[lit-ideas] Re: Ye Olde Dialectic

  • From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 09:17:47 -0400

Eric Yost wrote:

"So Lincoln is in fact stating that government should be involved or the leader 
in these last areas, which charities also perform, by way of combined action. 
Phil considered the first part of the quote but not the entire quote."

Again, nope.  Lincoln does not talk about the leadership of government.  In 
this quote, Lincoln is discussing the necessity of government.  This necessity 
follows from both the depravity and limitations of human beings.  Government is 
a response to, in the former, what people do and, in the latter, what people 
can't do.  In either case, what constitutes good government is its ability to 
fill whatever need is present.  In determining what government should do, one 
begins with what people can do rather than what government can do.

On Eric's 'point', one begins with government.  Government should do whatever 
government can do.  If people act, the danger is that government will take this 
as license to do less when it should in fact do what people are doing.  This is 
a world away from the view of government found in the Lincoln quote.  If Eric 
agrees with the Lincoln quote, then his 'point' is a moot one because the two 
views of government are incompatible.  I can imagine Marxist-Leninists making 
Eric's 'point', but I can't imagine Lincoln ever having this concern.


Sincerely,

Phil Enns
Toronto, ON


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