“Do not allow to slip away from you freedoms the people who came before you won with such hard knocks.” — DH Lawrence
When I was young, a favorite thing to say was, “Go ahead, do what you want. It’s a free country.” Nowadays I never hear anyone say that.
“Society had a crime problem. It hired cops to attack crime. Now society has a cop problem.” — Tom Robbins
People love to pass laws that regulate others. They think society is filled with incompetence, evil, and immorality, and that the government can fix it for them. So they hand great power to politicians — who, of course, are filled with incompetence, evil, and immorality.
“Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.” — James Bovard
It’s popular to assume that democracy was the big contribution America made to the world. But democracy existed more than 2,000 years ago in Greece. Having a vote doesn’t make you free: we vote restrictions on ourselves all the time. What made America great was liberty. That’s an old word for freedom — specifically, freedom from government intrusion — and though it needs a ballot box for protection, it can also be canceled by the same box.
“Because the tyranny of the majority can be as dangerous to freedom as the tyranny of a madman, all use of governmental power should be challenged and questioned.” — Andrew Napolitano
How is it that we are competent to vote in elections but not competent to decide for ourselves whom we may marry, what recreational drugs we can use, how our children will be educated, how we will defend our families, what medical procedures we may undergo, and so forth?
“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” — Salman Rushdie
Everyone denies they’re “politically correct”, yet everyone does it. Of course, we don’t wish to offend, in part out of politeness. But if we cannot express our true beliefs without someone always taking umbrage and insisting we apologize, then we have no freedom of thought.
“Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.” — Herbert Hoover
The main thing rich and poor have in common is that both rely on government handouts, privileges, and entitlements. And neither need pay for them, as the government simply issues long-term bonds against their children’s earnings.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.” — Alexis de Tocqueville
We have no real idea what the future will bring. Inventions change society, calamities cause seismic shifts, and political movements wreak mischief. To assume we’ll always have our freedoms, or even our democracy, in a time of constant change, is to assume Mommy will always be there with milk and cookies.
“Leaders use control and imposition rather than participative, self-organizing processes. They react to uncertainty and chaos by tightening already feeble controls, rather than engaging people’s best capacities to learn and adapt. In doing so, they only create more chaos.” — Margaret J. Wheatley
We think society is a machine that can be controlled from on high. In fact, it’s an ecosystem that evolves from the ground up. To treat it like a machine, that can be compelled to do things for us, is like having Ranger Rick cut down the pines and spruces because we voted for palm trees.
“I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous — if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men.” — Robert Green Ingersoll
If we cannot answer our critics without suppressing them, our beliefs are wrong.
“No important figure in the Bush administration, or among that administration’s political allies, has expressed remorse for breaking the law. What makes anyone think that they or their political heirs won’t do it all over again, given the chance?” — Paul Krugman
“Top Obama Administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to anyone.” — Darrel Issa
If a government usurps a power and the opposing party loses the fight prevent it, that same party, when in office, will use the same power.
“A Republic, if you can keep it.” — Benjamin Franklin
* * * *
…WAIT, THERE’S MORE:
” . . . by the time the opportunity comes along to ‘toss out the rascals,’ often cited as democracy’s greatest virtue, whatever evils they have perpetrated become faits accomplis that cannot be undone. Moreover, as those policies are implemented, people become so inured to them that they come to consider undoing them unthinkable . . . ” Robert Batemarco
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Tom Key
2013 May 15
Protecting freedom is always timely. Thank you, Jim.
However, there is one Party that pretends to suddenly discover its value. When President Obama was granted the reins of power, those who were silent for EIGHT years previously, are suddenly acting as if they care about “freedom”. They didn’t and they don’t.
Suddenly a self-annointed Liberty Lobby discovers it can use fear and hatred to raise vast quantities of money, with no accounting to anyone. Their coffers are overflowing.
“Top Obama Administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to anyone.” — Darrel Issa
Let’s be clear. Darrel Issa is the convicted criminal who used his untaxed proceeds from selling stolen cars to buy a reserved GOP seat in Congress. He has personally conducted almost six years of unrelenting “investigations” of Democrats, NOT ONE OF WHICH has produced any evidence of wrongdoing.
There is NO EVIDENCE that a single member of the Obama administration has in any way “acted” above the law. However, we now have a public record with abundant evidence drawn from Congressman Issa’s own conduct that the administration officials are far, far, above Issa. He is not “the law”. But being “above” his criminality is one of the reasons we like this administration.
Jim Hull
2013 May 15
Agreed that the GOP can be hypocritical. I picked voices from both sides to make my point: while the parties argue about who’s more virtuous or less criminal, the SYSTEM itself keeps growing. The acrimonious fight itself fuels the growth, and, when the bureaucratic beast has fed enough off the recriminations, it may become gigantic enough to overwhelm everyone, regardless of virtue. Each side might then try to blame the other, but by then it’ll be too late.
America isn’t threatened by the bad guys in the other party. It’s threatened because we’ve broken the pact: “Live and let live.” America was built on the premise that people of diametrically opposed views could live together in harmony. We’ve abandoned that in an effort to force others to live our way, or at least to blame and attack others that we believe are evil. This breaks the code, damages civility, and feeds tyranny.
It’s not them! It’s us. We’re cutting off our noses to spite our faces. We’re crying, “The sky is falling!” when it’s the ground looming up to swallow us. We’re fiddling while Rome burns.
(And we’re using too many metaphors . . . )