Lessons in the Inevitable

It is a sad and ironical note that just as the last members of the generation that prevailed in World War II are passing, America is being lead by "good intention" down the same road that well meaning Germans and Italians trod prior to that war.

It shouldn't really be a surprise, the same miscalculation by a well meaning populace was made in the run up to WWI.

They both began with subtle creeping restrictions on Individual Liberty and the fostering of an attitude of contempt for capitalism.

Typically these developments and corresponding arguments were couched in terms which were deliberately redefined in order to engender hope,  Liberty became "freedom from need", "freedom from want", "freedom from oppression", "freedom from sickness" and so on.

Central economic planning, (a necessary precursor to central political planning) became the paradigm, along with systematic dismissal of belief in the free market system by the educated elite, especially the economists.  It became to be accepted that specialists and uniquely intelligent leaders could better determine the use of a nations resources than the obscure and often unintelligible forces of the market.

It paid well for big capitalists to support the concept,  monopolies and oligopolies were strengthened.  It also paid well for organized labor too be in support of restrictive and protective policies,  they could command higher wages.  The intelligentsia were in higher demand due a to greater need to rationalize, organize, and deploy resources.  Scientists and engineers became the chief implementers of policy.

Full employment was touted as the mission. Since it is, from a practical standpoint,  impossible for men to be smart enough to plan the deployment of labor and resources in order to bring about full employment, the only means left to fulfill the promise is an emergency.  That eventuality, in most cases, will be war.

Different sparks precipitated the two wars, yet the hard cold rarely stated reality is that these wars were fought over the basic differences in principle between Individual Liberty and Collectivism.

The disturbing fundamental is that the slow inexorable creep of collectivism eventually undermined the virtues of Liberty until a new social order was suddenly, though inevitably, accepted and embraced by the majority, who could then effectively silence the minority.

By the time this had happened there was no turning back.

Let there be no mistake in your mind, the seemingly small acceptable sacrifices in Individual Liberty that we are making for the "Greater Good" are cumulatively corrosive.  The restrictions on Liberty being promulgated at an ever increasing pace against States, Business Enterprises, Farmers, Local Government, and Individuals will conclude as all collectivist experiments have, and that is in explosive tumult.

Steve