Gary Galles Archive

"Man alone is an end unto himself."

November 5, 2009 6:19 AM by Gary Galles

Albert Camus (1913–1960)

November 7 marks the 1913 birth of Albert Camus, 1957 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for work that "illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times." Those times were ones where the specter of tyranny loomed large during World War II and its aftermath, until his accidental death in 1960.

While best known as an existentialist and absurdist, his Nobel lecture highlighted why his insights are valuable to those devoted to liberty. Camus said the writer "cannot put himself today in the service of those who make history; he is at the service of those who suffer it." On their behalf, "the two tasks that constitute the greatness of [the writer's] craft [are]the service of truth and the service of liberty…rooted in two commitments, difficult to maintain: the refusal to lie about what one knows and the resistance to oppression." To commemorate his birthday this Saturday, his defense of liberty against tyranny merits remembering.

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We Don't Need to Rush to Misjudgment

October 20, 2009 8:25 AM by Gary Galles

Richard Henry Lee (1732–1794)

2009 has seen massive expansions of government control over people's lives, always justified as necessary because of a claimed crisis and demanding immediate federal action. Health care is just the latest and largest installment.

Unfortunately, Washington's welfare statists are ignoring the fact that rushing to judgments about complicated issues that will have large impacts on the future course of the country is not the path to effective or equitable consequences. Instead, "we must act now" pressures are paving that path by ignoring a lack of Constitutionally delegated authority, offering contradictory proposals, to eventually be reconciled after the fact by partisans behind closed doors, and voting on not-yet-written legislation "scored" by the CBO and providing the basis for adamantly expressed promises that cannot actually be evaluated, even by those making the promises, etc.

This push to act politically before there are details or enough time for careful thought and evaluation has frequently been the basis for policies that fail to achieve their stated ends, and yet make permanent inroads into our freedoms. And American history provides an important example of how valuable due deliberation is—the Bill of Rights.

When the U. S. Constitution was adopted, there was not yet a Bill of Rights. It was incomplete in that crucial way. It was the lack of these explicit protections against government abuse of citizens' rights that made many anti-federalists oppose ratification "as is," and it was their insistence on such protections during the ratification campaigns that led to the Bill of Rights.

One of the most influential of those who insisted on a Bill of Rights was Richard Henry Lee, best known for his June, 1776 motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain, which led to the Declaration of Independence. Particularly important were his Letters from the Federal Farmer, several thousand copies of which were also sold as pamphlets. And given how often the first ten Amendments have become the last remaining restraint on government over-reaching of its delegated Constitutional authority, we owe him a great deal for his insistence on careful consideration rather than rushing to judgment.

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Greedy-Bastard Economics

October 6, 2009 7:50 AM by Gary Galles

If your landlord or apartment manager hasn't gotten around to fixing your garbage disposal for weeks, how carefully do you think about why? If you are like many people, you simply blame your landlord or manager. FULL ARTICLE