Where Strength Comes From

Every worldview, every way of ordering information and events so they make sense, includes a basic sense of where strength comes from. Dennis Prager's column "The Left Thinks Legally, the Right Thinks Morally" looks at two worldviews on authority and strength. An excerpt:

To the Left, legality matters most, while to the Right, legality matters
far less than morality. To the Right and to the religious, the law, when it is
doing its job, is only a vehicle to morality, never a moral end in itself. Even
the Left has to acknowledge this. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to
a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955, she violated the law. Therefore,
anyone who thinks she did the right thing is acknowledging that law must be
subservient to morality. Why, then, must the overthrowing of Saddam Hussein be
subject to international law as determined by Communist China, neo-KGB Russia,
amoral France and the thugs who rule Syria?
The answer is to be found in the Left's substitution of legal for moral. And why is the Left so enamored of law?
First, the Left, which is largely secular, regards morality not as
absolute, but as relative. This inevitably leads to moral confusion, and no one
likes to be morally confused. So instead of moral absolutes, the Left holds
legal absolutes. "Legal" for the Left is what "moral" is for the Right. The
religious have a belief in God-based moral law, and the Left believes in
man-made law as the moral law.
Second, whereas they cannot change God's laws, those on the Left can and do make many of society's laws. In fact, the Left is intoxicated with law-making. It gives them the power to mold society just as Judeo-Christian values did in the past. Unless one understands that leftist ideals function as a religion, one cannot understand the Left.
Laws are the Left's vehicles to earthly salvation. Virtually all human problems have a legal solution.Some men harass women? Pass laws banning virtually every flirtatious
action a man might engage in vis a vis a woman. Flood legislatures with laws
preventing the creation of a "hostile work environment." Whereas the religious
world has always worked to teach men how to act toward women, the secular world,
lacking these religious values, passes laws to control men.
In fact, since it lacks the self-control apparatus that is a major part of religion, the Left passes more and more laws to control people. That is why there is a direct link
between the decline in Judeo-Christian religion and the increase in governmental
laws controlling human behavior. Of course, the more laws that are passed,
the less liberty society enjoys. But to the Left, which elevates any number of
values above liberty -- e.g., compassion, equality, fairness -- this presents
little problem.
All this helps to explain the Left's preoccupation with controlling courts; passing laws; producing, enriching and empowering lawyers; filing lawsuits; and naming judges. Laws and the makers of laws will produce heaven on earth.