Comment of the day

Bob wrote a fantastic comment to my critique of The Danish Bill of Rights

The danger exists in all times, not least of all when there is not the least hint of danger and the leaders in question seem entirely reasonable. Extremists, unpopular leaders, and political enemies raise our suspicions we are in danger from them. ‘Moderate’ politicians, contrarily, often get us to go along with proposals we’d be on our guard against given those we regard extreme are the ones making them. Some of the worst things done to us, things that put us increasingly under the spell of government to overrule our independence and judgment, are done in the name of “the public good” by those we trust most. The demagogues to watch out for, then, are not those we disagree with, but rather those we agree with enthusiastically.

Freedom is not lost all at once or to raving lunatics capable of overwhelming an entire free society. It is lost piecemeal, one bit of benignly helpful legislation at a time. It is not lost to demands for draconian, inhuman exploitation of strangers or underclass, it is lost to demands originating from ourselves to: eliminate urban blight, cynically cite children or poor or weak when they are not at issue, elevate the ‘rights’ of criminals and non-citizens over those of citizens, favor some over others, encourage judges to ‘interpret’ broader meaning than are written into the Constitution, allow a majority to override guarantees of personal rights when they are inconvenient or dangerous or “times have changed”. Most significantly, freedom is not lost because some rogue has come among us to ‘steal’ our birthright; it is lost because we, ourselves, demand government take it from us in exchange for ‘security’ … a security no government can realistically provide.

Let’s get our man a soap box. Bob do you have a blog?