An extended excerpt from an excellent article by William J. Meisler at American Thinker:
Aristotle taught that everything which occurs or is conceived according to natural law is for the best or will produce the best result, Therefore, whenever one is confronted with a choice, the choice that is most consistent with nature — the natural choice — is always the most appropriate and the most likely to produce success and happiness. This concept is valid whether dealing with one’s personal affairs or affairs of state.
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Ideas, theories, and beliefs are tools…[t]hey will work properly only if they conform to nature and are used properly by men. The greatest success will be achieved when the system most in accord with nature is matched with adherents or practitioners whose own characteristics, culture and experiences represent the most natural fit to the most natural system of ideas. The degree that conditions depart from conforming to these two essential requirements of nature will determine how far a system of ideas will miss its mark.
For example, the principles of socialism and progressivism never deal with human nature as it actually is, but rather as the socialist wishes it to be. Since progressivism does not conform to nature, it is doomed to failure, no matter how expertly its adherents attempt to apply it. Like the spoon noted above, it always results in a mauled loaf of bread.
On the other hand, free-market principles are in accord with human nature. When these principles are applied in good faith, which is to say expertly, the result is a cleanly cut slice of bread. If the principles are corrupted by unscrupulous operators, you may get a cut piece of bread but not as cleanly as when the bread is expertly cut. Or if you use a free-market system that has been dulled by excessive government regulations, you once again may get a cut slice of bread, just not as neatly or effectively as the bread cut with a properly sharpened knife.
The same applies to political systems. However noble the statements in the Declaration of Independence and however well designed the American Constitution may be, they will only be a natural fit to people who are fully in tune with the habits and underlying principles of the English civilization that produced those noble documents. This does not mean that such people have to be of English descent, simply that they must have internalized the predominantly English-derived values and habits which underlie the American Revolution. Then all that is required is the expert application of constitutional principles, which accounted for the incredible success of our country for its first hundred fifty years.
