Hard Questions

Musing over which ideas to use for the next blog entry, all of the below questions are running through my rather cloudy grey matter. Rather than create an entire article on each, I gathered the ideas and in the Socratic Method put them to you as questions, about society and on liberty.

For most of human history, men have been expected to take care of their families. 50+ years ago the overwhelming majority of American men saw themselves as providers. If a man impregnated a woman, he usually married her. A man went to work and provided for his children. A man didn’t want to take any handouts. This was the definition of a man. More than 40% of children in America today are born without fathers, why? More importantly why do women today tolerate and accept males who don’t act like men?

Natural rights (also called moral rights or unalienable rights) are rights which are not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of a particular society or polity. Natural rights are thus necessarily universal, whereas legal rights are culturally and politically relative. Should we allow our government to enter into treaties with other nations that restrict our unalienable rights as affirmed in the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights?

Should the government be able to ban the use of salt, in all food cooked or served at restaurants? What would be the constitutional basis for such a law?

As an individual citizen, is it more American to believe that you have a personal responsibility to be personally accountable for your actions, and those of your family? Or is it more American to believe that you should wait for the giant collective to take care of you?

Should be the requirement of the neighbor who eats fresh vegetables to pay for the costly therapy of the guy who lunches daily on Big Macs?

Should the government be allowed to detain a person and confiscate any “dangerous” property, if they think the person might at some future time use it illegally?

Should the health non-smoker have to pay for the lung cancer/heart treatments of a smoker?


Should the average guy who worked hard in school, learned a trade, and works hard at providing for himself, be required to feed the family of a lazy man who dropped out of school and made bad decisions throughout his life?