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"Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions of equality"

Posted by freedomforall 5 years, 10 months ago to Philosophy
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Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions of equality, ladies and gentlemen. Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

Barry Goldwater, Acceptance Speech as the Republican Presidential candidate, San Francisco (July 1964)


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  • Posted by Herb7734 5 years, 9 months ago
    All men (and women) are NOT created equal. We all don't have Einstein's brain, Michaelangelo's skill, Beethovens creativity or you name the great person. We are not even created equal physically. The only equality that makes sense is equality of opportunity, and that depends on individual desire and energy.
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    • Posted by MinorLiberator 5 years, 9 months ago
      Very much emphasized in modern, rational free market Economics: inequality of human skills and capabilities of individuals is a fact of reality that will never change.

      To try to change the logically resulting “income inequality” in the market through force is both practically and morally wrong.

      But often intended: those seeking totalitarian power DO know their Economics, and that the result will be a truly “1%” elite, and the other 99% living in totally equal starvation level poverty...
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      • Posted by Herb7734 5 years, 9 months ago
        There is no such thing as equality in economics. One size does not fit all.
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        • Posted by MinorLiberator 5 years, 9 months ago
          Indeed, proper, modern Economic never uses "equality", and in fact explains that under Capitalism, there is no such thing as "distribution of income" in the free market.

          Even worse, the concept implies (in some cases intentionally, IMO) that "income" is some type of actual entity, produced "somehow", that is then "distributed" by some type of conscious process. Which implies some type of authoritative body to "distribute" (or better put "re-distribute") that income. That simply is not how a true free market works.
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          • Posted by Herb7734 5 years, 9 months ago
            True.
            One of the most important subjects of all is not taught in public schools which is, economics.Some thinks it is a mystical substance which provides you with stuff. A genie, without the bottle.
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  • Posted by term2 5 years, 9 months ago
    I guess the voters don’t like the truth or the people ejo speak it. At least half of them today

    This quote really means all government is basically prone to corruption, and probably corrupt most of the time
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  • Posted by marsh113 5 years, 9 months ago
    Lord Byron: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think that he is saying the same thing in a different way.
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    • Posted by craigerb 5 years, 9 months ago
      "Often described as the most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics, Byron was both celebrated and castigated in his life for his aristocratic excesses, which included huge debts, numerous love affairs with both men and women, as well as rumors of a scandalous liaison with his half-sister."
      Stick with Lord Acton.
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  • Posted by $ Stormi 5 years, 9 months ago
    How far Hillary fell, as she was once a "Goldwater Girl" - until that Marxist minister influenced her.Then it was all Alinsky.
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    • Posted by 5 years, 9 months ago
      Obviously in falling she hit her head very hard, killed more than 83% of her brain and 100% of her ethics.
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      • Posted by $ Stormi 5 years, 9 months ago
        Worse, the fall was not at home as she reported. Released e-mails among generals complaining about being left out of the loop, speak of a plane which went off a runway in Iran, a trip to which they had not been made aware. The press in the region spoke of her bleeding "profusely from the head". That is when the cover story emerged about the fall. Unresolved is whether she also had a plane full of cash for Iran.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 5 years, 10 months ago
    That was during 1964. These days, a nastily enforced conformity to political correctness was leading us into despotism but became temporarily Trumped.
    Don't worry, globalist Constitution shredders, that noticeably flawed yet well-meaning capitalist bull in the Swamp's china shop will not be around to frustrate the entitled elite forever.
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    • Posted by MinorLiberator 5 years, 9 months ago
      I’m more optimistic, I believe rationally so, but won’t live to see if I’m right.

      As we’re talking about power, as Victor Hugo correctly said:

      “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come’.

      Hugo didn’t say the idea had to be “a good idea”.

      For reasons I’m sure most in this forum understand, in the late 19th century and well into the 20th, that idea was Socialism, which while it may not appear so, has run its course.

      It is true that most young people in polls say they prefer Socialism to Capitalism. But if you drill down and talk to actual young people one on one, they are equally skeptical of the government. And very open to being enlightened about their contradictory opinions.

      Also, many “millennials” for lack of a better term, already embrace liberty and the free market. Even if they remain a minority, a minority with a better idea will overpower a majority with a false and dated idea. Especially an idea like Socialism, which has failed miserably wherever it’s been tried.
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