I enjoy the writings of CS Lewis. The Screwtape Letters is a favorite book of mine.
The DEA, ONDCP, MADD, Center for Science in the Public Interest all show that the tyranny of good intentions is alive and well.
Mr. Lewis is primarily a theologian but offers great insight into the tyranny of good intentions. If you have wondered how Drug Warriors can lie to the public, encarcerate hundreds of thousands, destroy families, advocate policies that spread AIDS, corruption, and kill innocent Americans without a hint of guilt or regret? Mr. Lewis explains-
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
The DEA, ONDCP, MADD, Center for Science in the Public Interest all show that the tyranny of good intentions is alive and well.
DATE: 12/28/07 3:05 PM
Robert,Louis Brandeis wrote in Olmstead v. U.S.,Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.