[108235] in Cypherpunks
Misesian Courage
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Matthew James Gering)
Tue Feb 9 14:25:24 1999
From: Matthew James Gering <mgering@ecosystems.net>
To: "Cypherpunks (E-mail)" <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net>
Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 11:10:04 -0800
Reply-To: Matthew James Gering <mgering@ecosystems.net>
The head of state makes a speech to a packed house of legislators, and is
cheered to the rafters for his flurry of visionary policy ideas. He calls
for the restoration of cities and towns, and the revival of the nation's
industrial base through new spending programs. He makes more housing a
national priority. He promises more education spending, new resources for
the armed forces, a secure system of old-age pensions, and more equitable
health-care delivery. He takes the credit for a purported economic boom, and
further promises to surpass all previous records in national productivity.
No, this isn't Clinton's state-of-the-union address. It was Stalin's 1946
speech, which concluded as follows: "The Soviet people are ready for it!
Under the leadership of the Soviet government, with Stalin at its head, the
Soviet people will transform the law on the new Five Year Plan into life."
If anyone still took Clinton seriously, this could be a chilling comparison.
After all, there was a time when the state-of-the-union speech set the
agenda for the nation. Now it is seen as little more than theater. Even the
news media treated it like a movie premier, evaluating the script, the
acting, and the emotional impact, but never confusing it with real life.
...
for full-text, see:
Human Action and the Politics of Freedom
A Speech by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
Delivered February 6, 1999
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?FS=%3Ch3%3EMisesian+Courage
