High Ground Essay

The high ground is an all important strategic position in war fare, it is also important in debate. In debate, there is no physical high-ground but there is the moral high-ground. It is the position of truth and justice. It may not always be the position which makes the most people happy or creates the most wealth but it is the right-position. As human, I believe we all share a common moral intuition that comes down to the use of violence—it is wrong. It is wrong to kill people but it is also wrong to take their stuff. This is where we, as conservatives, win the debate. We do not win the debate by taking to its extreme, practicality has to be taken into account, and we do not win the debate by using this as a one size fit all tool of debate, different people require different methods. But we can win more debates by breaking the debate into clear terms- left versus right and wring versus right. As I write this I am reflecting on my own political journey. How I started as your standard right-wing conservative, moved to a borderline
Even today, as someone who buys into a view of the world that says everything that can be done voluntarily without government should be down voluntarily without government, I cringe at libertarian platitudes. Taxation is theft, we are slaves to the government or not owning our own property—while these all may have some legitimacy they are also naive. Taxes are not voluntary but to call them theft ignores the nuances of political theory like the social contract and implicit agreement. While only the most extreme anarchy-capitalists openly argue that we are slaved to the government, it does not mean it is an illogical conclusion to their beliefs. But while the logical conclusion, and arguably technically true, it also fly’s in the face of basic reason. Government is force but slaves were not free to act as they pleased (within reasonable