Secular Humanism? Call it what you will.
THE HIGHEST CAUSE -- THE CONSCIOUS INDIVIDUAL
The highest cause in the universe is the well-being and happiness of the conscious individual. The individual -- a minority of one -- is the smallest, the most important, most unprotected of all minorities. If rights of the individual are protected, then rights are protected for everyone -- for Blacks, Chicanos, women, factory owners, factory workers, farmers, homosexuals. The concept of minority rights is meaningless, prejudicial, and destructive. In fact, that concept is a tool used by professional mystics and control freaks to usurp power and unearned values not by protecting but by violating the rights of individuals.
Only the concept of individual rights is meaningful and valid. The following table contrasts the anti-individual, control freak view to the pro-individual view.
ANTI-INDIVIDUAL VIEW
VERSUS
PRO-INDIVIDUAL VIEW
Anti-Individual View
(Platonistic Oriented)
The uncontrolled, free individual is by nature bad and harmful to conscious life. Morally, the individual must be controlled by external "authorities".
Group or government force is necessary to control the individual to make him do good.
The conscious individual is subordinate to society or to "higher" or "nobler" causes.
The use of force to compel individuals to comply with the "will" of society is moral.
The moral purpose of life is self-sacrifice in serving "higher" goals.
Pride is a character flaw.
Service to a government by conscription is necessary and proper.
Property belongs to society, the "people", or the government.
Social science is a valid, valuable science.
Populations consist of various groups of people, societies, and cultures.
Pro-Individual View
(Aristotelian Oriented)
The uncontrolled, free individual is by nature good and beneficial to conscious life. Morally, the individual must be free and remain free from external "authorities".
Both the individual and society function best when the individual is free from any group control, government force, or external "authority".
The conscious individual is the highest, noblest possible good or cause in the universe.
The use of initiatory force against any individual for any reason is immoral.
The moral purpose of life is to achieve rational happiness.
Pride is the result of moral virtue.
Service to a government or to any cause is proper only on a voluntary basis. Any form of conscription is forced sacrifice and evil.
Property is an earned entity. Thus, it can morally belong only to those individuals (or their businesses) who produced the values needed to earn that property.
Social science generally has little validity as a science, especially because it usually denies the individual as the prime entity of human life.
Populations, societies, and cultures consist of specific individuals.
