We are not dealing with primarily an economic crisis. The crisis
goes well beyond questions of whether markets will fail or
whether we will have our jobs next week. What we are
experiencing is is a crisis of faith. We have, as those who lived
through the Depression experienced, lost faith in our leaders,
our economic system, and most crucially, we have lost faith in
ourselves.

Our leaders are trying to convince us to have faith in the
“system” (a system they have torn asunder and now claim that
they will fix), our ministers and priests assure us that we must
have faith in God and the Church while simultaneously telling us
our problems are the result of countless misdeeds- from support
the ten commandments – and our government bodies tell us to
have faith that they can prevent an Ancient Rome style collapse
with minute to minute changes in the interest rates, tax cuts,
and revisions of the regulatory code. Friends, this is a crisis of
faith, and I for one say good riddance to faith.

Faith, belief in something in the absence of evidence , is not the
answer. We need solutions which are based, not on faith, but a
rigid commitment to the facts, to truth, and to our nature. This
is the precise definition of the process that philosophers have
tried to damn since they reneged on their responsibility to
provide answers-reason.

Reason will tell you that what we have done so far is not
working-therefore change the methods we are employing.
Reason will tell you that our government has failed in its
obligation to protect us from this mess-therefore change the
nature of our government. Reason will tell you that church
leaders don’t have a rational solution-therefore ditch those
archaic and failed institutions which have consistently provided
no answers, and have created the crux of the problem.

In her well articulated article “Faith and Force: the Destroyers of
the Modern World” (printed in Philosophy: Who Needs It
(available at amazon.com)), Ayn Rand clearly demonstrates the
need to return to reason as the solution. For those who claim
otherwise I want to tell you: you will be held accountable.

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During the early decades of our Republic Liberalism was understood to be defined by its commitment to individual
rights.

The notion of “collective rights” or group rights was
foreign to political thinkers.  Groups, as such, had no
rights.  The concept of rights belonged to the individual.
individual rights.

Notice, therefore, that the modern “liberal” has no such
commitment.  They claim to be dedicated to protecting
“rights”, but their notion of rights does not extend beyond
groups-be they various sexual or ethnic minorities,
economic pressure groups, or organizations whose only
apparent motive seems to be promoting animosity
between competing factions-the individual–you–has been
left out of the equation (unless you self-identify or profess
allegiance to the various groups which the “liberals” work
to “protect”).  What is notoriously absent is the central
element which separates one individual from all
others-his ideas.

Philosophy, the study of ideas, belongs to no group; only
individuals-by their own conscious effort-can define a
philosophy, and it is this key element which is
deliberately obscured by all “liberals”.

Modern Liberalism has no philosophy, it has only a
grab-bag collection of Statist, collectivist programs
which: A: discount the efficacy of the individual as
non-existent or irrelevant; B: promote “group” rights as a
given (implying, therefore, that those who do not belong
to said group do not enjoy those rights); and C: maintains
that any opposition to such principles is rooted in a
repudiation of “rights” as a whole (ignoring the fact that
by proposing “collective rights” they have, in fact, made
any assertion of one’s own, individual rights, impossible).

Liberalism has turned its back on its own history;  at first
by default, accepting the underlying premises and
assumptions of socialist thinkers like Marx and Engels;
now, by intent, by obscuring the historical definition of
Liberalism and highjacking the once noble lable.  Modern “Liberalism” has sold its soul to its ethical antagonist and has lost all claim to the word “liberal”.

We are not dealing with primarily an economic crisis.  The crisis goes well beyond questions of whether markets will fail or
whether we will have our jobs next week. What we are
experiencing is is a crisis of faith.  We have, as those who lived
through the Depression experienced,  lost faith in our leaders,
our economic system, and most crucially, we have lost faith in
ourselves.

Our leaders are trying to convince us to have faith in the
“system” (a system they have torn asunder and now claim that
they will fix without showing the moral courage to define or name the “system” they intend to fix.  Our ministers and priests assure us that we must
have faith in God and the Church, which has failed entirely on every mission it has undertaken while simultaneously telling us
our problems are the result of countless misdeeds- from dropping support
the ten commandments  to the battles over abortion and gay marriage .   Our government Institutions and leaders tell us to
have faith that they can prevent an Ancient Rome style collapse
with minute to minute changes in the interest rates,  tax cuts,
and revisions of the regulatory code.  Friends this is a crisis of
faith- and I for one say good riddance to faith.

Faith,  belief in something in the absence of evidence , is not the
answer.  We need solutions which are based-  not on faith, but a
rigid commitment to the facts, to truth, and to our nature.  This
is the precise description of the process that philosophers have
tried to damn since they reneged on their responsibility to
provide answers-reason.

Reason will tell you that what we have done so far is not
working-therefore change the methods we are employing.
Reason will tell you that our government has failed in its
obligation to protect us from this mess-therefore change the
nature of our government.  Reason will tell you that church
leaders  don’t have a rational solution-therefore ditch those
archaic and failed institutions which have consistently provided
no answers, and have created the crux of the problem.

In her well articulated article “Faith and Force: the Destroyers of
the Modern World”  (printed in Philosophy: Who Needs It
(available at amazon.com)), Ayn Rand clearly demonstrates the antipathy between faith and reason; between persuasion and force, and the
need to return to reason as an absolute.  For those who advocate otherwise I  tell you: reality, logic, and human nature will hold you accountable.