the September 2006 / Volume 3, Issue 1 / the-undercurrent.com Undercurrent “It was as if an underground stream flowed through the country and broke out in sudden springs that shot to the surface at random, in unpredictable places.” Ayn Rand LEGALIZE THE INSIDE THIS ISSUE Not All Constitutions Are AMERICAN DREAM Created Equal Despite claims to the contrary, illegal immigrants are a boon to the economy and to the country. page 2 by Rebecca Knapp Defending the Selfish Choice: Illegal immigrants are pouring into the United Abortion Rights and the States. Pro-immigration rallies and anti-immi- Morality of Egoism gration rallies alternated with equal fervor this page 3 spring, while the number of illegals living in the country continued to grow towards 10 million. Pending leg- Joining Heart and Head: A islation threatens to make illegal immigration a felony and Cure For The House, M.D. to build a wall across the southern border. A group of armed Blues civilians calling itself the Minutemen Project patrols areas where illegal immigrants frequently cross into America, page 5 while southwestern talk radio stations voice their shrill sup- Morality: Who Needs It port for the Minutemen. Illegal immigration is present and it is growing. Americans need to decide what to do about it. page 7 The arguments can be confusing. Anti-immigration Speakers, Events, and Meetings groups ask us to consider our self-interest as Americans, claiming that illegal immigrants are stealing jobs and bene- page 8 CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 OBJECTIVISM The U.S.-Israeli The Undercurrent’s cultural commentary is based on Ayn Rand’s philosophy, Objectiv- ism. Objectivism, which animates Ayn Rand’s Suicide Pact To end the threat of militant Islam, America and Israel fiction, is a systematic philosophy of life. must first stop appeasing the aggressors. It holds that the universe is orderly and by Elan Journo comprehensible, that man survives by rea- The Iran-Hamas-Hezbollah axis was fully re- son, that his life and happiness comprise sponsible for initiating the war on Israel, but the his highest moral purpose, and that he Islamists’ aggression was the logical product of flourishes only in a society that protects his U.S.-Israeli policy. The longstanding commitment individual rights. of Israel and America to “diplomatic engagement” with Pal- In these pages we hope to defend these estinians and Islamists--a euphemism for appeasement--is values. To learn more about the ideas be- suicidal. hind them, you can begin by reading Ayn For decades America has urged Israel to placate and sur- Rand’s books, such as The Fountainhead and render to our common enemy. The U.S.-endorsed “Road Atlas Shrugged, or by visiting aynrand.org. Map to Peace,” like the “Peace Process” and sundry initia- CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 2 Not All Constitutions Are Created Equal The American Constitution upholds individual rights. The Iraqi constitution upholds tribali- preserve liberty, but Iraqi tribalism and the zens shall have the freedom to choose what ism and the supremacy of Islam. supremacy of Islam. (if any) religion they care to follow, and that The Iraqi constitution is a blend of vague- the government will have nothing to do with by Audra Hilse ness and outright contradictions, none of any religion at all. Our Constitution was which provide any semblance of protection specifically set up to ensure that each indi- for individual rights. Consider a clause such vidual would be free to find work that he as this one: “Each person has the right to per- deemed best for himself, to marry whomever sonal privacy as long as it does not violate he loved, and to get as far in life as his own The American Constitution established the rights of others or general morality” (em- mind and effort would let him, with no inter- individual rights as the founding legal and phasis added). Certainly no person’s rights ference from the government or any church. moral basis of this country. The result was should ever be violated by another. But what The Iraqi constitution as it stands now is the a nation whose inhabitants have lived and is the “general morality”? Does it mean pub- antithesis of that. prospered magnificently, because they were lic opinion about moral issues? Vague collec- But it was the United States that helped left free to do so. Today President Bush has tive generalities of this nature can mean any- the Iraqis write and legitimize their constitu- heralded the establishment of the Iraqi consti- thing to anyone at any given time. A woman tion. Weren’t we supposed to be helping to tution on the grounds that it is a step on Iraq’s might go around without a head covering to- ensure their freedom? Why wasn’t such an path toward freedom. But while all men are day, but what if tomorrow the “general mo- obvious contradiction corrected? Because created equal, all constitutions are not. rality” declares that she must wear one? Pro- we have forgotten that what the constitution Just as the mere holding of democratic visions such as this in the country’s founding says is more important than the mere fact of elections does not make a country good or document leave the individual with no rights, having one. free, neither does the mere existence of a but rather subject to the unrestrained whim of As it happens, there is an example of a constitution make a country good or free. A the majority. time when we did do this right, with quite constitution is a written statement of a coun- But it is the second article of the Iraqi spectacular results: in post-World War II Ja- try’s fundamental laws. Such a statement is constitution that is most revealing. It states pan. an indicator of liberty only when it is written that no laws contradicting the religious law Prior to the war, Japan had a constitution and implemented for the sake of preserving of Islam shall be passed. Contrast this to the similar to Iraq’s—i.e. without any of the ex- liberty. U.S. constitution. The very first article of plicit protection of individual rights that the The Iraqi constitution was not written to the Bill of Rights states clearly that all citi- CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 3 Defending the Selfish Choice: Abortion Rights and the Morality of Egoism The battle for abortion rights does not occur in There isn’t any reason to be concerned graduate school, he is not immoral. When a a vacuum. It is part of a larger cultural battle about whether a woman’s decision to abort young couple saves money for years to buy between the principles of egoism and altruism. is fair to the embryo, any more than one their dream house, they are not immoral. would worry about whether a haircut or When America’s Founders rebelled again by Ray Girn manicure is fair to the hair cells or finger- the British and enshrined the“the Pursuit of nails that get discarded. Happiness” as a political ideal, they were So why do anti-abortionists insist ada- not immoral. All of these were self-interest- mantly that an embryo is a human being? ed actions, yet they are clearly moral. These For one reason only: the tiny mass of cells individuals are pursuing long-term goals on in a woman’s body is human because God principle, neither sacrificing themselves to The Left is losing the abortion battle on makes it human. God plants an eternal soul others, nor sacrificing others to themselves. all fronts. In politics, once militantly pro- into the embryo at conception. That act of Nothing could be more moral than that. abortion Democrats like Hillary Clinton are God, not any secular principle, is what ren- When a woman goes against her en- toning down their positions for the sake of ders the embryo sacred to the anti-abortion- tire culture and gets an abortion—because popular appeal. In the courts, after more than ists. It is religion, not reason, which compels she doesn’t want a child at this point in her thirty years of relative stability, Roe v. Wade them to insist that we legally treat a pregnant life—her actions are similarly moral. She is faces serious legal challenges. In the culture woman as two human beings, not one. choosing to value her own life, rather than at large, more and more Americans support While faith in Christian doctrine may to give in to familial or societal pressures to limiting abortion to special cases such as explain the zeal of anti-abortionists activists, sacrifice her life because of scriptural dog- rape, incest, or life-threatening complica- ma and raise a child she is not motivated to tions in pregnancy. Among women, many raise. polls place that figure at over 50%. The Religious Right would have The battle for abortion rights does not This rise of anti-abortionism is surpris- women sacrifice their own happiness occur in a vacuum. It is part of a larger cul- ing, considering how many people benefit tural battle between the principles of egoism from abortions. According to the most recent for the sake of the unborn. The (self-interest) and altruism (self-sacrifice). statistics, four out of every ten women in the defenders of abortion must challenge The Religious Right would have women US have an abortion before they turn 50. In sacrifice their own happiness for the sake the past year alone, well over a million preg- this morality of sacrifice. of the unborn. They believe that sacrifice is nancies—about 1/5th of all pregnancies— moral and just.