The Progress of Liberty

This post is meant to accompany Mr. Stolyarov’s presentation, “A Critique of John McCain’s Ideas on Foreign Policy.”

One of John McCain’s stated campaign objectives is to “[b]olster volunteerism with an energetic and comprehensive national service initiative designed to increase opportunities for people willing to serve their communities and their country.” Overall, McCain promises to “create a Service to America initiative to strengthen the teaching and understanding of American history, culture and core ideas, and to inspire Americans to serve causes greater than their own self interest.”

McCain is so proud of this goal that his campaign advertisement from September 2008 lists it at the very beginning. At the end of the advertisement, McCain asserts that his goal is to “put country first… above all else.”

To McCain’s call to “put country first… above all else,” I respond that a country has no existence as an entity in its own right. Only individuals exist, and individuals coexist in societies, which are just associations for mutual interest. The interest of every individual in the society is primary and has nothing superseding it. There is no “social interest” apart from the shared and mutually recognized interests of all individuals – the goals for which a society is formed and maintained. Thus, to “put country first… above all else” is to put country above individuals, which is to sacrifice individual good – the only real good – to some fictitious reification. Inevitably, “putting country first” means harming ourselves in a manner that will bring about no constructive results.

It is instructive here to recall the words of Ayn Rand:

”It stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there’s someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.”  (“The Soul of a Collectivist,” For the New Intellectual, 73)

I think John McCain’s call for service is a call for us to sacrifice in order to achieve his objectives. Certainly, in intending to be President of the United States, Mr. McCain intends to be the master over those who sacrifice on behalf of “the country’s,” i.e., Mr. McCain’s, interests. (It stands to reason, of course, that since “the country” cannot have any interests qua country, this means that some other genuine interest is behind the call to put “country first.” But whose interest is it? It may be Mr. McCain’s, but is it yours or mine?)

Moreover, McCain’s “call to service” is not just a call for government to subsidize volunteer service with taxpayer money – bad enough as that may be in itself. Rather, McCain would have compulsory service if he could get it.

I am grateful to Mr. William Dwyer for furnishing the following quotations on the Rebirth of Reason forum.

“Asked about compensation for service McCain said: ‘I’d be glad to reward [volunteers] as much as possible. But you want to be careful that the reason is not the reward of financial or other reasons, but the reward is the satisfaction of serving a cause greater than yourself. … Finding new ways to serve. That’s what this next few years should be all about.’”

McCain will only go so far in providing actual incentives for people to become interested in what he calls “service” activities. The rest, according to him, has to be done without any self-interest. That is, McCain wants us to do things we have no reason of our own to do – and any personal reasons whatsoever, be they material or intellectual or emotional – are not worthy or at least not as worthy as pure devotion to some “higher” cause for the sake of that cause in itself, and not any benefits it confers on oneself. The logical implication of this reasoning is that individuals should be coerced to serve “higher” causes, because causes that people do not choose to pursue voluntarily are causes for which they do not have a personal interest, and so are the “best” causes to get people to serve.

And indeed, McCain does believe that there are cases in which compulsory “service” – and “service” of the most dangerous kind – is justified. While McCain says that he would be opposed to military conscription in “ordinary” circumstances, he did say the following: “I don’t know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War III.” So McCain does not dispute the moral legitimacy of military conscription, and would certainly disagree with my argument that conscription is murder by lottery. And with the kind of extensive military presence overseas and provocative foreign policy that McCain proposes, American involvement in a future World War III is much more likely than it would be otherwise.

Keep in mind that McCain, who has joked about bombing Iran, is not considering World War III to be off-limits. On July 16, 2006, Newt Gingrich said that “[w]e’re in the early stages of what I would describe as the Third World War [with Iran], and, frankly…we don’t have the right attitude.” When asked to comment on Gingrich’s words, McCain responded that he concurred with Gingrich “to some extent.” He continued, “I think it’s important to recognize that we have terrorist organizations who are dangerous by themselves, and are now being supported by radical Islamic governments.”

McCain further said in September 2007 that he “could consider” a military draft that could be designed so that wealthy people would be subject to it on an equal basis with poorer people. McCain is not appalled by the thought of a draft, but he does dislike an un-egalitarian draft. If there could be an egalitarian draft – one that kills all people in equal proportions – McCain would be enthusiastically in support of it.

You can watch another explicit endorsement of the draft from McCain here:

McCain’s call that “each and every one of us has a duty to serve a cause greater than our own self-interest” is not new, nor is it at home among pro-liberty, pro-rights ideas. Rather, it has more in common with the following statements (for which I am, again, grateful to Mr. Dwyer):

“This state of mind, which subordinates the interests of the ego to the conservation of the community, is really the first premise for every truly human culture. . . . The basic attitude from which such activity arises, we call—to distinguish it from egoism and selfishness—idealism. By this we understand only the individual’s capacity to make sacrifices for the community, for his fellow men.”

~ Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

“[A] moral law, binding together individuals and the generations into a tradition and a mission . . . a higher life . . . a life in which the individual, through the denial of himself, through the sacrifice of his own private interests . . . realizes that completely spiritual existence in which his value as a man lies.”

~ Benito Mussolini

Is it not perplexing that the ideals of Nazi and fascist leaders are being used as campaign slogans, and the rank-and-file Republican voters, who are supposed to be in favor of individual freedom and capitalism, are obliviously cheering for them? They should think some more and turn back from making a truly fatal mistake.

See other parts of “A Critique of John McCain’s Ideas on Foreign Policy.”

G. Stolyarov II is a science fiction novelist, independent philosophical essayist, poet, amateur mathematician, composer, contributor to Enter Stage Right, Le Quebecois Libre, Rebirth of Reason, and the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Senior Writer for The Liberal Institute, former weekly columnist for GrasstopsUSA.com, and Editor-in-Chief of The Rational Argumentator, a magazine championing the principles of reason, rights, and progress. Mr. Stolyarov also publishes his articles on Helium.com and Associated Content to assist the spread of rational ideas. His newest science fiction novel is Eden against the Colossus. His latest non-fiction treatise is A Rational Cosmology. His most recent play is Implied Consent. You can also view his YouTube Videos. Mr. Stolyarov can be contacted at gennadystolyarovii@yahoo.com.

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