Originally posted by MrGongGong
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The Dictatorship of the Etonariat
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Originally posted by Bryn View PostHad you been at the British Library on the evening of 9 July this year you would know I very much remain a member of that disorganisation.
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Originally posted by vinteuil View PostActon is so quotable - which pertick'ler quote did you have in mind - any of the following?
The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.
And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.
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Originally posted by vinteuil View PostActon is so quotable - which pertick'ler quote did you have in mind - any of the following?
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.
History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.
And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.
Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right to do what we ought.
Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
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Originally posted by vinteuil View PostPower tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they
exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.
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Originally posted by Bryn View PostInteresting. Of the five listed by CGR, only three had any part to play in attempting to establish socialism, having fought to depose the previous part capitalist, part tribute-paying economies they were faced with. Of those three, only two, Stalin and Mao, were able to spend more than a very few years struggling to build a socialist society in the states they had control over, and those two faced massive international capitalist (imperialist) barriers in their ultimately failed attempts. Lenin did not live long enough to get beyond the initial stage of the task of transforming the Soviet Union into a socialist society. I think we have to bare Lord Acton's famous dictum into consideration when criticising those who actually took on the responsibility of trying to transform their devastated economies towards a socialist form.
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I didn't know very much about Lord Acton - apart from one or two of the most famous quotations - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D...st_Baron_Acton
Here are some more quotes - https://www.azquotes.com/author/66-Lord_Acton
The link includes the following:
Socialism means slavery.
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.
Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force
There is one I don't fully understand, perhaps because I don't know the context in which it was said/written -
Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.
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Originally posted by CGR View PostAnd then, of course, there is National Socialism. A form of socialism that didn't kill as many as the socialism of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, etc., but that was only because we managed to stop it by 1945.
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Originally posted by CGR View PostAnd then, of course, there is National Socialism. A form of socialism that didn't kill as many as the socialism of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, etc., but that was only because we managed to stop it by 1945.
or that JRM is really a Christian ?
Thanks for "stopping it" though
but I do wonder who is this "we" of which you speak ?
This self identity thing really has to stop
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John Locke
Originally posted by CGR View PostNational Socialism. A form of socialism …
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Cummings would appear to be a eugenicist, and perhaps a rather ingenious one.
He is using the ‘righteous ire’ of the sans-culottes to bring about a cultural change that might eliminate such people from the gene pool.
Does he dream of a future Britain populated by blonde Ubermensch - a bit like his boss, but a lot better looking and without the permanent spare tyre round the waist?
Cummings himself looks like an aborted tadpole, so I’m not sure he’d match the beauty quota for his own new order.
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Originally posted by Conchis View PostCummings would appear to be a eugenicist, and perhaps a rather ingenious one.
He is using the ‘righteous ire’ of the sans-culottes to bring about a cultural change that might eliminate such people from the gene pool.
Does he dream of a future Britain populated by blonde Ubermensch - a bit like his boss, but a lot better looking and without the permanent spare tyre round the waist?
Cummings himself looks like an aborted tadpole, so I’m not sure he’d match the beauty quota for his own new order.
Boris's robust responses to the baying mob of Labour MPs the other evening was a wonder to behold. He dominated the House of Commons in a way not seen since Maggie Thatcher was PM.
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