One evening last autumn, I sat long hours with a European acquaintance while he expounded a political-economic doctrine which seemed sound as a nut and in which I could find no defect. At the end, he said with great earnestness: "I have a mission to the masses. I feel that I am called to get the ear of the people. I shall devote the rest of my life to spreading my doctrine far and wide among the population. What do you think?"
The most recent financial meltdown [...] has unleashed a fury of socialistic blather and Keynesian central-planning mythology.
We have politicians and central bankers telling us that more paper money and bank nationalization will save us. Others say that capitalism has completely failed so we need to try socialism.
You would swear that these people were born yesterday, had never read a lick of history, and were wholly ignorant of economic logic. All of that is probably true. But here is what people don't entirely understand: it is in the interest of our rulers to promote bad ideology.
Who wins from bailouts, regulations, and inflation? It's not the middle class, taxpayers, or the businesses we know and love. It is the state, the bureaucrats, the megabankers, and the entire crew of connected interest groups who live at our expense.
This is the real basis of socialism and Keynesianism: ideologies that benefit the elites at the expense of everyone else.
An individual who wants to be free can be, no matter what the world brings. An individual who has let the spirit of freedom die will never be free, no matter what the world brings.
The idea that freedom is simply a state of mind may sound trifling, especially when considering some of the unimaginable horrors faced by unfree peoples across the globe. But even political freedom cannot be had without a people who keep the spirit of freedom alive within themselves; and if they do, political freedom is often not far behind.
Keep this in mind as America's government changes with each election. Remember this when you see government expanding its reach into your life. Rather than looking to political leaders to protect or expand our freedom we should cultivate the seeds of freedom in our own spirits, and inspire others to do the same. Nothing government can do can take away our freedom; and if we are a people who are truly free, the government will have to follow.
