CompuServe Messages

Yes, deT applauded American civic spirit, but he also wondered at the end of D in A about a new species of oppression, wherein the authority og the government "would be like that of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necesseties, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?" Sadly, this is a VERY accurate description of the direction American government has been heading in this century. As of right now, American government executes each of the functions listed above, to some degree, except (so far) for the part about sparing us the trouble of living. Considering that he wrote the above 150 years ago, Alexis D. is one hell of a prophet. Kent