On Liberty
"On Liberty contains a rational justification of the freedom of the individual in opposition to the claims of the state to impose unlimited control, and has become a classic of libertarian philosophy.
In this essay Mill also warns of a second danger to liberty, which democracies are prone to, namely, the tyranny of the majority. In a representative democracy, if you can control the majority (and get them to vote for, and elect, your candidates) then you can control everyone (because your candidates, once 'democratically elected', will pass whatever laws are needed for this, as was done by Hitler's agents in the 1930s in Nazi Germany and seems to be happening today in the U.S.A.)."
John Stuart Mill's Essay On Liberty
Some people may read the quote above and dismiss it as another "liberal" exageration. But, before dismissing anything, I also suggest reading the following essay:
"But besides all of this, we are squandering the freedoms and the ideals that we inherited from those who have gone before us, and that have made this country great. This administration actually argued in court that the President has the right to decide that any citizen is an enemy combatant, and that if he so decides, he can detain that citizen without charges, access to counsel, or trial, simply on his say-so. Their arguments did not prevail, but the administration that sought to deprive its citizens of some of our most basic rights -- the right to be imprisoned only on specific charges, to be tried on those charges, and to be represented by counsel -- has never been held to account for doing so. To most Americans, as far as I can tell, the fact that George W. Bush sought to strip us of a right that has been upheld since the Magna Carta has not even registered."
Obsidian Wings: More Things We Throw Away
In this essay Mill also warns of a second danger to liberty, which democracies are prone to, namely, the tyranny of the majority. In a representative democracy, if you can control the majority (and get them to vote for, and elect, your candidates) then you can control everyone (because your candidates, once 'democratically elected', will pass whatever laws are needed for this, as was done by Hitler's agents in the 1930s in Nazi Germany and seems to be happening today in the U.S.A.)."
John Stuart Mill's Essay On Liberty
Some people may read the quote above and dismiss it as another "liberal" exageration. But, before dismissing anything, I also suggest reading the following essay:
"But besides all of this, we are squandering the freedoms and the ideals that we inherited from those who have gone before us, and that have made this country great. This administration actually argued in court that the President has the right to decide that any citizen is an enemy combatant, and that if he so decides, he can detain that citizen without charges, access to counsel, or trial, simply on his say-so. Their arguments did not prevail, but the administration that sought to deprive its citizens of some of our most basic rights -- the right to be imprisoned only on specific charges, to be tried on those charges, and to be represented by counsel -- has never been held to account for doing so. To most Americans, as far as I can tell, the fact that George W. Bush sought to strip us of a right that has been upheld since the Magna Carta has not even registered."
Obsidian Wings: More Things We Throw Away
posted by NBT at 18:57
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