Following his dismissal from power, Mikail Gorbachev spoke at Stanford University. He told them what was important was that the Cold War was over and that it was not important to decide who won it. The audience nodded and applauded.

Both Gorbachev and the Stanford audience were wrong. Perhaps a visit to the famine-struck regions of North Korea would remind them why.

There comes a point when enough information exists to fairly judge a government philosophy to be a failure. Communism reached that point long ago, and some philosophies in America have also reached that point.

Treating violent criminals as helpless, oppressed victims of society and replacing fathers with a government check has wreaked havoc on many American cities.

A generation of political leaders, civil rights activists and academics has created its power base by spreading self-serving philosophies that are used by criminals themselves to rationalize, even glorify, their crimes.

The L. A. riots (or “rebellion,” as it was called by these folks) was a prime example of this. The killing of over 50 people and assaults on thousands more were dismissed by men like multi-cultural leader Cornell West as “a justifiable case of social rage.”

Rudolph Giuliani, the current mayor of New York, is spreading philosophies himself, but they are far different.

He doesn’t court the vote of rioters. He unequivocally states that you don’t have the right to brutalize others or destroy their property. Not even if you are mad or poor.

Giuliani also promotes the “broken window theory.” This says that if a window gets broken on a building and nothing is done, soon all the windows will be broken. The message is that nobody cares and people will not be held accountable.

In New York, the promotion of the broken window theory means that smaller crimes are being fought and a sense of order is created to reduce the number of serious crimes.

Regulations covering vandalism, vagrancy, even eating on the subway are enforced. In addition, beautification projects are done throughout the city.

Abandoned cars are towed away, and vacant lots are cleaned up. Today, if a subway car or garbage truck has graffiti on it, it doesn’t leave the city yard until it has been cleaned off — period.

The progress in New York during Giuliani’s administration is staggering. The number of murders has more than dropped in half, and other serious crime is falling at equally impressive rates. New York now has the lowest crime rate of any American city with over one million people.

In addition, by requiring many welfare recipients to work to receive benefits, Giuliani has helped to reduce the number of people on public assistance to a 30-year low.

New York’s safer streets and growing workforce has aided a boom in tourism and a much-improved attitude among the residents.

Giuliani believes government is fundamentally about philosophies, and it is interesting just how far back some conservative arguments go.

The conservative response to moral relativism and its consequences can be traced back to Edmund Burke’s reaction to the French Revolution.

The following quote is from a letter sent by Edmond Burke and is over 200 years old:

“I have observed that the Philosophers, in order to insinuate their polluted atheism into young minds, systematically flatter all their passions natural and unnatural. They explode or render odious or contemptible that class of virtues which restrain the appetite.

“But these are at least nine out of 10 of the virtues. In place of all these, they substitute a virtue they call humanity or benevolence.

“By these means, their morality has no idea in it of restraint, or indeed of a distinct settled principle of any kind.

“When their disciples are thus left free and guided only by present feeling, they are no longer to be depended on for good or evil.

“The men who today snatch the worst criminals from justice, will murder the most innocent persons tomorrow.”

Burke’s quote still holds true.

The philosophy of liberalism turned American inner cities into battle zones and robbed millions of people of the ability to care for themselves and their children. It can safely be judged a failure, just like Communism.

Let Stanford audiences clap for whom they want, but as for me, I’m saving my applause for men like Burke and Giuliani!

---

Benjamin Studenski is a senior in industrial engineering from Hastings, Minn.