Another Nail in the West’s Coffin

A soft judiciary is leading to social decay, writes Bill Muehlenberg.

If aliens came to earth and surveyed the scene in the contemporary Western world, they would have to ask themselves, “Why is the West so intent on destroying itself?” Good question. The evidence for this self-immolation is everywhere to be found, but the reasons for it are harder to come by.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn offered a suggestion some decades ago which is most likely the correct one: “It is because we have forgotten God – that is why all this is happening to us”. The secular left hegemony over so much of the West accounts for a good part of our woes.

And every day the headlines confirm this. Indeed, as one commentator put it, “History is little more than the story of man’s sin, and the daily newspaper a running commentary on it.” And the press has just offered up another prime example of this.

Consider this headline, “Transsexual spared jail for own safety”. That in itself raises a number of issues and concerns, but it gets worse as the article elaborates: “A transsexual who downloaded child pornography has walked free from a UK court because a judge said she would not be safe in prison, reports say.”

It continues, “Laura Voyce, 20, who used to be called Luke, was convicted of 14 counts of downloading indecent images of children. Some of the images on her laptop were graded at the second most sickening level of abuse.

Voyce, who is biologically still a man but legally a woman, was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court to a nine-month jail term suspended for 12 months.”

There is plenty in this story to get bent out of shape about. But what really enrages me is how our wishy-washy judiciary is continuously showing more concern for the welfare of criminals than the rights of crime victims. They are happy to let the criminals go scot free while the victims bear the unending suffering.

And in this case the victims are as tragic as they came: innocent little children who are sexually and physically abused so sicko perverts like this guy/girl/it can get their cheap thrills. This irresponsible judge was more worried about this trannie pervert than about the wellbeing of children who are being horribly abused.

Indeed, this sham judge has simply sent a green light to every would-be child-porn addict: just claim to be a transsexual and you will escape prosecution. Watch all the degrading child porn you like, because our judges are more concerned about your “rights” than they are about the rights of our most vulnerable and defenceless children.

No wonder we are going down the tubes so fast with clowns like this calling the shots. Of course all these secular left judges are products of our secular left and Marxist law schools, which have long ago lost the plot concerning criminal justice.

Indeed, today criminals are not getting true justice, but a free pass. It is the victims who are getting injustice time and time again. The rule of law is being undermined by activists and social engineers who want to remake society in their own mage.

And we ordinary law-abiding citizens are the ones who are paying the price for all this. Chesterton said it well: "A society is in decay, final or transitional, when common sense really becomes uncommon." Given that our legal eagles seem to have long ago lost any remaining sense, it appears that the decay is terminal.

Bill Muehlenberg is a Melbourne based author who lectures part time in ethics, theology and philosophy. He has an interactive blogsite called CultureWatch http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/

Comments

[Brett]

1.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn offered a suggestion some decades ago which is most likely the correct one: “It is because we have forgotten God – that is why all this is happening to us”.

[Removed by Editors - Inappropriate]

The decline of the west is the result of the rise of the state and our increasingly less free market.

Given that the right, especially in this country, don't actually make any effort to work towards the total separation of state and economy, but instead work towards more government (albeit at a rate slightly slower than that of the left), then I point my finger squarely at the likes of you.
You hide behind your rhetoric of "limited government", but this is ultimately a load of rubbish, and in the meantime you blame the problems caused by people like you on people like me, who rather strangely, believe in ACTUAL economic freedom.

[Jezza]

2.

Calm down Brett. You liberatrians are so obsessed with the market you fail to have any concern for social issues. How is a free market going to help the hundred thousand victims of abortion every year? The decline of the West isn’t just because of the intrusion of the state.

[.]

3.

I contend that Brett is right:

http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/budget/1996-97/1996-97BR01.htm

See table 3. You know it's gotten worse.

[Jezza]

4.

You're living in la la land if you think the market is going to solve all the world's problems.

[Vikas Nayak]

5.

Because the Theocracies of the world did a better job.

Seperate Church and state.
Seperate State and economy.

We'll be fine then.

[Angry Conservative]

6.

Excellent article Bill.
Chesterton also famously said that "when people cease to believe in God, they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything"
The passage of time and decline of faith and ascendancy of moral relativism in the West has validated his wisdom.
I was quite disappointed to see the Victorian judge on Q&A on Monday night. I've always had a view that judges (out of court) should be much like children: seen but not heard - though obviously for different reasons owing to their status in society. Moreover, her appearance only lessened my respect for her purported legal 'expertise', given that she was outpointed by Chris Evans on the matter of asylum seekers and unlawful entry into a country.
Jezza is exactly right. The market only functions adequately when there is a firm moral system that underpins it. The market can't solve deeper cultural problems; the market has its limitations and a wise economist/social thinker understands this truth.

[Jezza]

7.

How will that stop abortion?

[Vikas Nayak]

8.

Who cares about Abortion?

Its currently illegal in almost every state, and as far as im concerned its an individual issue (between families and their doctors).

If anything, more states should allow abortion, we only need to look at the US to see states with firm stances against abortion being the most backwards both economically and socially.

[Jezza]

9.

You weren't aborted, so it's easy to say you don't care. If one doesn't have the right to life, all other rights are superfluous as they cannot be exercised.

[Vikas Nayak]

10.

Even the bible doesn't define conception as life, so you're already not following a theological basis for your the morality you claim to be god given.

Also, i think you're misunderstanding what rights are. Rights are not something the government grants you, its something the government cant take away. Only the loony left and conservative right make this mistake. Abortion is well within the lines of J.S Mill's Harm Principle.

[.]

11.

"You're living in la la land if you think the market is going to solve all the world's problems."

I never said it would.

Civil society, individuals, families and limited Government can do the rest.

[Jezza]

12.

Not interested what J S Mill says, I'm interested in reality. Abortion is killing a unqiue human being.

I never mentioned the bible, but have you heard about the fifth commandment? Apparently not.

[Jezza]

13.

Sorry, comment was directed at Vikas

[.]

14.

Jezza,

We're not going to end abortions even if they are illegal. Illegality creates more grave concerns.

The best way to minimise them and the unintended consequences of a black market is to make it legal under common law rules of survival out of the womb but not subsidise it from the State.

I agree with Clinton. Safe, legal and (very) rare.

[Michael]

15.

I do wish these crank articles could stop being published, degrading the quality of this website significantly while making believers look like fools in the process.

[Vikas Nayak]

16.

The book of Acts was pretty clear about baptizing babies, and even the bible doesnt refer to life at conception. My point was that you have no religious backing for your little stint that life begins at conception.

But if you want to play selective scripture, heres one i had fun with in theology classes:

Would you also accept Mark 16 and that Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecy and therefore the new covenant isn't subject to the jewish laws of the old testament (including Leviticus and all its nastyness about sacrificing and scape goating)?

Like i said Abortion is well within the harm principle and the government shouldn't be in the business of dealing with victimless crimes.

[cameron]

17.

The judge was almost certainly correct in saying Voyce would not be safe in prison. Voyce's crime is terrible and a prison sentence would be appropriate, but there is no justice to be found in the random vengeance of fellow inmates.

Our prisons need to be made safer. Prisoners shouldn't have to live in fear of being assaulted, murdered or raped.

[Brett]

18.

Calm down Brett. You liberatrians are so obsessed with the market you fail to have any concern for social issues.

You're an economic illiterate moron. Most social problems are caused by economic problems...caused by the state.

How is a free market going to help the hundred thousand victims of abortion every year?

It is absurd to suggest that your specific morality based on two-thousand years of hear-day should be enforced by a violent, coercive monopoly (the state) on all people.

The decline of the West isn’t just because of the intrusion of the state.

Yes it is. The decline of religion has only made things better, socially.

[Brett]

19.

Chesterton also famously said that "when people cease to believe in God, they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything"

Very rich of you to criticise what other people believe when your belief system involves someone sending himself in the form of his son to earth, and then arranging to have himself in the form of his son killed in order to make himself forgive the sins of humans who are sinful because they somehow inherited their guilt from their original ancestors who were convinced by a talking snake to eat some magical fruit.

Imagine if everyone stopped believing this! There would be CHAOS!

The passage of time and decline of faith and ascendancy of moral relativism in the West has validated his wisdom.

Yeah, we have started treating gays and blacks like actual human beings, unlike 60 years ago when most people believed in god.
It's so sad that people are losing their sense of morality.

Jezza is exactly right. The market only functions adequately when there is a firm moral system that underpins it. The market can't solve deeper cultural problems; the market has its limitations

Oh look, another economic illiterate conservative moron.
"cultural problems" are imagined problems by nationalists/the religious who are moralising busybodies who are utterly incapable of minding their own business.

And let me guess, "firm moral system" underpinning the market means a coercive monopoly who enforces a strict, dogmatic interpretation of morality through the use of violence.

Oh yes, however would the market function without this.

[Michael Sutcliffe]

20.

Go screw yourself your brainless moron.

The decline of the west is the result of the rise of the state and our increasingly less free market.

Y'know, you can put forward a view without insulting someone. Classical liberal philosophy has a wonderful strength that other political philosophies don't: it stands on its own merits. You don't need faith or idealism to hold it up. If you insult people they just burr up. Gently undermine them through reason and evidence. They'll still be offended, but over time your ideas will gain traction. Whereas insults just make you look like an angry young man.

[.]

21.

Occasionally intelligent people can be shamed into thinking right if their head says yes but years of Obama worship etc says no.

[TerjeP]

22.

The decline of the west is the result of the rise of the state and our increasingly less free market.

I agree with this remark. However it is no answer to the situation where judges go soft on child pornography and other serious crime. I think the concern raised by Bill Muehlenberg is truely valid and something that we ought to have consider carefully. Like all libertarians I want a smaller government that amasses less powers for itself but that does not equate with being soft on real criminals that cause real harm to innocent people.

It is nice that judges are compassionate people that can retain hope in those that come before them. However the sentences Judges dish out do not just signal something to those on trial, but say something to society at large. If libertarians know anything, and I believe we do, it should be that incentives matter. And so do disincentives.

The judge was almost certainly correct in saying Voyce would not be safe in prison. Voyce's crime is terrible and a prison sentence would be appropriate, but there is no justice to be found in the random vengeance of fellow inmates.

And no justice to be found in zero sentence at all. The judge does not face a perfect or simple choice but a choice between lesser evils. I am not intimate with the details of the case but on the face of it I'd say that jail time should have been prescribed.

[Ben]

23.

“Go screw yourself your brainless moron”? Thanks Bill for advertising your anti-Christian bigotry. Alexander Solzhenitsyn actually lived under and spoke out against communism – so he knew what he was talking about.

Bill Muehlenberg deserves more respect. And where are all these libertarians who worry about “tone”?

[Brett]

24.

This has nothing to do with anti-Christian bigoty, but rather a hatred of stupidity.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn actually lived under and spoke out against communism – so he knew what he was talking about.

Guess who lived under communism and was one of the most noteworthy anti-communism writers of the twentieth century: Ayn Rand.

Guess who was also an extremely anti-religious atheist.....Ayn Rand!

The worship of things is dangerous, not atheism.

Bill Muehlenberg deserves more respect.

Please. Bill deserves no respect if he is going to blame the problems of today on the fact that less people believe in a magic sky leader than they did before.

It is such a simple minded and, well, just plain stupid claim.

[Eric]

25.

I suggest that the Bill's argument is the wrong way around? The west has not forgotten God, most people still have a belief system but many are disillusioned with the Christian religion. In Bill's example of the judge, the judge was acting in a very Christian manner. He was following Jesus' example in dispensing grace and mercy on the transsexual offender. Perhaps the problem is that the judge ought to be upholding the law, not exercising grace and mercy. We have a weird situation in the west where govts and the judiciary exercise grace and mercy and the Church acting like the Pharisees of old tries its best to uphold laws (moral and legislated). Perhaps a better outcome would result when the roles are reversed as they should be? People can trust their govts and judiciary to uphold laws. The Church can re-learn what it means to be Christian and becomes better known for being gracious and merciful following the example set up Jesus.

[Angry Conservative]

26.

Your comment (to Jezza):
"You're an economic illiterate moron. Most social problems are caused by economic problems...caused by the state."

My comment: Abuse is no substitute for proper argument. The social problems are not caused by economic problems. They are caused by a decline of faith which leads to a declining acceptance of objective truth and the slippery slope down to moral relativism.
------------------
Your comment:
"Very rich of you to criticise what other people believe when your belief system involves someone sending himself in the form of his son to earth, and then arranging to have himself in the form of his son killed in order to make himself forgive the sins of humans who are sinful because they somehow inherited their guilt from their original ancestors who were convinced by a talking snake to eat some magical fruit."

My response: Yes, I believe humans are sinful. I believe in the seven deadly sins and their damage to society. However, I also believe that humans are made in the image and likeness of God. I believe that humans have been reconciled to God through the divine person of Jesus and that our sins are forgiven if we have a contrite heart and do penance. I also believe that following the Ten Commandments is an essential practice for any society. You can have your own belief system but I'm not going to pretend that it's not inferior to the Christian one. Because the one based on Jesus, as the sign said on the boundary at AAMI Stadium last night, "ticks all the boxes". I think we need more public advertising like that! Go Adelaide!
---------------
Your comment: "Yeah, we have started treating gays and blacks like actual human beings, unlike 60 years ago when most people believed in god. It's so sad that people are losing their sense of morality. Imagine if everyone stopped believing this! There would be CHAOS!"

My response: I don't deny that blacks and gays have been treated poorly by Christians and non-Christians alike at various times and in various places. However, I distinguish clearly between blacks and gays because one is a racial group and the other is a sexual group. I believe that homosexual orientation of itself is not sinful but homosexual sex is sinful. Rejecting same-sex marriage is not treating homosexuals poorly; it's simply acknowledging the truth about what marriage is and what it's not.
And yes, it is correct that when people start blatantly transgressing the natural moral law of God, there is certainly CHAOS. (I think this was the none-too-subtle gist of Bill's article)
----------------------
Your comment: "cultural problems" are imagined problems by nationalists/the religious who are moralising busybodies who are utterly incapable of minding their own business."

My response: Are you seriously denying the existence of any cultural problems?
Moreover, to be human is to understand that "no man is an island" and that we belong to each other. It's a natural inclination of a healthy and thoughtful human being to have a concern for the social compact. Your comments that cultural problems are "imagined problems" displays a deeply ignorant, nihilist and dangerous attitude towards human affairs.
---------------------
Your comment: "And let me guess, "firm moral system" underpinning the market means a coercive monopoly who enforces a strict, dogmatic interpretation of morality through the use of violence."

My response: Where did anyone here (Jezza or myself) say anything about monopolies or violence? Jezza was simply making the point that the (taxpayer funded) violence done to innocent, unborn babies was not created by, and cannot be solved by, the market. You do your own argument great discredit by misrepresenting your opponent's stance. As for my point about a firm moral system underpinning the market, by that I mean a moral system that is based on justice, public spirit, kindness and good will. The market, by its nature, doesn't mandate this moral system; it precedes the market and is essential to its success.

[Angry Conservative]

27.

My comment to Menzies House editors is this:

If you are prepared to tolerate filthy and abusive language on this website such as that used by Brett in the first comment below Bill's article, then you are demeaning yourselves and any standards which you purport to uphold.

Goodbye

[.]

28.

Without God there is chaos?

Have you guys heard of the Salem witch trials?

Ben - if you're readiong - don't try to infer that I have a "fairy tale" understanding of history.

Those Puritans were obviously ostensibly devout, but unscrupulous colonists used their religion as a veil for their greed and impropriety.

Without their faith, they would have nowhere to hide and would have had to come clean.

That said, faith is good for some people. Even if you are religious you should be civilised enough so you don't need religion. I'm glad we've had some influence of the Judeo-Christian ethic. But not in determining social mores.

The idea that social problems are not in any way (actually mostly and putatively) caused by economic problems is like oking your eyes out to get a better view of things.