Being out of the country, I missed this the first time around.
The Nation: Are you predicting a coming military dictatorship? And that the American people would stand for that?
Gore Vidal: They'll stand for anything. And they will stand for nothing.
Gore Vidal, Octocontrarian
Now, I'm not one to predict such hyperbolic futures for the United States. While this is certainly a difficult time for civil-libertarians, we're still far better off than many, perhaps most, nations.
But the past few years have certainly made me more and more concerned about the way we Americans take for granted our freedoms, our readiness to take the plunge down a slipperly slope that is far easier to descend than to reverse.
We are looked up to in the world not because we have bigger cars and unfettered access to shopping malls. We're looked up to because we do not allow our government to threaten and control us; that we do not live in a climate of fear and suspicion.
In recent days many people, including self-proclaimed "libertarians", have bent over backwards in attempts to rationalize and justify this administrations lawless and authoritarian behavior. They tell us that to be free, we must be willing to give up our freedom; that if we demand liberty, we only threaten it.
This, not some modern day bogey-man like Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, is the greatest threat to our liberty, to our way of life: that we allow ourselves to be controlled by fear and suspicion, and that in this fear we willingly forfeit our liberty.
1 comment:
I thought this bit of Hume to be worth note with regard to your fine statement: "that we allow ourselves to be controlled by fear and suspicion, and that in this fear we willingly forfeit our liberty."
OF THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT by David Hume
NOTHING appears more surprizing to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers.
When we enquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find, that, as FORCE is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular. The soldan of EGYPT, or the emperor of ROME, might drive his harmless subjects, like brute beasts, against their sentiments and inclination: But he must, at least, have led his mamalukes, or prætorian bands, like men, by their opinion.
Opinion is of two kinds, to wit, opinion of INTEREST, and opinion of RIGHT. By opinion of interest, I chiefly understand the sense of the general advantage which is reaped from government; together with the persuasion, that the particular government, which is established, is equally advantageous with any other that could easily be settled. When this opinion prevails among the generality of a state, or among those who have the force in their hands, it gives great security to any government.
Right is of two kinds, right to POWER and right to PROPERTY. What prevalence opinion of the first kind has over mankind, may easily be understood, by observing the attachment which all nations have to their ancient government, and even to those names, which have had the sanction of antiquity. Antiquity always begets the opinion of right; and whatever disadvantageous sentiments we may entertain of mankind, they are always found to be prodigal both of blood and treasure in the maintenance of public justice. There is, indeed, no particular, in which, at first sight, there may appear a greater contradiction in the frame of the human mind than the present. When men act in a faction, they are apt, without shame or remorse, to neglect all the ties of honour and morality, in order to serve their party; and yet, when a faction is formed upon a point of right or principle, there is no occasion, where men discover a greater obstinacy, and a more determined sense of justice and equity. The same social disposition of mankind is the cause of these contradictory appearances.
http://www.constitution.org/dh/pringovt.htm
Post a Comment