Quotes of the Week

Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:

"All nations throughout history have been ruled by a small group of people who draw all wealth and power to themselves. They, of course, are always very careful to establish their governments as popular fronts. Sometimes they call them democracy, sometimes socialism, sometimes communism; and now democratic socialism.

The result is always the same, regardless of what they’re called. Don’t be fooled. The political con game is all about the transformation of human beings to the Animal Farm. Everyone is equal, but some more equal than others."

Bob Livingston

"Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe. "

Arundhati Roy

"Certainly, the trajectory of U.S. history supports the inevitability of socialism, from the early progressivism of Wilson and Roosevelt to the expansion and further codification of those ideals by Johnson and Obama. The U.S. has embraced the concept of government being all things and rejected the brilliance of Liberty under limited government. While this socialistic progression has been slowed at times, it has never been reversed and there’s no reason to believe it ever will be. Washington has a rendezvous with economic and societal collapse. We’ll burnout slower than Venezuela, but we’ll burnout all the same."

Ryan Thorson

"Many libertarian types make the argument that we would benefit from open borders when it comes to both people and goods. That vision ignores the important fact that when we import, say, tomatoes from Mexico, as opposed to people, to the U.S., they are not going to demand that we supply them with welfare benefits."

Walter Williams

"Our current defense system centralizes national defense. One outcome is that the CIA, charged with collecting and analyzing foreign intelligence, wants to be at the cutting edge of technology. Its mission leads to In-Q-Tel. Eisenhower’s warning needs to be revised and expanded. This kind of CIA operation threatens to absorb more and more money while financing more and more companies, while creating a secret government within the government and making elected officials subservient to the intelligence operations. The core of immense power and total control of the citizenry is present in this system. The CIA has already influenced code and backdoors in widely used applications, and the NSA already has built up huge storehouses of communications.

A system of total control is being constructed, even if no mastermind intends it. That system’s growth results from and accompanies the imperative to defend the country. In the name of defense, nothing lies beyond the attempted control of the centralized forces that claim the defense monopoly. The system has the incentive to grow without limit. That means that it will be turned against Americans."

Michael Rozeff

"Just like the puritanical progressives called the American Indians 'savages,' they [Yankees] too demean the South, insisting it’s comprised of 'seditious states' and 'backwards-ass crackers,' who must be retaken and continually remade to fit their ever-malleable whims. They see themselves as perpetuating God’s will, yet they’re pagan totalitarians who worship idols like Mr. Lincoln."

Dissident Mama

"Trade is voluntary commercial exchange, usually of a good or service for cash. Although trade is properly just engaging in commerce, it is commonly what we call international commerce. Free trade is just commercial freedom from government interference.

That trade takes place between entities residing in two different countries is of no consequence. Exports are not preferable to imports. Manufacturers who export should not hold a protected position in a nation’s economy. Merchants who import should not be penalized for doing so.

Trade is not a national game in which some countries are winners and some are losers. Trade is not a zero-sum game in which one side gains at the expense of the other. And neither does trade take place between an 'exploiter' and an 'exploited.'

Trade is always a win-win proposition. In every exchange, each party gives up something it values less for something it values more. Each party to a transaction values differently the goods or services being exchanged. Each party anticipates a gain from the exchange or it wouldn’t engage in commerce with the other party. And each party will repeat the exchange again if its estimated gain has proved to be satisfactory."

Laurence Vance

"Almost all bad situations start with false assumptions based on bias rather than facts or evidence. The most dangerous assumption when it comes to tyranny is 'we are in the right, therefore we are not supporting tyranny.' The question that needs to be asked, though, is are they really right according to the facts? If the answer is 'no,' then they are probably fueling a tyrannical system."

Brandon Smith

"Both parties, Marxism and National Socialism [i.e., Nazism] agree in opposing [classical] Liberalism and rejecting the capitalist social order.  Both desire a socialist order of society.  The only difference in their programme lies in slight variations in their respective pictures of the future socialist state; non-essential variations, as we could easily show.  The foremost demands of the National Socialist agitation are different from those of the Marxists.  While the Marxists speak of abolishing the commodity character of labour, the National Socialists [Nazis] speak of breaking the slavery of interest.  While the Marxists hold the 'capitalists' responsible for every evil, the National Socialists think to express themselves more concretely by shouting ‘Death to the Jews’ . . . . Marxism, National Socialism, and other anti-capitalist parties . . .all agree on the decisive problem of reshaping the social order: they reject private ownership in the means of production and desire a socialist order of society."

Ludwig von Mises