Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Insight of the Week

This week's insight comes from Friedrich Nietzsche: "[E]verything that elevates an individual above the herd and intimidates the neighbor is henceforth called evil; and the fair, modest, submissive, conforming mentality, the mediocrity of desires attains moral designations and honors."

The herd, the collective mentality, is a symptom of today's mass democracy. The superior in ability are not tolerated. Democracy places equality high among the virtues of civil society. Public education is a perfect example. The classroom has become a tool for leveling, not advancement, of students. In commerce, the CEO is derided as a "greedy profiteer" while the parasitic bureaucrats that seek to lessen his production are hailed as selfless givers of social justice.

Clearly our sense of what is moral as been inverted. I really see no other cause than mass democracy and the expansion of the state. Our Constitution doesn't seem to be a limiting factor in the growth of the state. "Equality" has become more important than liberty and freedom. But what are we to do?

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