Just because someone knows a lot about something, doesn’t mean that he agrees with it. Just because someone takes a view different from yours, doesn’t mean that he will ultimately disagree with you. And just because someone is presently an ally of your enemy, doesn’t mean that he … or even your enemy … won’t ally with you in the future. Maybe someone who disagrees with you needs instruction … or horrors … maybe you do. Never judge someone until you know exactly where he stands … we, if we are true to ourselves, should all be searchers throughout life … we, in the final analysis are all children, in need of instruction. People who have not taken the trouble to ask about my views have said:
“That Ole Lee … I think he’s a Hitler lover … he’s such a red neck, he must be a Fascist!!!”
Well, there is some truth in that, I know a lot about Hitler … and the Soviet Union … and Mussolini … and Mao … and lots of others … Marx, Hegel, Lenin, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln, Franklin, Saint Simon, Robespierre, Napoleon, George III, Thomas Paine, Cicero, Locke, Adam Smith and on and on. How come?
When I was first in college, I took a course called “Introduction to Philosophy.” A couple of subjects in that interlude were “pragmatism” beautifully expounded by William James and Plato’s “Republic” as described by Socrates. The “Republic” put into my mind the idea of a more perfect society. For many years, during periods of casualness, I contemplated and then formulated the “perfect society” in my own mind. After a while, I became, naively, convinced that I had the answer … the perfect society, the utopia. One day, when a half a dozen of my good friends were visiting me in the old ranch home where I lived, I got out some glasses, mix and a bottle of whiskey and demanded that my friends sit down around the round table with me as I explained to them the perfect society. … After about five minutes, my perfect society was gone, but not the amusement of my friends. You see, my vision of humanity looked good to me for I was the boss … but it unanimously held no charm for the others, because in one way or the other, they were all serfs.
After that I set out on an intellectual journey to try to understand the position of man in the world. I knew that we here in America had a great Republic, because everybody told me so. So I began to read about the Communists, the Fascists and all the other totalitarian societies of history. Since the Communists of that time, upon whose greatness we had been propagandized when I was in grade school, were threatening to bomb us to dust, they were more known to me than the Nazis or Fascists. So I read a lot about them. Before WWII both Hitler and Mussolini had been “Time” magazine’s “man of the year.” My dad had told me that he thought that a “benevolent dictatorship” was probably the most perfect form of government. After much study, I came to consider that Hitler was a benevolent dictator to the German people and one of the most, if not the most, successful politicians of the 20th Century. Because he was a great demagogue, the German people loved and trusted him. The biggest problem was that he was an evil man, the most evil, at the head of an evil regime. He provided the depression struck populace with full employment by spending the largess of the people’s labor through the central government to re-arm the military. After full re-armament, there was nothing left to do but unleash the military … the rest is history. And so it goes with all totalitarian, of necessity nowadays, socialistic governments, failure or war.
My enlightenment, which has been long understood by people who believe that the true object of divine worth, namely you, he, she and me … the individual … is what is important on this Earth; and that the only true purpose of government is to protect that person.
In my experience the most eloquent proponent of Freedom had it all together 150 years ago. I suggest that you start where I did … read and enjoy Frederic Bastiat and “The Law” … Good Luck !!!!