Sara S
12-16-2014, 01:12 PM
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
View Full Version : from Thomas Jefferson
theindependenteye
12-16-2014, 10:15 PM
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Thomas Jefferson
I don't like to disagree with Tom, as I have a huge respect for what that man said and did. But for me this doesn't quite work. I would suggest, if he could do a second draft, that the second half of the sentence substitute "respect" for "fear."
When there's fear on any side, there's huge potential for violent force. Will instilling greater fear in policemen lessen their potential for pointless violence? Will a street full of men with guns make us truly free? One might make a case for Mutual Assured Destruction and a military that annually absorbs more bucks than the rest of the world combined, but I hesitate to call the results of those conditions "liberty."
Tom was speaking in his own context of British colonialism, and in that context he was wise. In our own context, the government fearing the people means a spy network second only to Queen Elizabeth's reign (she had a lot fewer cats to spy on), prosecutions of whistleblowers and journalists, black sites, disinformation, police riots, prisons prisons prisons, and a culture of cover-my-ass. We might recall a politician, I think his name was Adolf, who greatly feared subversion and took measures to prevent it. There are much more effective measures now at hand.
Fear is a very nasty friend.
-Conrad
Thomas Jefferson
I don't like to disagree with Tom, as I have a huge respect for what that man said and did. But for me this doesn't quite work. I would suggest, if he could do a second draft, that the second half of the sentence substitute "respect" for "fear."
When there's fear on any side, there's huge potential for violent force. Will instilling greater fear in policemen lessen their potential for pointless violence? Will a street full of men with guns make us truly free? One might make a case for Mutual Assured Destruction and a military that annually absorbs more bucks than the rest of the world combined, but I hesitate to call the results of those conditions "liberty."
Tom was speaking in his own context of British colonialism, and in that context he was wise. In our own context, the government fearing the people means a spy network second only to Queen Elizabeth's reign (she had a lot fewer cats to spy on), prosecutions of whistleblowers and journalists, black sites, disinformation, police riots, prisons prisons prisons, and a culture of cover-my-ass. We might recall a politician, I think his name was Adolf, who greatly feared subversion and took measures to prevent it. There are much more effective measures now at hand.
Fear is a very nasty friend.
-Conrad
Karen the KAT
12-17-2014, 06:13 PM
Actually what Adolf fear was a guy named Stalin and his buddies and with damned good reasons. When you look at WWII from the context of Stalin and his buddies all being Ashkenazis and virtually all Ashkenazis supported him, it changes everything and I say this as a Sephardic Jew. You can call me Anti-Zionist, but the "Anti-Semite" shit don't fly, and no, I'm not pro-Nazi either, but they were not the big fish they have been made out to be. Certainly there were plenty of evil assholes among them, but focusing solely on that obscures the real issues.
Yes, this is at first glance not applicable to the TJ quote, but if you investigate and look at where we are at it is very applicable. Google Ashkenazi DNA genetics research and go from there, shit gets weird real quick, and that shit is quite real and genuine...
Yes, this is at first glance not applicable to the TJ quote, but if you investigate and look at where we are at it is very applicable. Google Ashkenazi DNA genetics research and go from there, shit gets weird real quick, and that shit is quite real and genuine...