Freedom and Free Enterprise

I find it fascinating how history tends to repeat itself. I find it even more fascinating how most of us don't even know enough about history to recognize when it's happening again. The most fascinating thing of all is that most people don't care. As long as their life remains undisturbed, the world and nation can go about without having to worry about a thing.

"All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing."

That quote was by Edmund Burke and is a call for good men to stand up against the forces of evil.

If you turn on the television today to your favorite news program, you may hear some reports about the Occupy Wall Street Protests going on throughout the nation. Depending on the news station, you may find these protests as good or evil. Young and old people, whom most don't even know why they are protesting, are protesting against big corporations and the 1% wealthiest people who control the money - greed. A lot of these individuals would like to see the destruction of capitalism and have socialism/communism take it's place - or at the very least see the wealth redistributed from the rich to the poor to make everything fair and equal.

If these people knew anything about history, in order to have the luxuries of the freedoms that our country has experienced for over 200 years we must have free enterprise (i.e. capitalism).

I found an article written by Ezra Taft Benson. In 1953, Benson was appointed U.S. Secretary of Agriculture by President Eisenhower. Benson accepted this position with the permission of LDS Church President David O. McKay and therefore served simultaneously in the United States Cabinet and in the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Benson was an outspoken opponent of communism and socialism. Through succession, Ezra Taft Benson became the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1973, and as President of the Church in 1985.

The article was given/written in 1977 - the year of my birth. I was again fascinated that while I was reading how prevalent the words applied to our time and day. The article is titled, "Freedom and Free Enterprise" (click link to view).

Here are few quotes that you may find interesting...

"It is my sober warning to you today that if the trends of the past forty years and especially the last fifteen years continue we will lose that which is as priceless as life itself: our freedom, our liberty , our right to act as free men. It can happen here, it is happening here. The outlook for free enterprise in the world has never seemed so uncertain as now."

"Today it seems evident that we are rearing a generation of Americans who do not understand the productive base of our society and how we came by such prosperity."

"The ethic of the day seems calculated to indoctrinate our citizens for a dependency on the state. Our founding fathers recognized that certain rights are inalienable, that is, God given. Today the state is looked to as the guarantor of human rights, life, liberty and property. Our forbearers practiced the biblical ethic that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his own brow. Today’s ethic seems to be that it is right to be supported by the sweat of another’s brow."

You really need to read the entire article to come to a better understanding between the two forces at play here - good and evil. Evil likes to make it look good, and that's why I think so many people, even good people, can relate to some of the messages conveyed by these Occupy Wall Street protesters. There is no gray, only black and white. The sooner we can see that, the easier it will be to defeat it. "Give me liberty or give me death." - Patrick Henry
Read "Freedom and Enterprise"