Posted on 09/30/2008 11:12:29 PM PDT by KMAJ2
A MINORITY VIEW
BY WALTER E. WILLIAMS
RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2008, AND THEREAFTER
Destroying Liberty
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis warned, "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." The freedom of individuals from compulsion or coercion never was, and is not now, the normal state of human affairs. The normal state for the ordinary person is tyranny, arbitrary control and abuse mainly by their own government. While imperfect in its execution, the founders of our nation sought to make an exception to this ugly part of mankind's history. Unfortunately, at the urging of the American people, we are unwittingly in the process of returning to mankind's normal state of affairs.
Americans demand that Congress spend trillions of dollars on farm subsidies, business bailouts, education subsidies, Social Security, Medicare and prescription drugs and other elements of a welfare state. The problem is that Congress produces nothing. Whatever Congress wishes to give, it has to first take other people's money. Thus, at the root of the welfare state is the immorality of intimidation, threats and coercion backed up with the threat of violence by the agents of the U.S. Congress. In order for Congress to do what some Americans deem as good, it must first do evil. It must do that which if done privately would mean a jail sentence; namely, take the property of one American to give to another.
According to a Washington Post article (6/22/05), there were nearly 35,000 highly paid registered lobbyists in Washington in 2004 who spent $2.1 billion lobbying the White House, Congress and various agencies on behalf of various interest groups. Political action committees, private donors and companies give billions of dollars to political campaigns. My question to you: Do you think that these people are spending billions of dollars to assist presidents and congressmen to better perform their sworn oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution? If you do, you're a fine candidate for a straitjacket. For the most part, the money is being spent to get politicians and government officials to use their coercive power to create a favor or special privilege for one American at the expense of some other American.
If we Americans didn't give Washington such enormous control over our lives, I doubt whether there would be 10 percent of the money currently spent on lobbying and campaign contributions. This enormous control that Congress has over our lives also goes a long way toward explaining much of the government corruption that we see in Washington.
If the average American were asked whether he wishes to return to mankind's normal state of affairs featured by arbitrary abuse, control and government dictates, I am sure he would find such a suggestion repulsive. But if you were to ask, say, the average senior citizen whether Social Security, Medicare and prescription drug subsidies should be continued, he would probably answer yes. The same would be true if you asked a college professor whether higher education should continue to be subsidized, or a farmer or a dairyman whether their products should be subsidized, or a manufacturer whether there should be tariffs and quotas on foreign products that compete with his product. The problem with congressmen producing favors and privileges to all interest groups is that it creates what none of us wants: massive control, numerous dictates and micromanagement of our lives.
There is no question that if one were to ask whether we Americans are moving towards more liberty or more government control over our lives, the answer would unambiguously be the latter -- more government control over our lives. We might have reached a point where the trend is irreversible and that is a true tragedy for if liberty is lost in America, it will be lost for all times and all places.
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Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
Whereas, when they lie dispersed, without concert, order, or discipline, communication is uncertain, counsel difficult, and resistance impracticable.
Where men are not acquainted with each other’s principles, nor experienced in each other’s talents, nor at all practised in their mutual habitudes and dispositions by joint efforts in business; no personal confidence, no friendship, no common interest, subsisting among them; it is evidently impossible that they can act a public part with uniformity, perseverance, or efficacy.
In a connection, the most inconsiderable man, by adding to the weight of the whole, has his value, and his use; out of it, the greatest talents are wholly unserviceable to the public.
No man, who is not inflamed by vain-glory into enthusiasm, can flatter himself that his single, unsupported, desultory, unsystematic endeavours, are of power to defeat the subtle designs and united cabals of ambitious citizens.
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
-- Edmund Burke, ‘Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents’ essay from April 23, 1770 speech to Parliament
That last line is often paraphrased as:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Can the disparate groups under the conservative umbrella find enough common ground to make an effective stand to stay our country's ominous momentum towards the loss of liberty?
If he have passed that rubicon... how do free societies normally emerge? It ain’t through a U.N. Resolution!
We were just discussing the above yesterday. Men just can't seem to hold on to a good thing for very long which is the main reason, so many modern cultural and political developments are so frightening. America and other modern day democracies are anomalies.
Of course good men can’t stand alone and triumph over evil...they must stand together.
I wonder why, rhetorically speaking, he didn't list some actions that need to be taken to reverse the trend?
I suspect that he believes his last sentence to already be the point. I know I do.
Your question, “Can the disparate groups under the conservative umbrella find enough common ground to make an effective stand to stay our country’s ominous momentum towards the loss of liberty? “ We have witnessed the Republican Party (the supposedly Conservative one of the two) nominate McCain and we are watching him run for office. I submit you have your answer. It ain’t pretty.
Law is one thing.
Equity another.
If there was one single word that would most capture the ideal of liberty it is probably this:
Honesty
You said a mouthful there brother, sad but true, we almost gave it away Monday. Check out the video here.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2094322/posts
On a related subject, I just read this thread.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2094322/posts
The video is worth watching, and its message is something we should all pay attention to.
In it, Yuri Bezmenov, former KGB, explains how the socialists work to infiltrate and bring down free societies. He warns that America is the last free country. There is no place else to defect to, as he had done.
Link to video:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k6KUDv1wzraWhwlBt1
Oh gosh! You beat me to it by one post! lol!!
Never hurts to repeat it though. This is serious stuff.
Professor Williams hits the nail on the head...an Obama Presidency is unthinkable. The US won’t survive.
Yuri is making the rounds today, he’s all over, I gave him his own thread.
“He warns that America is the last free country. There is no place else to defect to, as he had done.”
This is worth repeating............over and over and over again.
The right to bear arms.
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