The Sons of Leviathan
Robert Higgs identified the Leviathan as an opportunistic beast, using crises — real or manufactured — to expand its realm, to slither its tentacles into the remaining halls where large amounts of liberty are found. Any national or international event can be spun into the need for more government, more interventions, and more intrusions of its slimy appendages.
Crises never seem to arise often enough for those wanting more power. Therefore, government will manufacture events, or spin the innocuous or unrelated incident into a crisis, whenever it desires more of the people's liberty. What occurs at the national level also occurs at the local level as the sons of the Leviathan seek their own bits of power, the tidbits dropped from the mouth of the great beast. FULL ARTICLE
Comments (7)
Yes, leviathan exists.....
But, what ways can we significantly build a parallel
system that truly recaptures our liberties and privacy that will, in less than a lifetime, make leviathan irrelevant? Reforming leviathan is as impossible as teaching a tiger the concept of Justice.
Unfortunately, we have found that a constitution (caging the beast) and liberty are inimical.
Make me a charter member with a real passport and proof of citizenship in
the "Free Society".
Carpe Libertatum NOW !,
Mike
Published: October 2, 2007 11:00 AM
When Peter Jennings was the anchor for ABC News, he used the word "crisis" so often, his broadcast would have made a great "crisis" drinking game.
Published: October 2, 2007 1:08 PM
Mike,
"Carpe Libertatum NOW"
Come!:
http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=10995457&x=-65379682&z=15&l=0&m=a&v=2
Published: October 3, 2007 9:19 AM
Of course the cement or concrete bridge that the government will build (at the taxpayers expense) will be as defective in design as the bridge in Minneapolis.
Not only will uglessness replace beauty, but risk will be increased not decreased.
Sadly most people still think that government is the right way to deal with problems - as long as the government is controlled by "good people". Only when it is understood that it is a matter of bad principles (not bad people) will progress be made.
As for Katrina - this proves the point.
Rather than turn away from a failed system (i.e. government being in charge of dealing with the risk of flooding) many people just demand that even more money be taken by government. Even though Lousiana is one of the highest spending governments (as a proportion of income) in the nation - and the Federal government is spending more money than ever before in history (and only a fairly small proportion of this money goes on the military - as recently as the time of President Kennedy the vast majority of Federal government spending went on the military).
Government fails and fails and fails - and most people do not get the message.
This is because the "edcuation system" and the mainstream media, teach people to believe that the government is, or can be, the solution to problems.
Any failure (when it is accepted that failure has occured at all) is blamed on the "wrong people being in charge".
Published: October 3, 2007 11:39 AM
Higss was right, and the media help because they make more money when more people pay attention to the news, and more pay attention when there is a "crisis." So the media work with politicians to fabricate crises daily. The best defense is education. I regularly tell friends and family that nothing is ever as bad as the media or politicians make it out to be and recount past "crises" that turned out benign.
Published: October 3, 2007 12:33 PM
Joe,
I am so there!
Published: October 3, 2007 12:40 PM
A perfect example of using fear to get what they want is when they pushed through an $8 million bond issue to expand and renovate a fire station that had already been expanded and renovated just a couple of years before 9-11. The reason: to better protect the equipment from terrorists or in case of a natural disaster.
The ironic part of it is that in the event of a severe hurricane, the facility is situated in a spot that stands a very good chance of being flooded. :\
Published: October 4, 2007 8:25 AM