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Obama and McCain–Socialism and Appeasement!

Posted on June 6, 2008. Filed under: Blogroll, Books, Climate, Economics, Immigration, Links, Politics, Quotations, Rants, Raves, Resources, Taxes, Technology, Video, War |

 History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.

~Milton Friedman 

The late economist Ludwig von Mises wrote a book, Socialism: An Economic & Sociological Analysis, in 1922, in German, that was subsequently updated several times and translated into English.

Ludwig von Mises

“Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (pronounced [ˈluːtvɪç fɔn ˈmiːzəs]) (September 29, 1881 – October 10, 1973) was an Austrian Economist, philosopher, and a major influence on the modern libertarian movement.

Because of his Jewish origin and his opinions, he had to emigrate to Switzerland and then settle in the USA. …”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_von_Mises

Ludwig von Mises Institute

http://mises.org/

The Democratic Party is on the verge of nominating the first socialist as its nominee for President of the United States of America. It is fitting that a few quotes from Mises’ book be included here. 

“I know only too well how hopeless it seems to convince impassioned supporters of the Socialist Idea by logical demonstration that their views are preposterous and absurd. I know too well that they do not want to hear, to see, or above all to think, and they are open to no argument. But new generations grow up with clear eyes and open minds. And they will approach things from a disinterested, unprejudiced standpoint, they will weigh and examine, will think and act with forethought. It is for them that this book is written.

Several generations of economic policy which was nearly liberal have enormously increased the wealth of the world. Capitalism has raised the standard of life among the masses to a level which our ancestors could not have imagined. Interventionism and efforts to introduce Socialism have been working now for some decades to shatter the foundations of the world economic system. We stand on the brink of a precipice which threatens to engulf our civilization. Whether civilized humanity will perish for ever or whether the catastrophe will be averted at the eleventh hour and the only possible way of salavation retrace–by which we mean the rebuilding of a society based on the unreserved recognition of private  property in the means of production–is a question which concerns the generation destined to act in the coming decades, for it is the ideas behind their actions that will decide it.”

~Ludwig von Mises

Vienna, January 1932

With the election and appointment of Hitler as Reich Chancellor, Ludwig von Mises fled Austria and eventually made it to the United States.

In Ian Kershaw’s book, Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris, he relates the history of how Hitler came to power:

“…’Hitler is Reich Chancellor. Just like a fairy-tale,’ noted Goebbels. Indeed, the extraordinary had happened. What few beyond the ranks of Nazis fanatics had thought possible less than a year earlier had become reality. Against all odds, Hitler’s aggressive obstinancy–born out of lack of alternatives–had paid off. What he had been unable to achieve himself, his ‘friends’ in high places had achieved for him. The ‘nobody of Vienna’, ‘unknown soldier’, beerhall demagogue, head of what was for years no more than a party on the lunatic fringe of politics, a man with no credentials for running a sophisticated state-machine, practically his sole qualification the ability to muster the support of the nationalist masses whose base instincts he showed an unusual talent for rousing, had now been placed in charge of government of one of the leading states in Europe. His intentions had scarcely been kept secret over the years. Whatever the avowals of following a legal path to power, heads would roll, he had said. Marxism would be eradicated, he had said. Jews would be ‘removed’, he had said. Bernamy would rebuild the strength of its armed forces, destroy the shackles of Versailles, conquer ‘by the sword’ the land needed for its ‘living space’, he had said. A few took him at his word, and thought he was dangerous. But far, far more, from Right to Left of the political spectrum–conservatives, liberals, socialists, communists–underrated his intentions and unscrupulous power instincts at the same time as they scorned his abilities….”

The Republican Party is also on the verge of nominating a socialist appeaser as its nominee for President of the United States of America. It is fitting that the final passage from Mises book updated in 1950 with an Epilogue be quoted at length:

“The problems of society’s economic organization are not suitable for light talk at fashionable cocktail parties. Neither can they be dealt with adequately by demagogues haranguing mass assemblies. They are serious things. They require painstaking study. They must not be taken lightly.

The socialist propaganda never encountered any decided opposition. The devasting critique by which economist exploded the futility and impracticability of the socialist schemes and doctrines did not reach the moulders of public opinion. The universities were mostly dominated by socialist or interventionist pedants not only in Continental Europe, where they were owned and operated by the governments, but even in the Anglo-Saxon countries. The politicians and the statesman, anxious not to lose popularity, were lukewarm in their defence of freedom. The policy of appeasement, so much criticized when applied in the case of the Nazis and Fascists, was practiced universally for many decades with regard to all other brands of socialism. It was this defeatism that made the rising generation believe that the victory of socialism is inevitable.

It is not true that the masses are vehemently asking for socialism and that there is no means to resist them. The masses favour socialism because they trust the socialist propaganda of the intellectuals. The intellectuals, not the populace, are moulding public opinion. It is a lame excuse of the intellectuals that they must yield to the masses. They themselves have generated the socialist ideas and indoctrinated the masses with them. No proletarian or son of a proletarian has contributed to the elaboration of the interventionist and socialist programmes. Their authors were all of bourgeois background. The esoteric writings of dialectical materialism, of Hegel, the father both of Marxism and of German aggressive nationalism, the books of Georges Sorel, of Gentile and of Spengler were not read by the average man; they did not move the masses directly. It was the intellectuals who popularized them.

The intellectual leaders of the peoples have produced and propagated the fallacies which are on the point of destroying liberty and Western civilization. The intellectuals alone are responsible for the mass slaughters which are the characteristic mark of our century. They alone can reverse the trend and pave the way for a resurrection of freedom.

Not mythical ‘material productive forces’, but reason and ideas determine the course of human affairs. What is needed to stop the trend towards socialism and depotism is common sense and moral courage.”

~Ludwig von Mises

New York, July 1950

The US elections of 2008 promises to be one in which a majority of American voters would like to vote None Of The Above (NOTA) when it comes to the office of President of The United States of America.

I for one believe both parties need to find better candidates if they want to win future elections.

Elections do matter.

There would have been no D-Day Invasion on June 6, 1944 had Hitler not received nearly forty percent of the German vote and become Reich Chancellor by political manipulation.

FDR’s D-Day Prayer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUy1ejRq9RE 

NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY CONCERT | Charles Durning | PBS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0GVUXh4tQQ

General Douglas MacArthur

Sylvanus Thayer Award Acceptance Address 

“Duty, Honor, Country”

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/douglasmacarthurthayeraward.html

General Douglas MacArthur’s Farewell Speech

Given to the Corps of Cadets at West Point

May 12, 1962

http://www.nationalcenter.org/MacArthurFarewell.html

General Douglas MacArthur: Duty, Honor, Country

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgqSI1BESVE

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.

~Alexis De Tocqueville  

 

Background Articles and Videos

“…1881 – 1973

About the Author

Ludwig von Mises was the acknowledged leader of the Austrian School of economic thought, a prodigious originator in economic theory, and a prolific author. Mises’ writings and lectures encompassed economic theory, history, epistemology, government, and political philosophy. His contributions to economic theory include important clarifications on the quantity theory of money, the theory of the trade cycle, the integration of monetary theory with economic theory in general, and a demonstration that socialism must fail because it cannot solve the problem of economic calculation. Mises was the first scholar to recognize that economics is part of a larger science in human action, a science which Mises called “praxeology”. He taught at the University of Vienna and later at New York University. Mises wrote many works on two related economic themes: 1. monetary economics, inflation, and the role of government, and 2. the differences between government-controlled economies and free trade. His influential work on economic freedoms, their causes and consequences, brought him to highlight the interrelationships between economic and non-economic freedoms in societies, and the appropriate role for government.

In The Library: 

 

 

 

 

• author: The Anti-capitalist Mentality (1956)
• author: Bureaucracy (1944)
• author: Economic Freedom and Interventionism (1990)
• foreword: The Economic Point of View (1960)
• author: “Finance and Banking in the Austrian Empire and the Republic of Austria” (1921)
• author: Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (FEE ed.) (1949)
• author: Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, in 4 vols. (LF ed.) (1996)
• author: Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, vol. 1 (LF ed.) (1996)
• author: Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, vol. 2 (LF ed.) (1996)
• author: Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, vol. 3 (LF ed.) (1996)
• author: Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, vol. 4 (LF ed.) (1996)
• author: Liberalism: The Classical Tradition (LF ed.) (1962)
• author: Liberalism: A Socio-Economic Exposition (IHS ed.) (1962)
• author: Nation, State, and Economy: Contributions to the Politics and History of Our Time (1919)
• author: Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (1922)
• author: Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution (1957)
• author: Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution (LF ed.) (1957)
• author: The Theory of Money and Credit (1912)
• author: The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method (1962)…” 

http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Fperson=195&Itemid=28

My Old Party   

William J. Bennett

“…And thus the Democratic party is about to nominate a far left candidate in the tradition of George McGovern, albeit without McGovern’s military and political record. The Democratic party is about to nominate a far-left candidate in the tradition of Michael Dukakis, albeit without Dukakis’s executive experience as governor. The Democratic party is about to nominate a far left candidate in the tradition of John Kerry, albeit without Kerry’s record of years of service in the Senate. The Democratic party is about to nominate an unvetted candidate in the tradition of Jimmy Carter, albeit without Jimmy Carter’s religious integrity as he spoke about it in 1976. Questions about all these attributes (from foreign policy expertise to executive experience to senatorial experience to judgment about foreign leaders to the instructors he has had in his cultural values) surround Barack Obama. And the Democratic party has chosen him.”

 http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjY1ZWRhODA2NTViOTJhN2YyMDFjOWI3M2RkZjJjZmM=

Charlie Rose – George Will

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EVGOQVuU2Q

Glenn Beck – The Obama Socialist Agenda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgc4zm3XrBc

Barack Obama: Global Poverty Act = World tax = Socialism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PePbtEABzGk&feature=related

Glenn Beck on Obamanomics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zEvO8dTOKk&feature=related

Obama The Racialist Socialist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pRcTY4XPMY&feature=related

Obama: Stealth Socialist? 

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

“…Rated the most liberal member in the Senate, Obama wants to soak the most productive members of society and subsidize those who are not. He wants to hit small businesses and big corporations alike with major tax hikes — singling out for special rebuke oil producers and “Wall Street predators” who have “tricked” blacks out of their homes. At the same time, he plans to expand the welfare state with massive increases in domestic spending. …”

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?status=article&id=295831088444972&secid=1501

Obama and His Socialist Agenda

Rick Moran

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