Thursday, October 07, 2010

Totalitarianism's Beginning

Globe & Mail's Neil Reynolds quoting Prof. Minogue.

...“The point is that governments have no business telling us how to live. They are tiresome enough in the exercise of authority. They are intolerable when they mount the pulpit. Nor should we be in any doubt that nationalizing the moral life of the people is the first step toward totalitarianism.”

And even then, it's not really a 'moral life.'

Actions are no longer morally wrong. The state determines what is “acceptable” and what is “unacceptable” – thereby constructing a new “language of authority” that enforces political morality even as it rescinds everyday moral inhibitions. People are encouraged to be “collectively dutiful and individually hedonistic.”...

Umnhhh...the old term was 'bread and circuses,' utilized during the last Great Non-Russian Totalitarianism, Rome.

HT: Bayou RenMan

2 comments:

J. Strupp said...

Sometimes I think you guys aren't happy unless your scared to death of something. The inflation boogieman, the totalitarian boogieman, the Arab boogieman, the WMD boogieman, the non-Christian boogieman, the illegal immigrant boogieman, the PRC boogieman, the boogieman that takes away your toys....er guns. On and on and on it goes......

Stop being so afraid. Fear blinds your rational thought process in most cases. And it makes you angry which blinds your rational thought process. And the more angry you get the more irrational you become. The more irrational you become the more unhooked from reality you become.

Take a step back folks. Take a deep breath. Inform yourself about things that scare the s__t out of you. It'll make you more equipped to deal with your emotional impulses (like thinking everyone who doesn't agree with you is out to squash your freedoms and kill your family). Not everything is revolution. And the people who think differently than you aren't trying to start one either.

...end of rant.

Dad29 said...

Well.....

It's a helluvalot easier to drink more than follow YOUR instructions.