SOCIAL ENGINERING

As I heard the story Newt Gingrich was on a TV program and he made some negative comments about Representative Ryan’s budget. He called it “social engineering.” That remark was so troubling to Rush Limbaugh that Rush called Newt on the phone. I saw the clip of the call. Rush demanded to know what Newt meant. “What is Social Engineering?” Newt Gingrich said that he was against any time Government tried to tell us what to do. Mr. Gingrich said he was opposed to Government involvement in our lives. He was opposed to Government involvement whether it was from the Liberal side or from the Conservative side. Social Engineering was where Government was trying to control our lives.

On this week-end where we remember those who have died in defense of this country, one has to wonder if they did not die in defense of social engineering. They were willing to give their lives to protect and defend the values and the system of government that we have. And what we have is a system of government that is built on the constant debate about social engineering. The bottom line is that we all want social engineering. We need social engineering. We could not be a society without social engineering. It is just that we have a variety of ideas of how that engineering should look like and be done.

Nobody is opposed to social engineering, government telling us how to behave, when it comes to driving on the highway. Somebody has to tell us all to stay on the “right side of the road.” We want somebody to check our medicines and make sure they are safe. We want somebody to inspect the restaurants and make sure they are healthy. When a beautiful 6 month old little girl gets beaten to death by the mother’s boy friend, there is a great cry that Social Services should have been there and taken the baby. There are just so many things that make our lives together better because Government is playing a major role in trying to protect us all.

But it is just as true that there are major areas where we have a great debate about where Government should be in our lives. Women believe that Government has no right to tell them what they can do with their bodies. There are millions who believe that Government should prevent women from having abortions. There are millions who believe that Government should ban tobacco and all forms of smoking. There is even a baseball executive who thinks chewing tobacco ought to be banned. There are millions of smokers who think that Government has no right to tell them if they can or cannot smoke. There are those who think that government, the school systems, ought to teach evolution. There are others who think government has no right to “impose” that system on them.

Social Engineering, government telling us how to live, is something that I think those who died defending this country would understand. They went and fought as the Government told them. They believed in this country enough to accept the orders of the Government. Social Engineering is the only way we can ever live together. And the great thing about this country is that we have a way to have a debate about how that engineering will look. Part of me thinks Social Engineering is what being a faithful person of religious conviction is all about... building a better society.