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To: rdf; x; Bonaparte
worth a look...
32 posted on 11/01/2002 12:52:57 PM PST by KC Burke
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To: KC Burke
For generations before Hitler, Germany had been cultivating the notion that the "German Idea" or "German Spirit" or "German Soul" was collectivist and anti-individualist. We Americans have proclaimed ourselves to be the arch-individualists. So the soil was well prepared for Hitler in Germany, in a way that it hasn't yet been made ready over here for any future tyrant.

It's not inconceivable that we might reach a similar collectivist point some day. But so much of what's happened since Peikoff wrote his book has reflected a tendency in the opposite direction, away from statism, collectivism or conformism. Such a trend won't continue forever, and perhaps a new collectivist age will come in the future. Peikoff's Carter-era warnings are worth hearing again, but they don't seem to reflect the current situation just now.

Randian warnings against the state are bound to be right some time. At some point the government will probably try to take more power than it deserves. But the Randians may be in the position of the boy who cried "Wolf!" warning in season and out, warning as much against innoculous or necessary measures as against truly tyrannical ones. When a warning is necessary, it may well be ignored.

43 posted on 11/01/2002 11:52:12 PM PST by x
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