Sounds like she has a direct line to Bloomberg.

We just have to stop people from making bad decisions. Sounds like a good idea – who could be against this? Well, the devil is in the details, of course….Think about it – you shouldn’t start a business Mr. Gates, Mr. Ford, Mr. Edison, Mr Kroc – because we all know that businesses are more likely to fail. If you go bankrupt it will cost society. The village might suffer…..You don’t need a house that big; you don’t need to have anymore children: you don’t need an SUV or pick-up. This is where we are heading as a society.

Just a few slight amendments, to prevent confusion:

“Religion within the bounds…” is by Kant.

“First Things” is actually the magazine in which Hart’s essay was published (though there is a good book by Hadley Arkes of the same name). “Christ and Nothing” can be found in toto on the web, I believe (just fyi).

The key work by Belloc is “The Servile State,” which comes nice and cheap in a Liberty Fund edition.

Chesterton – take your pick (my favorite is Orthodoxy);

Lewis – take your pick (my fave is The Abolition of Man and his essay against pacifism);

Jouvenel – “On Power” is essential, as is its sequel “Sovereignty.” These may very well be the finest works of political philosophy in the second half of the 20th Century – and no one’s ever heard of them.

Kolnai – “The Utopian Mind” is his defining work, but “Privilege and Liberty” will do just as well (it’s probably a hell of a lot cheaper on Amazon).

I will add one further great thinker I did not mention, but whose contributions to developing these themes has yet to be fully appreciated: Michael Polanyi (his easiest work is The Logic of Liberty, again thankfully available in a cheap Liberty Fund edition). I’ve long harbored the dream of writing a microcosmic history of the Cold War, or of the struggle between liberty and totalitarianism in general, through the biographies of Michael (liberty) and his brother Karl (communism). A better writer than me could make a glorious book out of that.

Wonderful because ‘serving in heaven’ entails truly becoming all that we can be. No greater beneficence exists than God’s.

BoulderRick,

“The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number.”

I yield to no man in respect for Heinlein but even the master can sometimes get it a bit wrong.

Many of those “who want people to be controlled” are “idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number” but a large number of those “who want people to be controlled” are in it strictly for the power and are willing to do whatever is necessary to impose their will upon others.

In that quote, Heinlein failed to indicate that for every Trotsky, there is a Stalin.

… and, for solace that great men in the past have shared a view, and still onward we go through what’s left to play:
https://lifeondoverbeach.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/hello-world/

Yes, gone but still lurking. Basically I needed to get away from politics; the election was (as I’m sure you understand) extremely depressing to me, and after venting my thoughts here for a few days afterwards, I decided to get some distance, pull back, get my own “house” in order. As you can see, it took neo posting some serious Kolnai-bait for me to get hooked into commenting 🙂

I’m still struggling to get my head back in the game, to convince myself that America remains a game worth the candle. Or rather, America is worth the candle – I still believe that – but I struggle to see a way forward, everywhere I peek, every possible future looking about equally bleak. I confess I have been, since November, on the verge of throwing up my hands and coldly stating, “I’m done. Let it burn.”

So, when I look at the daily Kabuki of confirmation hearings, tax-and-spend tussles, incessant rhetorizing, the sickening totalitarian mindset increasingly unfiltered on the left, and the almost equally sickening inertia of the Republicans, my mind floats away into the ether, looks down and sighs:

“Ah, mere waves in the melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.”

On top of which, much of the commentary in the conservative blogosphere is starting to severely aggravate my nerves. As far as I’m concerned, neo, Ace, William Jacobson, VDH, and perhaps Andrew McCarthy and Mark Steyn, are (along with a few others I’ve momentarily forgotten) the only ones who really “get it.” The rest is sound and fury – “Infighting!,” “Reform!,” “Gays at CPAC!,” “Gays NOT at CPAC!,” “Is Christie’s RINO-ism the new conservative strategy?” “Rubio, Jindal, immigration reform, oh my!” – signifying absolutely nothing.

We are now at the point where messaging and messaging about messaging is basically the equivalent of Serious Political Discourse: “How does what I say appear concerning how what someone else is saying appears in relation to the perception of appearances by The Public who wouldn’t know a Real Thing if it poked them in the eye?”

Yes, yes, in an unfortunately democratized republic such considerations are necessary. But, for the love of God, they are not therefore interesting or illuminating. But maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, good to be back home at neoneocon. Good to see you back here too, M of Hollywood.

Its all they got.. esp since whenever they’re in power the everything starts going to he*l.

I didn’t know you wre “gone”, as indicated in neo’s welcome back. I have been “gone” too.