“Implicit in the activist conception of government is the assumption that you can take the good things in a complex system for granted, and just improve the things that are not so good. What is lacking in this conception is any sense that a society, an institution, or even a single human being, is an intricate system of fragile inter-relationships, whose complexities are little understood and easily destabilized.” HumansLittlesGovernmentHuman BeingsUnderstoodInstitutionsGood ThingsComplexesGrantedComplexityAssumptionActivistConceptionFragileLackingIntricateImplicitComplex Systems Book:Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays Source: Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays
“Is it all right for the government to allow the murder of an innocent human being? From the moment of conception, a new life comes into being with a complete genetic blueprint. The sex is determined. The blood type is determined. The moment that I learned the unborn was not part of the woman's body but its own individual human being, I have no choice but to defend the most vulnerable among us.” HumansMomentsBodyGovernmentChoicesIndividualSexHuman BeingsBloodTypeMurderDeterminedInnocentVulnerableConceptionNew LifeUnbornBlueprintsWomen's BodiesBlood Type Author:Kathy Ireland
“The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal of democracy rests on the belief that the view which will direct government emerges from an independent and spontaneous process. It requires, therefore, the existence of a large sphere independent of majority control in which the opinions of the individuals are formed.” IfsShouldGovernmentIndividualBeliefProcessViewsExistenceOpinionDemocracyIdealsDirectIndependentMajorityMake SenseConceptionSpheresSpontaneousMajority Opinion Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
“It is a mistake to think of these men as visionary dreamers, playing around at Philadelphia with abstract conceptions of political theory, pulling a whole scheme of government out of the air like a rabbit out of a hat. True, many of them had read and studied enough about the science of politics to put the average statesman of today to shame. But political science was to them an extremely practical topic of discussion, dealing with the extremely practical business of running a government--not, as today, a branch of higher learning reserved for the use of graduate students.” ThinkingMenEnoughWholeUseGovernmentRunningTodayPoliticalMistakeAirStudentsTheoryHigherShameAveragePracticalsDiscussionAbstractBranchesHatsConceptionDreamerGraduatesSchemesPullingTopicsRabbitsPolitical ScienceVisionariesStatesmenReservedPhiladelphiaTrue ManGraduate StudentsPlaying AroundPolitical TheoryHigher Learning Book:55 Men, Story of Constitution Source: 55 Men, Story of Constitution