When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
2012-02-02
Liberty and freedom aren’t new or recent inventions.
It’s long been seen as necessary to limit the powers of government so that they don’t interfere with the enjoyment of life. Our exercise of liberty to choose what we think, say and do, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the fair enjoyment of the lives of others.
One historically inevitable development is that all governments try to make themselves more important; more powerful. They will, if necessary, invent threats to us, internal and external, and then pretend that sacrificing some of our freedoms will somehow make that threat go away.
Most of the time, that threat is smoke and mirrors. An illusion. A fabrication. Look very carefully. Pull back the curtain. See who’s pulling the strings and who has what to gain.
And if there’s not a threat, there’s a promise of a far, far better world.
Recently, I read the following at the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
Most Europeans know that Goethe was the greatest of all German writers and poets and one of the giants of world literature. Less well known is that he was also a thorough-going classical liberal, arguing that free trade and free cultural exchange are the keys to authentic national welfare and peaceful international integration. He also argued and fought against the expansion, centralization, and unification of government on grounds that these trends can only hinder prosperity and true cultural development.
