Spring and autumn have served as poetic inspiration since time immemorial. Spring because of its promises of growth and productivity, and autumn because of the reaping of the harvest in preparation for the fallow months of winter. Perhaps that’s why I see the scheduling of Acton’s Annual Dinner every October as a coincidence that is both happy and possessing poetic and spiritual significance.
Our happiness derives from taking a break to recognize the hard work and accomplishments of Acton staff, as well from the opportunity to reassess and reaffirm our goals and recommit ourselves to the tasks that lie ahead. We do this while gathered together in the spirit of camaraderie—and in this sense, we elevate our aspirations into the poetic and spiritual realms.
The Acton community is ecumenical and diverse. What draws us together is a desire to witness human thriving and promote programs and policies that assist in that result. Conversely, we are tasked with the responsibility of identifying those insidious elements that hinder liberty and stifle the realization of the panoply of human flourishing. As readers well know, much of those efforts promoted as cultivating prosperity or assisting in the establishment of some Earth-bound utopia result in a myriad of negative unforeseen consequences.
One need only to look at the fallout from such ill-conceived government programs as the War on Poverty and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to understand the negative repercussions of hastily considered initiatives, however much they’re promoted as well intentioned. Lawmakers often—too often—get it wrong, whether administering charity or health care.
I’ll leave it to readers to discern whether it’s by design or happenstance that massive government growth and concomitant incursions into nearly every aspect of business and personal life proceed apace. But I do invite these same readers to join Acton and its network of staff and supporters in its efforts to curtail Leviathan.
There will never be an earthly heaven even if all our efforts succeed, but there will certainly be less of the hell many of us have come to accept as a reasonable trade-off for inherently flawed programs that emanate from humanity’s hubris rather than from the infinite wisdom of God and his spiritual followers.
