Libertarian Thread #2: We Shall Never Die!

What's the first thing we learn about FDR?  "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  Kennedy? "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Reagan? "Tear down this wall."  Children learn to recite Lincoln's whole Gettysburg Address, without knowing or caring what it means.

We're bred to fall in love with quotes.

I think Rothbard got why people loved Reagan so much: it was his capacity to act, to memorize lines, to be a blank slate.  Obama doesn't have his lines memorized and his policies are different, but his voice is lovely and he has such great diction!  He inspires hope, policies be damned.

For a long time, I've thought Americans were simply misguided about what the government's role should be.  I'm finding now that it's far worse; some are misguided, most are just in love.  They treat elections like they treat Hollywood stars.  They love to love and hate. How else do you explain the phenomena of Palin, Obama, Reagan?

It creates a bizarre false dichotomy that pretty much shuts down philosophical thought.  There are alternatives.  That said, I'd rather err on the side of the former than the latter, simply because if a country (which I'm assuming is synonymous with government for the purposes of this quote) exists, it must have some reason for its existence, and that reason must be that it serves the interests of the individuals therein.

Of course, usually, they're just two sides of the same coin.  They both lead to a war-hungry welfare state.

FDR's quote is more interesting and less surprising to me.  It's just nonsense.  It sort of reminds me of Yoda's "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering" quote, which says a good deal about how substantive it is.  In context, it's the classic progressive crap.  Never inhibit progress, even if we're progressing towards the edge of a mile-deep canyon.  What?

FDR's quote is just mindless bs that sounds deep so people latch onto it. JFK's quote actually says something very specific, and it scares me that people adopt it as something which we should follow.

Excellent post! I agree whole heartedly; the reasons behind people's choices come voting time are absolutely INSANE. These same people who vote on arbitrary elements such as "I like that name better" or "he sounds confident!" with no further critical thinking are the reason why this country is ruled by tyranny. These people are quick to remind you that you need to see American Idol, Jersey Shore, etc because they are literally living breathing NPC's. Background characters with their blindfolds on, submitting to authority. Do you know why? Because the state controls education. With this stranglehold, they can control what you know/why/and how. The most formative years of life are spent blindly obeying authority (teachers) to prep you for "the real world".

This is because the same people who control the state control parasitic corporations that feed off of what they sh*t out. It's a self-serving cycle so the oil tycoons can keep the power monopoly going under the guise of social and political progress. Schools either turn out worker drones or welfare recipients, which gives the state an excuse to keep it's unnecessary grasp on society. Every end is pre-planned; humans live in numbered filing cabinets (which they need the banks approval to own, of course) and don't even realize it.

When you are born INTO A PRISON, your perceptions are biased from the moment your eyes open. The truth is, America is a giant petri-dish full of un-aware, under-educated/indoctrinated (yes, even with a Masters Degree, you can still be extremely un-educated in critical thinking and TRUE government affairs), emotionally/sexually charged highly-evolved primates. Worst part is, all these people ARE MAKING THE CHOICES THAT PERPETUATE IT ALL! That's right, take all of the above and mix it with "democracy" and you have a world that is entirely in their favor. An under-informed public is virtually guaranteed to make erroneous choices over and over and over...

Personal integrity and the honest quest for truth is the only hope of freedom anyone has. Turn off your TV; hell, throw it out the window! No job you could ever have will completely separate you from the system, because said system sells you college as "the straight path" through life. Most people with degrees never reach their full potential in their field (in the past maybe, but todays college graduate is actually worse off having gone) because little did they know, the system just sucked another dollar that could have been better spent elsewhere. In an attempt to get ahead by the systems standards of success, you continue to dig into the well of debt. 

Congratulations, you just literally purchased the only dream you were sold.

All of this social and political enthusiasm under the guise of morality; it makes me sick to my stomach when people work jobs they hate to pay for sh*t they don't really need (all the while the greedy f**ks upstairs have their pockets over flowing), then insist "this is a free country; at least it isn't communist China!".