“Though it is disguised by the illusion that a bureaucracy accountable to a majority of voters, and susceptible to the pressure of organized minorities, is not exercising compulsion, it is evident that the more varied and comprehensive the regulation becomes, the more the state becomes a despotic power as against the individual. For the fragment of control over the government which he exercises through his vote is in no effective sense proportionate to the authority exercised over him by the government.” StatesGovernmentIndividualExerciseAuthorityIllusionVotePressureMajorityOrganizedMinoritiesVotersRegulationEvidentBureaucracyFragmentsCompulsionComprehensiveSusceptible Author:Walter Lippmann
“Trusting people to be creative and constructive when given more freedom does not imply an overly optimistic belief in the perfectibility of human nature. It is, rather, belief that the inevitable errors and sins of the human condition are far better overcome by individuals working together in an environment of trust and freedom and mutual respect than by individuals working under a multitude of rules, regulations, and restraints imposed upon them by another group of imperfect individuals.” PeopleHumansDoeTogetherIndividualBeliefGivenSinCreativeEnvironmentGroupsConditionsHuman NatureOvercomingErrorsOptimisticInevitableWorking TogetherMutualImperfectHuman ConditionRegulationMultitudesRestraintBe CreativeConstructiveMutual RespectTrusting People Author:Peter Senge
“The very reason why we object to state ownership, that it puts a stop to individual initiative and to the healthy development of personal responsibility, is the reason why we object to an unsupervised, unchecked monopolistic control in private hands. We urge control and supervision by the nation as an antidote to the movement for state socialism. Those who advocate total lack of regulation, those who advocate lawlessness in the business world, themselves give the strongest impulse to what I believe would be the deadening movement toward unadulterated state socialism.” WorldGivingBelieveStatesReasonWisdomHandsWould BeIndividualI BelieveNationsResponsibilityMovementObjectsDevelopmentHealthySocialismImpulseReason WhyUrgesStrongestRegulationInitiativeOwnershipAntidotePersonal ResponsibilityBusiness WorldSupervisionLawlessness Book:History as Literature and Other Essays Source: History as Literature and Other Essays