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Book: Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom by Ron Paul
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Authors: Ron Paul
Tags: United States, General, Political, Political Science, Philosophy, Political Ideologies, Political Freedom & Security, liberty
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liberal authoritarians don’t quite understand is that, if government has the power to control business establishments and all their decisions, they have justified the intrusion of government in every social aspect of our lives—an authority that they now essentially assume.
But the character of the demagogue explains the inconsistent position. If a political enemy can be accused of racism or as supporting drugs for children, demagoguing the issue is a convenient tool for maintaining or gaining power in the political process. The principle of private ownership and personal choice is of no interest to the demagogues. In the long run, though, the goals of honest liberals, conservatives, and progressives alike are undermined.
The politicians and friendly media work together to promote an agreed-to agenda. Though the demagogic process is of epidemic proportions, fortunately for the future of mankind, there are honest, decent people who disagree and have the integrity to not resort to the dishonesty of a demagogue and who abhor the process. Instead they use rational discourse in an attempt to influence others. The common use of demagoguing by politicians and their media allies keeps many decent people from getting their hands dirty in the political process. However, there’s still a lot of room outside of politics for these decent individuals to use their talents in education and journalism to influence change.
Anyone who even questions the drug war, the war on pornography, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or any war is regardedas an evil opponent of law and order and civilization. These are perfect examples of how honest discussions are kept at bay by the demagogue. The shutting down of discussion of these topics is all about trying to maintain bugaboos that people can blame their problems on.
H. L. Mencken offered the following harsh judgment of Americans and their willingness to listen to demagogues:
Politics under democracy consists almost wholly of the discovery, chase, and scotching of bugaboos. The statesman becomes, in the last analysis, a mere witch-hunter, a glorified smeller and snooper, eternally chanting “Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum!” It has been so in the United States since the earliest days. The whole history of the country has been a history of melodramatic pursuits of horrendous monsters, most of them imaginary: the red-coats, the Hessians, the monocrats, again the red-coats, the Bank, the Catholics, Simon Legree, the Slave Power, Jeff Davis, Mormonism, Wall Street, the rum demon, John Bull, the hell hounds of plutocracy, the trusts, General Weyler, Pancho Villa, German spies, hyphenates, the Kaiser, Bolshevism. The list might be lengthened indefinitely; a complete chronicle of the Republic could be written in terms of it, and without omitting a single important episode.
The influence that the religious, intellectual, and political demagogues have in a free society poses a much greater danger to mankind than the risk of allowing a businessman to use his property as he chooses. Yet the left is hysterical over the“grave” danger they envision from business people “owning” their property without regulations and control by bureaucrats and politicians.
La Boétie, Étienne de. [1553] 2008.
The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
. Auburn, AL: Mises Institute.
Mencken, H. L. [1926] 2009.
Notes on Democracy
. New York: Dissident Books.
D EMOCRACY
H istory has proven it again and again: No system of government is a good one once the government grows too big and powerful. If the government is small and unintrusive, the form of government doesn’t matter that much. No one is seeking to overthrow the monarchy of Liechtenstein, for example, or uproot the system of oligarchical rotation of Costa Rica. The trouble with democracy is not so much its workings at any one time; the trouble is the dynamic it sets in place that gradually changes a small government into a big one. It was
But the character of the demagogue explains the inconsistent position. If a political enemy can be accused of racism or as supporting drugs for children, demagoguing the issue is a convenient tool for maintaining or gaining power in the political process. The principle of private ownership and personal choice is of no interest to the demagogues. In the long run, though, the goals of honest liberals, conservatives, and progressives alike are undermined.
The politicians and friendly media work together to promote an agreed-to agenda. Though the demagogic process is of epidemic proportions, fortunately for the future of mankind, there are honest, decent people who disagree and have the integrity to not resort to the dishonesty of a demagogue and who abhor the process. Instead they use rational discourse in an attempt to influence others. The common use of demagoguing by politicians and their media allies keeps many decent people from getting their hands dirty in the political process. However, there’s still a lot of room outside of politics for these decent individuals to use their talents in education and journalism to influence change.
Anyone who even questions the drug war, the war on pornography, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or any war is regardedas an evil opponent of law and order and civilization. These are perfect examples of how honest discussions are kept at bay by the demagogue. The shutting down of discussion of these topics is all about trying to maintain bugaboos that people can blame their problems on.
H. L. Mencken offered the following harsh judgment of Americans and their willingness to listen to demagogues:
Politics under democracy consists almost wholly of the discovery, chase, and scotching of bugaboos. The statesman becomes, in the last analysis, a mere witch-hunter, a glorified smeller and snooper, eternally chanting “Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum!” It has been so in the United States since the earliest days. The whole history of the country has been a history of melodramatic pursuits of horrendous monsters, most of them imaginary: the red-coats, the Hessians, the monocrats, again the red-coats, the Bank, the Catholics, Simon Legree, the Slave Power, Jeff Davis, Mormonism, Wall Street, the rum demon, John Bull, the hell hounds of plutocracy, the trusts, General Weyler, Pancho Villa, German spies, hyphenates, the Kaiser, Bolshevism. The list might be lengthened indefinitely; a complete chronicle of the Republic could be written in terms of it, and without omitting a single important episode.
The influence that the religious, intellectual, and political demagogues have in a free society poses a much greater danger to mankind than the risk of allowing a businessman to use his property as he chooses. Yet the left is hysterical over the“grave” danger they envision from business people “owning” their property without regulations and control by bureaucrats and politicians.
La Boétie, Étienne de. [1553] 2008.
The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
. Auburn, AL: Mises Institute.
Mencken, H. L. [1926] 2009.
Notes on Democracy
. New York: Dissident Books.
D EMOCRACY
H istory has proven it again and again: No system of government is a good one once the government grows too big and powerful. If the government is small and unintrusive, the form of government doesn’t matter that much. No one is seeking to overthrow the monarchy of Liechtenstein, for example, or uproot the system of oligarchical rotation of Costa Rica. The trouble with democracy is not so much its workings at any one time; the trouble is the dynamic it sets in place that gradually changes a small government into a big one. It was
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