MARGARET THATCHER
Former Prime Minister, Great Britain
Margaret Thatcher was born in 1925 and went on to earn a degree in
chemistry from Somerville College, Oxford, as well as a master of arts
degree from the University of Oxford. For some years she worked as a
research chemist and then as a barrister, specializing in tax law.
Elected to the House of Commons in 1953, she later held several
ministerial appointments. She was elected leader of the Conservative
Party and thus leader of the Opposition in 1975.
She became Britain's first female prime minister in 1979 and served
her nation in this historic role until her resignation in 1990. In 1992,
she was elevated to the House of Lords to become Baroness Thatcher of
Kesteven. The first volume of her memoirs, The Downing Street Years, was published in 1993 by HarperCollins.
In
November 1994, Lady natcher delivered the concluding lecture in
Hillsdale Center for Constructive Alternatives seminar, "God and Man:
Perspectives on Christianity in the 20th Century" before an audience of
2,500 students, faculty, and guests. In an edited version of that
lecture, she examines how the Judeo-Christian tradition has provided the
moral foundations of America and other nations in the West and
contrasts their experience with that of the former Soviet Union.
The Moral Foundations of the American Founding
History has taught us that freedom cannot long survive unless it is
based on moral foundations. The American founding bears ample witness to
this fact. America has become the most powerful nation in history, yet
she uses her power not for territorial expansion but to perpetuate
freedom and justice throughout the world.
For over two centuries, Americans have held fast to their belief in
freedom for all men-a belief that springs from their spiritual heritage.
John Adams, second president of the United States, wrote in 1789, "Our
Constitution was designed only for a moral and religious people. It is
wholly inadequate for the government of any other." That was an
astonishing thing to say, but it was true.
What kind of people built America and thus prompted Adams to make
such a statement? Sadly, too many people, especially young people, have a
hard time answering that question. They know little of their own
history (This is also true in Great Britain.) But America's is a very
distinguished history, nonetheless, and it has important lessons to
teach us regarding the necessity of moral foundations.
John Winthrop, who led the Great Migration to America in the early
17th century and who helped found the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
declared, "We shall be as a City upon a Hill." On the voyage to the New
World, he told the members of his company that they must rise to their
responsibilities and learn to live as God intended men should live: in
charity, love, and cooperation with one another. Most of the early
founders affirmed the colonists were infused with the same spirit, and
they tried to live in accord with a Biblical ethic. They felt they
weren't able to do so in Great Britain or elsewhere in Europe. Some of
them were Protestant, and some were Catholic; it didn't matter. What
mattered was that they did not feel they had the liberty to worship
freely and, therefore, to live freely, at home. With enormous courage,
the first American colonists set out on a perilous journey to an unknown
land-without government subsidies and not in order to amass fortunes
but to fulfill their faith.
Christianity is based on the belief in a single God as evolved from
Judaism. Most important of all, the faith of America's founders affirmed
the sanctity of each individual. Every human life-man or woman, child
or adult, commoner or aristocrat, rich or poor-was equal in the eyes of
the Lord. It also affirmed the responsibility of each individual.
This was not a faith that allowed people to do whatever they wished,
regardless of the consequences. The Ten Commandments, the injunction of
Moses ("Look after your neighbor as yourself"), the Sermon on the Mount,
and the Golden Rule made Americans feel precious-and also
accountable-for the way in which they used their God-given talents. Thus
they shared a deep sense of obligation to one another. And, as the
years passed, they not only formed strong communities but devised laws
that would protect individual freedom-laws that would eventually be
enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Freedom with Responsibility
Great Britain, which shares much of her history in common with
America, has also derived strength from its moral foundations,
especially since the 18th century when freedom gradually began to spread
throughout her socie!y Many people were greatly influenced by the
sermons of John Wesley (1703-1791), who took the Biblical ethic to the
people in a way which the institutional church itself had not done
previously.
But we in the West must also recognize our debt to other cultures. In
the pre-Christian era, for example, the ancient philosophers like Plato
and Aristotle had much to contribute to our understanding of such
concepts as truth, goodness, and virtue. They knew full well that
responsibility was the price of freedom. Yet it is doubtful whether
truth, goodness, and virtue founded on reason alone would have endured
in the same way as they did in the West, where they were based upon a
Biblical ethic.
Sir Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
wrote tellingly of the collapse of Athens, which was the birthplace of
democracy. He judged that, in the end, more than they wanted freedom,
the Athenians wanted security. Yet they lost everything-security,
comfort, and freedom. This was because they wanted not to give to
society, but for society to give to them. The freedom they were seeking
was freedom from responsibility. It is no wonder, then, that
they ceased to be free. In the modern world, we should recall the
Athenians' dire fate whenever we confront demands for increased state
paternalism.
To cite a more recent lesson in the importance of moral foundations,
we should listen to Czech President Vaclav Havel, who suffered
grievously for speaking up for freedom when his nation was still under
the thumb of communism. He has observed, "In everyone there is some
longing for humanity's rightful dignity, for moral integrity, and for a
sense that transcends the world of existence." His words suggest that in
spite of all the dread terrors of communism, it could not crush the
religious fervor of the peoples of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
So long as freedom, that is, freedom with responsibility, is grounded
in morality and religion, it will last far longer than the kind that is
grounded only in abstract, philosophical notions. Of course, many foes
of morality and religion have attempted to argue that new scientific
discoveries make belief in God obsolete, but what they actually
demonstrate is the remarkable and unique nature of man and the universe.
It is hard not to believe that these gifts were given by a divine
Creator, who alone can unlock the secrets of existence.
Societies Without Moral Foundations
The most important problems we have to tackle today are problems,
ultimately, having to do with the moral foundations of society There are
people who eagerly accept their own freedom but do not respect the
freedom of others-they, like the Athenians, want freedom from
responsibility. But if they accept freedom for themselves, they must
respect the freedom of others. If they expect to go about their business
unhindered and to be protected from violence, they must not hinder the
business of or do violence to others.
They would do well to look at what has happened in societies without
moral foundations. Accepting no laws but the laws of force, these
societies have been ruled by totalitarian ideologies like Nazism,
fascism, and communism, which do not spring from the general populace,
but are imposed on it by intellectual elites.
It was two members of such an elite, Marx and Lenin, who conceived of
"dialectical materialism," the basic doctrine of communism. It robs
people of all freedom-from freedom of worship to freedom of ownership.
Marx and Lenin desired to substitute their will not only for all
individual will but for God's will. They wanted to plan everything;
in short, they wanted to become gods. Theirs was a breathtakingly
arrogant creed, and it denied above all else the sanctity of human life.
The 19th century French economist and philosopher Frederic Bastiat
once warned against this creed. He questioned those who, "though they
are made of the same human clay as the rest of us, think they can take
away all our freedoms and exercise them on our behalf." He would have
been appalled but not surprised that the communists of the 20th century
took away the freedom of millions of individuals, starting with the
freedom to worship. The communists viewed religion as "the opiate of the
people." They seized Bibles as well as all other private property at
gun point and murdered at least 10 million souls in the process.
Thus 20th century Russia entered into the greatest experiment in
government and atheism the world had ever seen, just as America several
centuries earlier had entered into the world's greatest experiment in
freedom and faith.
Communism denied all that the Judeo-Christian tradition taught about
individual worth, human dignity, and moral responsibility. It was not
surprising that it collapsed after a relatively brief existence. It
could not survive more than a few generations because it denied human
nature, which is fundamentally moral and spiritual. (It is true that no
one predicted the collapse would come so quickly and so easily. In
retrospect, we know that this was due in large measure to the firmness
of President Ronald Reagan who said, in effect, to Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev, "Do not try to beat us militarily, and do not think that you
can extend your creed to the rest of the world by force.")
The West began to fight the mora! battle against communism in earnest
in the 1980s, and it was our resolve-combined with the spiritual
strength of the people suffering under the system who finally said,
"Enough!"-that helped restore freedom in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
Union-the freedom to worship, speak, associate, vote, establish
political parties, start businesses, own property, and much more. If
communism had been a creed with moral foundations, it might have
survived, but it was not, and it simply could not sustain itself in a
world that had such shining examples of freedom, namely, America and
Great Britain.
The Moral Foundations of Capitalism
It is important to understand that the moral foundations of a society
do not extend only to its political system; they must extend to its
economic system as well. America's commitment to capitalism is
unquestionably the best example of this principle. Capitalism is not,
contrary to what those on the Left have tried to argue, an amoral system
based on selfishness, greed, and exploitation. It is a moral system
based on a Biblical ethic. There is no other comparable system that has
raised the standard of living of millions of people, created vast new
wealth and resources, or inspired so many beneficial innovations and
technologies.
The wonderful thing about capitalism is that it does not discriminate
against the poor, as has been so often charged; indeed, it is the only
economic system that raises the poor out of poverty. Capitalism also
allows nations that are not rich in natural resources to prosper. If
resources were the key to wealth, the richest country in the world would
be Russia, because it has abundant supplies of everything from oil,
gas, platinum, gold, silver, aluminum, and copper to timber, water,
wildlife, and fertile soil.
Why isn't Russia the wealthiest country in the world? Why aren't
other resource-rich countries in the Third World at the top of the list?
It is because their governments deny citizens the liberty to use their
God-given talents. Man's greatest resource is himself, but he must be
free to use that resource.
In his recent encyclical, Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul
I1 addressed this issue. He wrote that the collapse of communism is not
merely to be considered as a "technical problem." It is a consequence of
the violation of human rights. He specifically referred to such human
rights as the right to private initiative, to own property, and to act
in the marketplace. Remember the "Parable of the Talents" in the New
Testament? Christ exhorts us to be the best we can be by developing our
skills and abilities, by succeeding in all our tasks and endeavors. What
better description can there be of capitalism? In creating new
products, new services, and new jobs, we create a vibrant community of
work. And that community of work serves as the basis of peace and good
will among all men.
The Pope also acknowledged that capitalism encourages important
virtues, like diligence, industriousness, prudence, reliability,
fidelity, conscientiousness, and a tendency to save in order to invest
in the future. It is not material goods but all of these great virtues,
exhibited by individuals working together, that constitute what we call
the "marketplace."
The Moral Foundations of the Law
Freedom, whether it is the freedom of the marketplace or any other
kind, must exist within the framework of law. 0thenvise it means only
freedom for the strong to oppress the weak. Whenever I visit the former
Soviet Union, I stress this point with students, scholars, politicians,
and businessmen-in short, with everyone I meet. Over and over again, I
repeat: Freedom must be informed by the principle of justice in order to
make it work between people. A system of laws based on solid moral
foundations must regulate the entire life of a nation.
But this is an extremely difficult point to get across to people with
little or no experience with laws except those based on force. The
concept of justice is entirely foreign to communism. So, too, is the
concept of equality. For over seventy years, Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union had no system of common law. There were only the arbitrary
and often contradictory dictates of the Communist Party. There was no
independent judiciary There was no such thing as truth in the communist
system.
And what is freedom without truth? I have been a scientist, a lawyer,
and a politician, and from my own experience I can testify that it is
nothing. The third century Roman jurist Julius Paulus said, "What is
right is not derived from the rule, but the rule arises from our
knowledge of what is right." In other words, the law is founded on what
we believe to be true and just. It has moral foundations. Once again, it
is important to note that the free societies of America and Great
Britain derive such foundations from a Biblical ethic.
The Moral Foundations of Democracy
Democracy is never mentioned in the Bible. When people are gathered
together, whether as families, communities or nations, their purpose is
not to ascertain the will of the majority, but the will of the Holy
Spirit. Nevertheless, I am an enthusiast of democracy because it is
about more than the will of the majority. If it were only about the will
of the majority, it would be the right of the majority to oppress the
minority. The American Declaration of Independence and Constitution make
it clear that this is not the case. There are certain rights which are
human rights and which no government can displace. And when it comes to
how you Americans exercise your rights under democracy, your hearts seem
to be touched by something greater than yourselves. Your role in
democracy does not end when you cast your vote in an election. It
applies daily; the standards and values that are the moral foundations
of society are also the foundations of your lives.
Democracy is essential to preserving freedom. As Lord Acton reminded
us, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." If
no individual can be trusted with power indefinitely, it is even more
true that no government can be. It has to be checked, and the best way
of doing so is through the will of the majority, bearing in mind that
this will can never be a substitute for individual human rights.
I am often asked whether I think there will be a single international
democracy, known as a "new world order." Though many of us may yearn
for one, I do not believe it will ever arrive. We are misleading
ourselves about human nature when we say, "Surely we're too civilized,
too reasonable, ever to go to war again," or, "We can rely on our
governments to get together and reconcile our differences." Tyrants are
not moved by idealism. They are moved by naked ambition. Idealism did
not stop Hitler; it did not stop Stalin. Our best hope as sovereign
nations is to maintain strong defenses. Indeed, that has been one of the
most important moral as well as geopolitical lessons of the 20th
century. Dictators are encouraged by weakness; they are stopped by
strength. By strength, of course, I do not merely mean military might
but the resolve to use that might against evil.
The West did show sufficient resolve against Iraq during the Persian
Gulf War. But we failed bitterly in Bosnia. In this case, instead of
showing resolve, we preferred "diplomacy" and "consensus." As a result, a
quarter of a million people were massacred. This was a horror that I,
for one, never expected to see again in my lifetime. But it happened.
Who knows what tragedies the future holds if we do not learn from the
repeated lessons of histoy? The price of freedom is still, and always
will be, eternal vigilance.
Free societies demand more care and devotion than any others. They
are, moreover, the only societies with moral foundations, and those
foundations are evident in their political, economic, legal, cultural,
and, most importantly, spiritual life.
We who are living in the West today are fortunate. Freedom has been
bequeathed to us. We have not had to carve it out of nothing; we have
not had to pay for it with our lives. Others before us have done so. But
it would be a grave mistake to think that freedom requires nothing of
us. Each of us has to earn freedom anew in order to possess it. We do so
not just for our own sake, but for the sake of our children, so that
they may build a better future that will sustain over the wider world
the responsibilities and blessings of freedom.
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