In an effort to diminish the multiple and persistent
dangers and abuses which have characterized the affairs
of man in his every Age, and to assist in the requisite
search for human identity, it is essential to perceive
and specify that distinction which naturally and most
uniquely defines the human being. Because definitions
rule in the minds, behaviors, and institutions of men,
we can be confident that delineating and communicating
that quality will assist the process of resolution and
the courageous ascension to which man is called. As
Americans of the 21st Century, we are obliged and privi-
leged to join our forebears and participate in this
continuing proclamation.

FREEDOM'S MESSAGE "Man Defined: Earth's Choicemaker"
by JAMES FLETCHER BAXTER (c) 2003

Man is earth's Choicemaker. He is by "nature and nature's
God" a creature of choice - and of criteria. His unique
and definitive characteristic is, and of Right ought to be,
the natural foundation of his environments, institutions,
and respectful relations to his fellow-man. Thus, he is
oriented to a Freedom whose roots are in the natural order
of the universe.

* * *

At the sub-atomic level of the physical universe quantum
physics indicates a multifarious gap or division in the
causal chain; particles to which position cannot be
assigned at all times, systems that pass from one energy
state to another without manifestation in intermediate
states, entities without mass, fields whose substance is
as insubstantial as "a probability."

Only statistical conglomerates pay tribute to
deterministic forces. Singularities do not and are
therefore random, unpredictable, mutant, and in this
sense, uncaused. The finest contribution inanimate
reality is capable of making toward choice, without its
own selective agencies, is this continuing manifestation
of opportunity as the pre-condition to choice it defers
to the natural action of living forms.

* * *

Biological science affirms that each level of life,
single-cell to man himself, possesses attributes of
sensitivity, discrimination, and selectivity, and in
the exclusive and unique nature of each diversified
life form.

The survival and progression of life forms has all too
often been totally dependent upon the ever-present
mutative potential and undeterminative appearance of one
unique individual organism within the whole spectrum of
a given species. Only the uniquely equipped individual
organism is,like The Golden Wedge of Ophir, capable of
traversing the causal gap to survival and progression.
Mere reproductive determinacy would have rendered life
forms incapable of such potential. Only a moving
universe of opportunity plus choice enables the present
reality.
* * *

The human being possesses a unique, highly developed,
sensitive perception of diversity. Thus aware, man is
endowed with a natural capability for enacting internal
mental and external physical selectivity. Quantitative
and qualitative choice-making thus lends itself as the
superior basis of an active intelligence.

Man is earth's Choicemaker. His title describes his
definitive and typifying characteristic. Recall that his
other features are but vehicles of experience intent on
the development of perceptive awareness and the
following acts of decision. Note that the products of
man cannot define him for they are but the fruit of a
discerning choice-making process and include the
cognition of self, the utility of experience, the
development of value-measuring systems and language,
and the acculturation of civilization.

The arts, economics, and sciences of man, as with his
habits, customs, and traditions, are the creative harvest
of his perceptive and selective powers. His articles,
constructs, and commodities, however marvelous to behold,
deserve neither awe nor idolatry, for man, not his contri-
vance,is earth's own highest expression of the creative
process.

Man is earth's Choicemaker. The sublime and significant
act of choosing is, itself, the Archimedean fulcrum upon
which man levers and redirects the forces of cause and
effect to an elected level of quality and diversity.
Further, it orients him toward a natural environmental
opportunity, Freedom, and bestows earth's title, The
Choicemaker, on his individual and plural brow.

* * *

Deterministic systems,ideological symbols of abdication
by man from his natural role as earth's Choicemaker,
inevitably degenerate into collectivism; the negation of
singularity - they become a conglomerate plural-based
system of measuring human value. Blunting an awareness
of diversity, blurring alternatives, and limiting the
selective creative process, they are self-relegated to
a passive and circular regression.

Tampering with man's selective nature endangers his
survival, for it would render him impotent and obsolete
by denying the tools of diversity, individuality,
perception, criteria, selectivity, and progress.
Coercive attempts produce revulsion, for such acts are
contrary to an indeterminate nature and nature's own
indeterminate off-spring, Man the Choicemaker.

Until the oppressors discover that wisdom only just
begins with a respectful acknowledgment of The Creator,
The Creation, and The Choicemaker, they will be ever
learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth.
The rejection of Creator-initiated principles relegates
the mind of man to its own empirical and delimited devices.
It is thus that the human intellect cannot ascend and
function at any level higher than the criteria by which it
perceives and measures values. The rejection of transcendent
criteria self-denies man the vision and foresight essential
to decision-making for survival and progression. He is left,
instead, with the redundant wreckage of expensive hindsight,
including human institutions characterized by averages,
mediocrity, regression, and stagnation.

Evidenced by those who do not perceive superiority and thus
find themselves beset by the shifting winds of the carnal-
ego. The carnal-ego rejects criteria and principle for at
the point of contention standards are perceived as alien,
restrictive, and inhibiting. Yet, the very survival of our
physical nature itself depends upon a maintained sovereignty
of the mind and of the spirit.

* * *

As long as some choose to abdicate their personal reality
and submit to the illusions of determinism and collectiv-
ism, just so long will they be subject and reacting only,
to be tossed by every impulse emanating from others. Those
who abdicate such reality may, in perfect justice, find
themselves weighed in the balances of their own choosing.

That human institution which is structured on the defining
principle, "...all men are endowed by their Creator
with...Liberty...," is a system with its roots in the
natural order of the universe. The opponents of such a
system are necessarily engaged in a losing contest with
"nature and nature's God." Biblical principles are still
today the foundation under Western Civilization and the
American way of life. To the advent of a new season we
commend the present generation and the multitudes in
the valley of decision.

Let us proclaim it: The Season of Generation-Choicemaker.

* * *

CONTEMPORARY COMMENTS

"I should think that if there is one thing that man has
learned about himself it is that he is a creature of
choice." Richard M. Weaver

"Man is a being capable of subduing his emotions and
impulses; he can rationalize his behavior. He arranges
his wishes into a scale, he chooses; in short, he acts.
What distinguishes man from beasts is precisely that he
adjusts his behavior deliberately." Ludwig von Mises

"To make any sense of the idea of morality, it must be
presumed that the human being is responsible for his
actions and responsibility cannot be understood apart
from the presumption of freedom of choice."
John Chamberlain

"The advocate of liberty believes that it is
complementary of the orderly laws of cause and effect,
of probability and of chance, of which man is not
completely informed. It is complementary of them because
it rests in part upon the faith that each individual is
endowed by his Creator with the power of individual
choice." Wendell J. Brown

"Our Founding Fathers believed that we live in an ordered
universe. They believed themselves to be a part of the
universal order of things. Stated another way, they
believed in God. They believed that every man must find
his own place in a world where a place has been made for
him. They sought independence for their nation but, more
importantly, they sought freedom for individuals to
think and act for themselves. They established a republic
dedicated to one purpose above all others - the
preservation of individual liberty..." Ralph W. Husted

"We have the gift of an inner liberty so far-reaching
that we can choose either to accept or reject the God
who gave it to us, and it would seem to follow that the
Author of a liberty so radical wills that we should be
equally free in our relationships with other men.
Spiritual liberty logically demands conditions of outer
and social freedom for its completion." Edmund A. Opitz

"Above all I see an ability to choose the better from the
worse that has made possible life's progress."
Charles Lindbergh

"Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for
oneself the alternatives of Choice. Without the
possibility of Choice, and the exercise of Choice, a man
is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing."
Thomas Jefferson

* * *
"What is man...?" Earth's Choicemaker
http://www.geocities.com/James-Baxter
* * *

I'm shocked I tell you, so very shocked! Heh, seriously though, good info, thanks for the post.

/postrox!