Suggested Reading?
Submitted by uconntraxtar on Sun, 10/28/2007 - 18:35Does anyone have any suggestions for articles/books that explain WHY centralized government historically has limited the freedom of it's people? The fact that our liberties are constantly being stripped is obvious, but I have a hard time understanding WHY--I don't believe in massive conspiracy theories, and I don't think Bush is purposely bringing this country down. As horrible a president as he is (and I am ashamed to admit I voted for him twice), I can't picture him sitting around like a James Bond villain plotting our oppression. Most politicians have good intentions, so why does this continue to happen? Is it ignorance, corruption, human nature?
On the same note, it is painfully obvious that the mainstream media does not want Ron Paul to be president, but WHY?
This is my first post...
great site
www.mises.org
many people would consider this a bit more 'scholarly ' but has really good articles and free books, i really like Murry Rothbard
here is a pdf of god of the machine
http://www.mises.org/books/godofmachine.pdf
I dont think anyone is like all evil its just they think they are making things better in many ways(or maybe it just starts that way) but also there is alot of money at stake so i think its both corruption and ignorance that with out them holding your hand you cant make it.
if you were on TV and the 'game' is played by giving money to someone and they helped you out you would be horrified if someone came and changed it.
NPR/PBS is an easier example then most because the get much of their money from teh gov. Ron would end that
but also the FCC regulates what the TV stations can do and ron would get rid of them. and Cable stations are also regulated by the FCC, just not in content but in delivery methods
the government stops competition. and the big business loves it cause it makes life easier for them
dont feel too bad about voting for bush, as long as you keep looking forward and learn about what is really going on and help others open there eyes. I voted for him once too :(
Read the Economics Classics That Shaped Ron Paul
In order for government to control people, it has to control the $$. That's what Ron is fighting against. Read the books he studied and the ones he wrote.
The list is here:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/reading-dollar-crisis.html
Thanks for asking. Good Luck,
Y
Road to Serfdom The
Road to Serfdom
The Law
Against Leviathan
Why Government Doesn't Work
Libertarianism.com
www.libertarianism.com
Introductory libertarian site by the Advocates for Self-Government.
From the site:
This site is designed to help you quickly and easily get a basic understanding of what libertarianism and the fast-growing libertarian movement is all about.
You'll find great resources here: concise definitions and explanations of libertarianism; short answers to common (and not-so-common) questions; libertarian positions on specific issues; famous libertarian figures; and much more. All created by some of the best minds in the liberty movement.
It's all short and straight-to-the-point -- your first-stop source for basic info on libertarianism.
The God of the Machine - Isabel paterson
Here's some comments from CATO
Readers with an interest in monetary policy, or public education, or wartime economics will find separate chapters, brimming with insight, on each area. But it is Paterson's broader ideas that made The God of the Machine a classic, and among the most enduring of these has been her image of "the humanitarian with the guillotine." The opening paragraph of the chapter by that name begs to be quoted:
In a few pages, Paterson makes a powerful case against the tendency, still all too common, to judge policies by their intentions rather than their effects. She points out that because capitalism channels selfish motives to the public benefit, the most widely beneficial actions will often appear morally ugly, because motivated by greed. The philanthropic impulse itself, she warns, can become a far more pernicious form of greed—desire for the satisfaction of acting as savior to the helpless masses. From the French Reign of Terror to the communist Gulag, Paterson observes that there are few atrocities that don't begin with a noble motive.
Wow thanks.
This I have to read.. is there a link anywhere?
And so the book is called The God of the Machine - Isabel paterson?
I'll go looking for it. Cheers
How do you explain so that people get it?
You have a qreat question! I want to write an essay in response to this... I will not but I will not. Books I read to understand the inherent flaws of big government - Atlas shrugged (big book) and the Bible (bigger book). A couple of points - people like to control other people. This is intended for good, but never works out that way. An example of how government education has control - the issue of evolution vs creation. If you fall on either side of this issue your tax dollars can be used against your will to teach one or the other.
The media, I believe, thinks they can fix people through government programs. Most of the media went through the socialist colleges that teach broadcast and journalism.
F.A. Hayek
The book that introduced Ron Paul to Austrian Economics is the classic "Road to Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek. It's talks about how centralized planning tenancies lead to socials/totalitarianism and a loss of freedom. Better have your thinking cap on if you read this book. Otherwise, I would go poke around at http://www.mises.org
A comprehensive study in freedom...
The Online Freedom Academy:
http://tolfa.us/
Also very good are podcasts from Freedomain Radio:
http://www.freedomainradio.com/
And as noted below, the Mises Institute is a great resource along with
Lew Rockwell (http://www.lewrockwell.com/) and Strike the Root (http://www.strike-the-root.com/). Of course you'll find that all of these sites link to each other quite often, so if you start looking around the net in this realm of ideas you're likely to run into all of them and much more.
Healing Our World, by Dr. Mary Ruwart
There's even an online version:
http://www.ruwart.com/Healing/rutoc.html
so it's free and you can read it right now. It puts human liberty in simple, moral terms.
JMR
It is in part, Human nature...
I think Macbeth shows that VERY well, or maybe that is Hamlet or both, lol.
Money is the driving force of it all. It is the about wealth, status and power.
What better way to increase well, when you have the 'power' do to so. Think of the US as a giant corporation, if you have power, you now control its spending - what contracts it should give out to which corporations, subsidize etc. etc. As someone said, follow the money trail, and you won't like the results you'll find.
Generally, centralized governments are better organized? {happy to be proved otherwise} - when it comes to stripping liberties etc.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. The power they get, the more influence they can have.
“Virtue has never been as respectable as money”
~ Mark Twain
To make this point further, I think especially in the US and I'm not sure where else, but its prevalent in the US - that religion has become requestioned as a political tool / force so to speak.
“The more man clings to religion, the more he believes. The more he believes, the less he knows. The less he knows, the more stupid he is. The more stupid, the easier he can be governed! The easier to govern, the better he may be exploited. The more exploited, the poorer he gets. The poorer he gets, the richer and mightier the domineering classes get, the more riches and power they amass, the heavier their yoke upon the neck of the people.” ~ Johann Most
Now is it done to ignorance, corruption and human nature? The state of affairs in the US, I think all three play a role. Some have good intentions, but ignorance clouds the judgment, the policy is implemented, and it means well, but it has the totally opposite result.
Tough question though, it leads into a lot of areas. Just some quotes on the matter..
“It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen.”
~ George MacDonald
“A government big enough to supply you with everything you need is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.... The course of history shows that as the government grows, liberty decreases.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”
~P. J. O'Rourke
“It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.”
~David Brin
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group,”
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
Mises Institute
I. I second and third the Mises Institute. It can refer you to many many great works by a wide variety of authors who have made wonderful contributions to the body of thought covering economics, political theory, law, history, culture.
As to where to start you may want a few introductory works such as For a New Liberty by Murray Rothbard (intellectual heir to Mises). Per your concern you may like Rothbard's Power and Market.
Another good introductory work found at the Advocates for Self Government is Healing Our World In An Age of Aggression, by Mary Ruwart. This has been endorsed by Ron Paul (though I'm sure he would recommend all the others available at the Mises Institute).
Other works by Mises you may find applicable are Theory and History, Socialism, and for his tour de force, Human Action.
You may want ot check out the Future of Freedom Foundation. There are so many great sources of good information these days its its too hard to list. See the Links for any of the websites associated with the above and you'll be busy for months.
2. The MSM is owned by the same corporate elite that use government to obtain special privileges (tarriffs, subsidies, fat government contracts, regulatory apparatus that hinders the development of new entrants into the old firms markets, etc.). Paul would, if possible, curtail the power of government to grant such special privileges. All businesses would then succeed or fail based upon their ability to satisfy the buying public. They could no longer count on government to protect them from the rigors of competition. The public would be much better off with this free market approach wherein government no longer has the power to grant these privileges. That's why the old boys don't want this system of political connections disrupted. They use their lackeys in the media as apologists for special privileges for them and the necessary extension of government power requred to grant them.
marlow
marlow
"Most politicians have good
"Most politicians have good intentions".. well that may be true sometimes when they first enter public office. If they retain those good intentions they are usually weeded out by the establishment before long. Cronies like cronies and dislike honest Pauls.
So you don't believe in conspiracy theories? You should google 9/11 and start studying.
_______________________________
..Without the truth we have nothing
here are some excellent books on the subject
My personal favorite of the mechanics of government is a small book by Ludwig von Mises: 'Bureaucracy'
you can read it online here: http://www.mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy.asp
Another book on the subject, also online available, is 'Omnipotent government' by the same author (also online): http://www.mises.org/etexts/mises/og.asp
Another book I haven't read, but with excellent reviews, is 'The rise and decline of the state' by Martin van Creveld
http://www.mises.org/store/Rise-and-Decline-of-the-State-The...
http://www.mises.org/story/527
The Mises institute has an amazing collection of books on history and econonomics. Characteristic is the Austrian approach: a combination of a priori logical deductivism from the perspective of the individual, with (when writing history) Freudian introspection.
Ron Paul is close friends with the founder of the Mises institute, Lew Rockwell. While they are strictly a-political, one could consider the Mises institute as the intellectual backbone of Ron Paul positions.
Anything ever written by
Ayn Rand
Freedom Under Siege
By Ron Paul.
Here`s a video (from Poland, by the way) that explains what the book is about:
Freedom Under Siege/Together We're Invincible
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD2RsY35rMA
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europe4ronpaul.blogspot.com
Hasta la libertad, siempre ;-)
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bavaria-for-ron-paul.blogspot.com
Hasta la libertad, siempre ;-)
Sound monetary policies
http://www.mises.org/
Actually, the world is moving primarily toward liberty
One good reason to study history is to be reminded that the good old days stunk. Absolute kings were once the rule almost everywhere, then the concept of the rights of man started to take hold in the 1200s. The rights of women is an even more recent phenomenon. I'm guessing that most African-Americans prefer now to most of American history. Gays now are looking to have civil unions protected by law, which beats the recent past, when being imprisoned or even killed was their main worry.
And if we look around the world, communism has clearly suffered a total defeat, and the main concern of many Americans is that some other countries may be producing more goods than us.
The temporary insanity that has taken hold in this country as a result of 9/11 has obscured the march of the world toward liberty that was quite obvious in the 1990s after the Soviet Union broke apart. The good thing about temporary insanity is that it is temporary, and Dr. Paul is courageously doing more to restore our healthy attitudes than anyone.
There is nothing inevitable about the growth of government power. It has gone both ways, but with an obvious long term trend toward liberty. The pessimists are wrong.
Take a longer range perspective of history
The first systems of social order which may be akin to government developed with the hunter/gatherer tribes. Tended to be a decentralized structure. Studies of the system of the Sioux bears this out. With this there is a greater emphasis on handling the needs of the social structure on a more localized level giving greater freedom for individual initiative and action. This system existed because it worked, it achieved the main purpose as a system of survival for the members of the social structure. It survived due to the self interest of the individual in his own survival and the realization that he/she had to depend on their self for that survival. I believe it was Jefferson that noted the similarity to the Constitution with the governing system of the Iriquois. This is the original thesis of social structure which I call individualism.
The development of agriculture brought a demise to this system. With this development, people became clustered into defined geographic locations and centralized governance developed. Among the earliest of these social systems to arise was the city and then empire of Babylon. Much of this structure was based on the sumerian culture which had proceeded it. With this came the first organized religions and priests and people became separated from the sense of individual rapport with nature and nature's god they had known on a personal basis. They became more dependent on the centralized authority which became more intrusive on their lives and the concept that the people were subservient to the central authority developed. Banking also developed. It originally was based on the graineries of the Temple of the Sun God and was operated by the clerics of the priesthood. This is why I refer to the world banking system as the "Whore of Babylon". I like the insulting nature of the term. This system is the antithesis and I call it collectivism.
Is there a synthesis to be derived from this?
I don't know as yet and am still studying it, but I conclude, based on every collectivist system to have eventually collapsed, that a return to the individualist system is in order for survival.
The Creature from Jekyll Island
http://www.amazon.com/Creature-Jekyll-Island-Federal-Reserve...
Follow the money
You really want to find out what is going on, then use this same simple dictum of major crime investigations. It is hard to believe that a conspiracy exists, but if you really follow the money and check out how our monetary system works and how it evolved, you will work toward the truth. This video is a very good start -
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=the+money+masters&site...
CFR
Bush takes his marching orders from the CFR.
Suggested reading
I have recommended the website "The Silver Bear Cafe" on many of my post. I can not say enough good things about it. If there were only one website I could reference this would be it. I have no doubt that you will find answers to your questions.
jimt
here's a link
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm
The Late Great USA
By Jerome Corsi should answer many of your questions. Or, if you don't want to shell out the money for the book, you can go to World Net Daily and search Jerome Corsi and his articles will come up. Read some of his articles and then you should understand.
Atlas shrugged
Atlas shrugged