civilizations since the dawn of man.

The modern historic consequence of repudiating established moral and ethical guidelines is a society or culture devoid of humility, honor, decency, and respect for the dignity of human life. In Europe today, less than 45% of the populace believes in God's existence, and fewer than 22% attend at least one religious service over the course of a year. Meanwhile, an astonishing 40% believe that there are no moral absolutes. One of the visible manifestations of this self-absorption is a catastrophically negative birth rate – the end product of over one hundred and twenty million abortions since 1970.

By tolerating the ascendancy of man's ignoble nature and abandoning long established moral principles, the nations of Europe have suffered, over the past century, the near total destruction of a continent and the loss of nearly one hundred million lives in two wars and the emergence of communism. Nonetheless, many of these same nations have chosen, yet again, to go down this same path and are now beginning to reap the whirlwind of societal turmoil, thus becoming susceptible to violent overthrow by internal or external forces seeking supremacy and subjugation.

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Over the past fifty years, the citizenry of the United States has been increasingly emulating its European counterparts, thus American society has begun the slow and inexorable descent into chaos and uncertainty. The American left, now in control of the Democratic Party, is determined to transform this nation into a Euro-socialist “paradise” and is following the same playbook that has brought nations such as the United Kingdom to its present state of agnosticism and tumult.

This explains the left's dogged determination to erode and make meaningless religious liberty and control speech through intimidation and ridicule, all the while convincing a majority of the populace that the state, controlled by the enlightened, is the savior and provider.

The sad sagas of Charlie Gard and Baby Alfie, as well as untold thousands whose similar stories do not achieve international recognition, are just the latest, but not the last, manifestation of the state as the savior and provider.

In order to avoid these same outcomes looming over the horizon, the American people must acknowledge that throughout modern history, the key to peace and prosperity lies in rejecting the siren song of the left and establishing a relationship with God. Striving to live by established moral and ethical guidelines and not in total dependence and reliance upon the institutions of man will save this nation from the same fate befalling the nations of Europe.

Published with permission from the American Thinker.