H.L. MENCKEN ON LIBERTY & GOVERNMENT -- by Gary Galles
August 19, 2002
mises.org
Henry Louis (H.L.) Mencken was perhaps America's most outspoken defender of liberty in the first half of the 20th Century. And a major theme of his writings was that 'Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.'
It is worth remembering some of the reasons he gave for that shame, since, by the same standards, the government is even more shameful today than when Mencken wrote.
The basis justifying shame in our government lies in the appropriate role of government:
'The ideal government of all reflective men, from Aristotle onward, is one which lets the individual alone-one which barely escapes being no government at all.'
'Good government is that which delivers the citizen from being done out of his life and property too arbitrarily and violently-one that relieves him sufficiently from the barbaric business of guarding them to enable him to engage in gentler, more dignified, and more agreeable undertakings...'
The problem is that our government has rushed in a torrent beyond those proper bounds:
'Law and its instrument, government, are necessary to the peace and safety of all of us, but all of us, unless we live the lives of mud turtles, frequently find them arrayed against us...'
As our government has overflowed its proper and Constitutional banks, it has increasingly turned to tasks it cannot do well, if at all, and attracted many who are willing to not only overlook, but compound its failings, if only they can take the reins of power. And this leads to no end of shameful behavior:
'All government is, in its essence, organized exploitation, and in virtually all of its existing forms it is the implacable enemy of every industrious and well-disposed man.'
'Every election is a sort of advance auction of stolen goods.'
'The storm center of lawlessness in every American State is the State Capitol. It is there that the worst crimes are committed; it is there that lawbreaking attains to the estate and dignity of a learned profession; it is there that
contempt for the laws is engendered, fostered, and spread broadcast.'
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Have any of you folks read Lysander Spooner?
lysanderspooner.org
If you read some Spooner over a cup of coffee a few times each month you will begin to "see" and understand more clearly this beast we unwittingly worship called "government".
Then, while you're at it, read some of the works of Thomas Paine. Our dumbed-down socialistic educational system does not want individuals to be aware of, much less understand or agree with, things that have even a remote chance of emitting "the light truth" to We The People.
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