Soft Despotism

[Skull Pilot]

Soft Despotism - David Gordon - Mises Institute

Paul Rahe's outstanding book can be considered an extended commentary on a famous passage in Tocqueville's Democracy in America:

Over these [citizens] is elevated an immense, tutelary power, which takes sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate. It is absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident, and gentle… It works willingly for their happiness, but it wishes to be the only agent and the sole arbiter of that happiness. It provides for their security, foresees and supplies their needs, guides them in their principal affairs, directs their testaments, divides their inheritances… In this fashion, every day, it renders the employment of free will less useful and more rare; it confines the action of the will within a smaller space and bit by bit it steals from each citizen the use of that which is his own. Equality has prepared men for all of these things: it has disposed them to put up with them and often even to regard them as a benefit. (pp. 187–88, quoting Tocqueville)

does anyone else reading this passage see our country moving in this direction?

Do you see the willingness of the masses to accept government control and the consequent reduction in our ability to practice free will as a benefit as Tocqueville posits?

How about this passage from a lesser known dead guy:

In Montesquieu's judgment, the legislature within a modern republic would be in serious danger of succumbing fully to executive influence only in the unlikely event that the management of commerce and industry within that republic were somehow, to a very considerable extent, entrusted to the executive. In such a polity should the populace in general and the middle class in particular ever be beholden to government for their economic well-being, the situation of the citizens would indeed be grim.

Combining that with the former passage, are we so ready to give this type of power to our executive branch?

Are we ready to accept this type of despotism, soft as it may be, and call it a benefit?

 

[neurosport]

it's like this negroes:

i am a lazy fuck, and i would personally love for my government to provide me with everything UAW style.

problem is i don't want OTHER PEOPLE to be provided for in this way at my expense !

now wouldn't it be nice if i could sit at home, do nothing, while everybody else were slaving 80 hour weeks .... but unfortuantely that's impossible.

i would really love a situation in which i wouldn't have to be responsible and somebody else would take care of me. problem is i know this can never be. this can and will be promised but the promise will never be delivered on.

you can't expect somebody else to take better care of you than you would of yourself. never happened in the past and never will in the future.

 

[Newby]

What's frustrating tho is that you may feel that way, and I may feel that way, but more and more it seems that the 'masses' are more than willing to allow exactly that to happen and will give up (unknowingly & knowingly) any freedoms that they have too in order to get it. Of course it will all come crashing down at some point, but it's sad that we can't count on our children and grand children having the same sort of lives that we have enjoyed growing up.

 

[Tech_Esq]

It's a shame that Montesquieu is now a "lesser known dead guy" although true.

Unfortunately, after three generations of progressively dumbing down the population, there is a significant percentage of the population who doesn't even think this kind of stuff is important let alone relevant. They will happily go along until one day they will wake up and realize the icy grip of a hard tyranny has tightened its grasp upon them. It will then be too late of course.

I'm currently reading a book by one of Obama's chums (and sometimes mentioned for a spot on the Supreme Court) Cass Sunstein called Nudge.

The basic premise of the book is that people don't make good choices when left to their own devices. So, other people, called "decision architects" should be engaged to "assist" people in making "better" choices.

I won't break it all down, but the trend is obvious, just turn all those nasty decisions over to us so you'll be better off. We're smarter than you about these things (what things? everything, sush!) so just leave it up to us.

Yes, Skull I'm afraid people are far too complacent to care if they are handed a little Red book.

 

[Skull Pilot]

It's a shame that Montesquieu is now a "lesser known dead guy" although true.

Unfortunately, after three generations of progressively dumbing down the population, there is a significant percentage of the population who doesn't even think this kind of stuff is important let alone relevant. They will happily go along until one day they will wake up and realize the icy grip of a hard tyranny has tightened its grasp upon them. It will then be too late of course.

It's no wonder when the federal government holds education hostage by what basically amount to extortion that the agenda of bigger government is so readily accepted by our children. The depressing part is that our children will be conditioned to believe that the icy grip of tyranny is a loving caress.

I'm currently reading a book by one of Obama's chums (and sometimes mentioned for a spot on the Supreme Court) Cass Sunstein called Nudge.

The basic premise of the book is that people don't make good choices when left to their own devices. So, other people, called "decision architects" should be engaged to "assist" people in making "better" choices.

If THAT doesn't terrify the lining shit out of people, then we are truly doomed.

But we see this exact thing happening at an ever increasing pace. More and more of our decisions are being taken away from us by the very government that is supposed to be protecting our right to freedom of choice.

I won't break it all down, but the trend is obvious, just turn all those nasty decisions over to us so you'll be better off. We're smarter than you about these things (what things? everything, sush!) so just leave it up to us.

Yes, Skull I'm afraid people are far too complacent to care if they are handed a little Red book.

The question is what do we do when people who think like us are called selfish anti-government extremists?

Funny how people who thought the very things we do were once called heroes and champions of liberty.

 

[Oddball]

I disagree with only one aspect of the OP....The despotism isn't soft anymore.

 

[Skull Pilot]

I disagree with only one aspect of the OP....The despotism isn't soft anymore.

to those of us who see, it is not.