Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 14, Number 17, DeMotte, Jasper County, 10 March 1944 — Might Does Not Make Right [ARTICLE]

Might Does Not Make Right

By VINCENT GIESE

Several centuries ago a certain political philosopher. Machiavelli, introduced a theory of state that “Might makes Right.” Today, it is this theory that is the spirit of the totalitarian governments which the United Nations are fighting. Far reaching are the implications of such a theory, for they not only sound the keynote why the United Nations must win this war, but also form a contrast to what is meant by Freedom from Fear. Briefly, Might makes Right" implies that the state has the right to do anything to further its own ends, ft has the right to oppress or overrun small, weaker nations, the right to plunder and pillage them, the right to persecute those who do not worship the state or its dictator as God, the right to eliminate undesireables (such as Hitler did the Jews), or the right to starve its people —the right to do all these for the (‘nd of the state. Machiavelli wrote, “Where it is a question of saving one’s country there must be no hesitation on the score* of justice or injustice, cruelty or kindness, praise or blame, but setting all things else aside one must snatch whatever means present themselves for the preservation of life and liberty.’’ And in the ultimate analysis, such theories have their birth in a false conception of the nature of man. Man according to them is not possessed of an immortal soul. He is not free. He is not an individual with a human personality. In brief, man doesn't have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which is the cardinal principle of our way of life. Rather, in totalitarian states mat is a cog in the state, a mere machine, a means to an end, an organism devoid of personality. Walter Lippmann in his penetrating book, The Good Society, writes, “So it is here, on the nature of man. between those who would respect him as an autonomous person and those who would degrade him to a living instrument, the issue is jointed.” Thus, do the United. Nations, which still uphold the true conception of man's nature, fight for freedom from fear, that soon in all nations man will be treated once a? a man. When this realization of man’s true nature is understood everywhere, man no longer need have fears of tyranny, oppression, supression, starvation, or secret police. Rather, man will be free to develop his person fully, to live in frugal comfort with his family and his fellowmen, to advance his state culturally, intellectually, and spiritually—-to do all these natural things free from a fear of a government which believes “Might makes Right.”