By Jason Charles on 9/27/2017 (6 years 211 days ago) Theology & Religion
Deferring Ones Responsibility
One of the biggest social epidemics that are plaguing mankind currently is what I term the Deferment of Moral Responsibility. This is a phenomenon that is foundational to human psychology. Basically, it is the realization that human kind loves large political and ideological institutions because they give them the rationalizations needed to delegate their personal responsibility to these organizations. This is inherently dangerous because large institutions as well as governments perpetually rationalize evil for the sake of greed and power. People who shape their identities around giant politicized institutions are in danger of becoming party to the evil these institutions are engaged in. They take on these rationalizations as being authoritative giving no thought as to whether or not they are right.
This is a grave error, you should never let someone else dictate your moral conscience, everyone is judged as an individual. Whether by men on the witness stand, or by God at the Final Judgment; we will stand alone and attest to our actions.
We can't claim exemption from the decisions you make as an individual simply because some experts said that it was correct at one time.
Authority Worship
This was found to be true in the Nuremberg trials. Using the excuse that my boss told me to execute people fails to satisfy the demands on the individuals to act in accordance to what is right.
A fascinating, yet disturbing article was written detailing an interview by Nuremberg's last living prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz. He personally prosecuted 22 SS officers responsible for over 1 million deaths in Nazi Germany. In the article he details how these officers pleaded not guilty based on their employment requirements.
"Ben Ferencz became the chief prosecutor of 22 Einsatzgruppen commanders at trial number 9 at Nuremberg.
Judge: How do you plead to this indictment, guilty or not guilty?
Defendant: Nicht schuldig.
Benjamin Ferencz: Standard routine, nicht schuldig. Not guilty.
Judge: Guilty or not guilty?
Defendant: Nicht schuldig.
Lesley Stahl: They all say not guilty.
Benjamin Ferencz: Same thing, not guilty.
Ferencz knew they were guilty and could prove it. Without calling a single witness, he entered into evidence the defendants' own reports of what they'd done. Exhibit 111: "In the last 10 weeks, we have liquidated around 55,000 Jews." Exhibit 179, from Kiev in 1941: "The city's Jews were ordered to present themselves… about 34,000 reported, including women and children. After they had been made to give up their clothing and valuables, all of them were killed, which took several days." Exhibit 84, from Einsatzgruppen D in March of 1942: Total number executed so far: 91,678. Einsatzgruppen D was the unit of Ferencz's lead defendant Otto Ohlendorf. He didn't deny the killings -- he had the gall to claim they were done in self-defense." (CBS News)
Killing, slandering, harming people is never okay because your political ideology rationalizes it. In our country we are getting dangerously close to democrats and republicans rationalizing the destruction of one another in the same way. People are like lemmings, never stopping to think about the rightness of their alliance, or the end result of such vicious fighting.
This is a spiritual truth as well as a natural truth found universally in human nature. Acting in congress with a group will never absolve you from moral responsibility, no matter the perceived greater good.
Here are some examples as to how people rationalize their group think, and defer personal responsibility in their daily lives.
"I can't be responsible for price gouging my clients, that is what my bosses demand of me"
"I won't be held responsible for the people I killed it was my job as a soldier"
"I don't have to think about injecting vaccine adjuncts into my infant, the doctor says it's safe"
"I have no responsibility to quit sinning day-to-day because my pastor never preached against sin"
"I don't believe in God because the scientific community would tell me otherwise"
"I don't have to think about my abortion as wrong, because Planned Parenthood says it is just a clump of cells"
"etc."
In each instance, the thinking is, because of this higher authority telling me something, I am not responsible for the outcome and consequences.
No, if you steal from clients you're a thief, if you kill innocent lives on the battle field you're a war criminal, if you inject a vaccine that damages yourself or child you're the cause of harm, and if you abort your pregnancy you're a baby murderer. These are facts that don't change nor absolve responsibility just because some fancy institution says it does. Furthermore, allowing these institutions to think for you without thought to their motives and agendas is slavish, but so many are caught up in this institution idolization without even realizing it.
It is wise for an individual to act free from political influence and ideological prejudice, and is in fact inextricably a major piece of what it means to live out true freedom. I feel sorry for people who develop allegiances to parties, people, and ideas to the point they distort their individuality. We must be hyper critical of institutions seeking to mobilize you for their own purposes and agenda. We must especially analyze the institutions we feel most aligned with knowing that as such they are very clever at twisting details to rationalize evil using your own worldview and thinking. We must learn to be wholly independent of thought.
He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him. Proverbs 18:13
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The Loss of the Individual
“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”―Ayn Rand
Whether you like Ayn Rand or not is besides the point. This quote right here is something I wish every liberal and conservative in the country could conceptualize and internalize as truth, both are caught up in wicked group think. Our Constitutional republic is built on the concept that God has dignified individuals, not governments, or institutions with natural rights. The individual as a result is protected above all else.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” - Declaration of Independence
This means it is unethical to broad brush and generalize groups of people. Categorizing, classifying and dividing people into groups is the seeds of tyranny.
Individuals obviously are responsible for themselves and represent themselves. They are not punished or privileged by government based on a group they are perceived as supporting. In fact it is considered a logical fallacy of the highest order to paint with a broad brush in this way. For example, saying all liberals are godless communists is false, as well as saying all white Christians are racist and sexist. People are dynamic and diverse in opinion, and our laws reflect their rights to assert their perspectives as an individual without fear.
Well what happens when people start grouping together and warring against their ideological opponents? This constitutional system immediately becomes jeopardized. War has a way of forcing people to choose sides, and what is left of the previous system after the war God only knows.
Lynching Time
Our culture today has devolved into a pure democracy, where mob madness is provocateured by an oligarchic elite and celebrity class, alongside the social media mass influencers. This is why you see internet mobs, and celebrities whoring for the national spotlight and news cycle. They are struggling to use public opinion as a bludgeoning weapon against their political opponents. Internet and social media culture truly has spurred this degradation of our governmental and societal framework. The vitriol that unfolds daily on social media sites is caustic to civil discourse.
Today the social dialog and news cycle exists only to collectivize individuals into groups as a means to control how they vote, and think. Once methodically grouped by the media power elite, they serve as unwitting political attack mobs. In America this has materialized due to the slavish, and idolization of political parties.
Operationally speaking, day to day stories in the news cycle are seized upon as a means to create publicity opportunities to attack political opponents using social media, and politicized cable news outfits. No longer are ideas and philosophies intelligently debated and discussed. No, people are looking for any excuse to throw political dirt at their opponents with no thought for the rightness of their arguments or principles.
I fear the masses are to dumbed down, and have no clue how much import both God and our Constitution places on the individual. Responsibility will always rest on the individual and thus it is elevated as supreme in the Constitution, just below the authority of God Himself. Please Sign-up for our Newsletter and Like us on Facebook, for updates!
Conclusion
Jesus articulated this point, by making this statement,
"But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." - Matthew 13:36
Individuals will attest for their actions apart from the group. In the real word we are accountable to our families, our friends, our jobs, our laws and so on. It doesn't stop there, we are also accountable right up to our deaths as we face a just God who states that every idle word we speak will be evidence either for or against you. So do everything you can to extricate yourself from the rationalizations given to you by the politicized media.
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