Spherical Model Quotes

The Political Sphere
of The Spherical Model

I’ve done posts in the past of quotes from various people that relate to the Spherical Model (for example, here, here, and here). And I’ve done posts collecting links to some of the “best of” the Spherical Model blog posts. But I haven’t done a post quoting from the Spherical Model website and blog. That’s what we’re doing today—quoting myself. I’m hoping this will encourage you to read more about the Spherical Model, an alternative to right and left in describing interrelating ideas from the political, economic, and social spheres.

From “Fact or Opinion,” March 12, 2015. The piece was about the distortion of the definitions of fact and opinion in a way that removes morality and makes truth harder to ascertain. This is the final summary:

Truth exists separate from us. Seeking truth is a work for a lifetime. It takes a good mind, and a good heart, and spiritual strength to know truth. Seeking God is more likely to lead to truth than leaving out the Omniscient One and going at it on our own.

From “Wealth, Poverty, and Politics,” December, December 10, 2015. This piece reviewed an interview with Thomas Sowell on Uncommon Knowledge, following Sowell’s book by the same title. I noticed connections with the Spherical Model idea of interrelationships of political freedom, economic prosperity, and civilization. This is one of the basic axioms of the Spherical Model and the role of government:

Whenever government attempts something beyond the proper role of government (protection of life, liberty, and property), it causes unintended consequences—usually exactly opposite to the stated goals of the interference.

From “Commerce and Philanthropy—Two Sides of the Same Coin,” November 9, 2015. The piece covered a Q&A with Steve Forbes at a Hillsdale College economic symposium. Forbes mentioned the importance, morally, of turning to the Constitution for economic thriving, which sounds like the Spherical Model, with the interrelating spheres. I followed with this:

The goals are freedom, which we get from abiding by the US Constitution; prosperity, which we get from free markets (not to be confused with crony capitalism); and civilization, which we get from a moral people living moral lives, which includes strong families to pass along the way to civilization.

From “What We Conserve,” October 1, 2015. In this piece, we go over the enumerated powers of the Constitution, based on God-given rights. Because this is the Spherical Model, we cover what we conserve in each of the spheres: political, economic, and social. So we’ll have a quote or two from each of those:

Political Sphere:

If we’re going to conserve our liberties, that means government does nothing to infringe on our God-given rights. So government has no business involving itself in what we believe or what we say, with the specific exceptions of when something we do infringes on the God-given rights of others. What we need is to conserve our Constitution, in its real form, not some penumbras invented by unelected judges.

Economic Sphere:

Every dollar government spends is a societal expense. Government can’t spend more money to help the economy. When we have downturns in the economy, and everyone says government has to do something—that something should be to get out of the way and let the recovery happen.

Charity isn’t a duty of government; charity isn’t even possible by government. Government charity is better labeled coercive taking of income from some to give to others—or theft. Charity includes various helps for the poor: welfare food and housing, health care, student grants, social security, and more.

Conservatives don’t mean for these helps to be eliminated. But in a civilized society, those in need receive help mainly locally, by those in contact with them, such as churches and local nonprofits, from those who freely give. Charity means love; it is entirely unrelated to forced income redistribution. If there is one thing conservatives need to speak more clearly on, it is this better way to help those in need. Our way is better for giver and receiver, and leads to greater prosperity, rather than more poverty at the cost of lost freedom.

Social Sphere:

Civilization requires a people accountable to God. Such people value family, innocent human life, property rights, and truth. Such people respect one another and generally live together in peace despite differences in belief and culture.

A conservative leader recognizes that religion is not just a tolerated quirk of some minority of the population; religion is an essential institution helping us understand what our rights are, and what our obligations to one another are. The question about forcing Little Sisters of the Poor, or Hobby Lobby, or bakers, florists, and photographers to act against their conscience would disappear, if our leaders appreciated the religious view of family, life, property, and truth.

From “The Political World Is Round,” on The Spherical Model website, in the section “US Parties in Relation to Freedom Zone.” This was written, in its current form, in 2010. It’s probably more positive than the party is today:

The Democrats are a symbiotic mix of people demanding that government provide for their needs—health care, education, housing, redistribution of wealth, regulating use of resources, even making jobs: the demanding needy, we could call them—along with the elites who are willing to pander to the demanding needy in order to increase their personal power: the would-be dictators. When Republicans engage in the debate, they often try to deal with the demanding needy by saying, “We’ll give you those things too, but we’ll be more responsible about it and cost you less in taxes,” to which the reply is, “You hate children and old people; you’re trying to kill them!” and other absurdities. It’s not a reasonable debate approaching even the lowest borders of the freedom zone.

I don’t mean to imply that everyone in the Democratic Party is consciously socialist. Many simply focus on needs and wants as problems, with government as the only logical problem solver. Many on the would-be dictators’ side of the party, those in academia, media, entertainment, and other areas controlling wealth, are well-intentioned. They think of themselves as the fortunate (and often therefore guilty) elite who believe it’s their moral obligation to force society to provide for the needy—unwilling or unable to see the immorality in taking substance from one person for their own purposes—what we call theft when anybody but the government does it. One troubling thing about elites who seek power is that, when the people don’t elect them, they see that as just more evidence that the people aren’t capable of choosing what’s good for them, and so they see their power seeking as even more justified.

From “Free Enterprise vs. Controlled Economy,” on The Spherical Model website, in the section on “Capitalism.”

Capital in and of itself is simply never evil. Capital might be considered always good. It represents work above and beyond what is essential followed by careful use of it toward a good idea, resulting in even more surplus. Those who hate capitalism are those who don’t produce it. They don’t have either the discipline or the drive to produce more than is necessary, and then to find ways to have that wealth work for them. They are jealous of those who have produced capital and use it. They insist it’s unfair that some have advantages that they don’t.

If you’re interested in more collected words from The Spherical Model, try the links found in “Spherical Model Review,” December 31, 2015.