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Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Government: The Necessary Evil

"To be governed is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censored, checked, valued, enrolled, by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so."

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
19th century French anarchist-socialist

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."
Benjamin Franklin
A much more relevant quote to today's subject.

December 21, 2005 10:19 PM  
Blogger Eric said...

Mr. Franklin was an astute man. The quote however has little relevance to "today's subject". Who has given up an essential liberty? What essential liberty? If you reference the concocted scandal over wire-tapping, I again point to US CODE TITLE 50, CHAPTER 36, SUBCHAPTER I ยง 1802, and Presidents Carter & Clinton's unremarked (by a fawning media) use of their presidential power to surveil electronically without a court order. It's the Left's hatred of Bush that makes this non-issue a "big deal".

Every man, however graced with eloquence, will flounder on occasion. As great a man as Benjamin Franklin was, I must disagree with the second phrase, and thereby the quote as a whole... Everyone deserves Liberty.

December 22, 2005 1:48 AM  

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