Comments on: We’re All Fascists Now II: American Tyranny

By: Drew

Drew — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:53:14 +0000

After reading this article I had a ‘no s***’ moment. Plato foresaw how all democracies devolve into tyrannies thousands of years ago. Everyone ignored Plato and now they are realizing how dumb their little republic is after all. In fact, almost every major philosopher from Socrates to Heidegger warned us of the stupidity of democracy, but no one listened. In a society where people need to be told what to do and who to vote for the oligarchs will always seize power to serve their own ends. Don’t hate the corporations and oligarchs for doing what anyone else would do. In fact, I love corporations- they make great products. Giving rights to the states or whatever won’t help either, you’re just making democracy even more divisive and ridiculous.

However, I’m not going to jump on the ‘end is near’ band wagon. America will likely carrying on for another couple hundred years with the same group of whiners crying about losing their rights, constitution, etc. Democracy sucks.

By: Pat

Pat — Sun, 03 May 2009 12:04:58 +0000

America is in its current situation for no other reason than the consumer-unfriendly, and corporate-friendly DE-Corporate Registration system.

When all companies unite under Delaware’s unfriendly consumer codes, and work to change UCC and consumer laws written for the protection of fair trade and consumer protection, there is no way Americans can not be at risk. Configured under the banner of “Caveat Emptor” for companies but not for consumers, no State has agressively pursued more methods to undermine the unity of America and alter it to their own satisfaction than Big Business and its DE-recruiting principles. It has co-opted the idea of consumer protection and applied it alone to companies, not clients or consumers.

In DE, it is possible for foreign owners to be masked and disguised, and assets protected regardless of their misconduct.

If that isn’t a menace to America, what is?

By: Government Watch: Economy, Obama File, March 10th 2009 « Lighthouse Patriot Journal

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:24:20 +0000

[...] Michael Ledeen writes of Tocqueville’s take on obtrusive, big government: Most of us imagine the transformation of a free society to a tyrannical state in Hollywood terms, as a melodramatic act of violence like a military coup or an armed insurrection. [Alexis de] Tocqueville knows better. He foresees a slow death of freedom. The power of the centralized government will gradually expand, meddling in every area of our lives until, like a lobster in a slowly heated pot; we are cooked without ever realizing what has happened. The ultimate horror of Tocqueville’s vision is that we will welcome it, and even convince ourselves that we control it. There is no single dramatic event in Tocqueville’s scenario, no storming of the Bastille, no assault on the Winter Palace, no March on Rome, no Kristallnacht. We are to be immobilized, Gulliver-like, by myriad rules and regulations, annoying little restrictions that become more and more binding until they eventually paralyze us. … Permitting the central government to assume our proper responsibilities is not merely a transfer of power from us to them; it does grave damage to our spirit. It subverts our national character. In Tocqueville’s elegant construction, it ‘renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself.’ Once we go over the edge toward the pursuit of material wealth, our energies uncoil, and we become meek, quiescent and flaccid in the defense of freedom. [...]

By: We’re All Fascists Now II: American Tyranny « Conservative Thoughts and Profundity

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:38:28 +0000

[...] once the central government takes control of the entire structure, our liberties are at grave risk. Continue reading . . . [...]

By: Donna

Donna — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:06:43 +0000

“It is evident that our associations, along with religion one of the two keys to the great success of the American experiment, are prime targets for the appetite of the state. In the seamless web created by the new tyranny, everything from the Boy Scouts to smoking clubs will be strictly regulated. It is no accident that the campaign to drive religion out of American public life began in the 1940s, when the government was consolidating its unprecedented expansion during the Depression and the Second World War, having asserted its control over a wide range of activities that had previously been entrusted to the judgment of private groups and individuals.

When we console ourselves with the thought that the government is, after all, doing it for a good reason and to accomplish a worthy objective, we unwittingly turn up the temperature under our lobster-pot. The road to the Faustian Deal is paved with the finest intentions, but the last stop is the ruin of our soul.”

As stated in the above reference, one has only to see this is true considering Obama’s lifting today of the ban for federal funds to be used for embryonic stem cell research, not to mention his whole hearted support for abortion on demand. What an incredible insult and disreagrd for American taxpayers who abhor abortion and are offended by it’s legality here in our country. Are we now supposed to accept it as a good thing since otherwise discarded embryos will now be put to “good” use that will cure disease and usher in our nation’s Utopia that we are all dreaming of? What this President is doing is immoral and outrageous. Yes, the “last stop is the ruin of our souls.”

By: This is how liberty Dies… « Centurean2’s Weblog

This is how liberty Dies… « Centurean2’s Weblog — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 13:32:17 +0000

[...] vision is that we will welcome it, and even convince ourselves that we control it.” Michael Ledeen ‘We are all fascists now.. [...]

By: gofer

gofer — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:23:15 +0000

Small ATV and bikes aimed at the youth market are being ordered taken off the market because of traces of lead paint on some parts, even though a kid would have to suck on the part for days on end to see any effect. This is just an experiment to see how far they can go until people just say “NO.” The whole lead paint thing evolved from a legitimate reason (lead paint in tenement bldgs was being eaten by children) to a unreasoned attack on businesses and a gift to trial lawyers. It never was about safety, it was about control. It was also about “I’ll show you for taking your jobs to China.”

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:38:50 +0000

I completely understand all that you are saying, but can’t we just vote the bums out of office. I suppose what you are ultimately saying is that the voters will keep voting for those who are enabling the types of policies contributing to our demise!

Great blog post man…

By: Sharpshooter

Sharpshooter — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:57:25 +0000

Corporate state? With all the greenie-weenies in government?

As Sowell pointed out, corporations HATE free markets. Same thing with statists. It’s all about CONTROL.

By: Gunther Steinberg

Gunther Steinberg — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:55:42 +0000

These two essays (Michael Ledeen’s and Andy McCarthy’s)decry the growth of government, but fail to examine the causes, only looking only at the perceived undesirable results. In Tocqueville’s day, Americans had perhaps a greater sense of personal responsibility and a greater urge to do what is right for the country. Sure, there were the greedy then as there are today. But today, too large a fraction of the population is out for Number ONE only, the rest be damned.

Why is there so much more needed government regulation? To start, look at the financial mess of 2008-9: the failure to regulate mortgage vendors, lenders, banks, rating agencies, and those that packaged bad loans with good and sold under false labels.
The rules for such unethical and deceptive actions were too loose and not enforced. Those that benefited had only one thought: PROFIT.

The utter failure to take responsibility for how the financial sector conducted its business on either a personal level or the corporate one was due to a lack of rules, government rules that would punish violators.

Existence of laws, implied and formal, are what makes ours a civilized society. Absence of rules requires, police, law enforcement, courts, prisons. We cannot have functioning society without laws, because there are too many who violate good sense and laws for their own profit and lack of responsibility.

Examine what seems to be wrong with our society and the world at large. Personal advancement, desire for power, legislators who are unduly influenced by money for campaigns, aka. bribery. Influence peddling by those who want to be above the rules they advocate for others with a goal of profit or not having the rules apply to them. Legislators who “earmark” funds for their friends and clients favorites projects or roads that help their businesses are another example.

Then there is the crusade to have someone’s religion become paramount and be the rule for all others of different faiths. Whether it is radical Islam that wants to spread Sharia Law around the world, by power of the word or the sword, or another religion whose head wants their beliefs to be the law of the land.
Religion has been the pretext for armed conflict and conquest for centuries, always with the goal subjugating others to adopt the winner’s faith and/or its rules. That applies to radical Islam, the Crusades, Communism, Fascism, or any other belief.

Tocqueville’s freedom from government would be hard to work in this world of today. In fact,he overlooked some facets of the American life: slavery, voting rights restricted to property owners and others.

Current preaching of a political party of freedom from government interference, usually quotes Reagan who said one thing but did not abide by his own prescription or good sense.
Reduce taxes on those who are well of, and borrow to run the government and conduct war with funds that we don’t have was the Bush and Reagan mode, and then tax everybody trying to pay for the debts and interest.
There has been a political failure to look at the future and unintended consequences of fiscal irresponsibility.

Greed by those that could profit by absence of government rules and irresponsible government that failed to govern for the greater good and benefit, will always result in chaos and financial crashes.

In this world, government and laws are necessary because too large a fraction of the population acts without self regulation and responsibility. Tocqueville was responsible and thought everyone else would be too.