"The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression."
by:
W. E. B. Du Bois
(1868-1963) Professor, Civil Rights Activist, NAACP Founding Member
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"It's true, the price of liberty, in deaths, is much less the cost of slavery wherein deaths from slave masters number more than those fighting to keep a people free from the chains of repression." -- Joseph Stalin. Need I say more?
 -- Anon     
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    We as a young nation of mixed peoples now, must look to what is called our tree of liberty. Was it not an oppressed people of the isles who first received this truth of liberty and freedom in english and in doing so founded this nation, knowing that slavery would be abolished. God will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. One form of slavery for another is not freedom. To not become the slave master when freed is the challenge.
     -- R. Pittman, Salem OR     
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    Why do socialist societies always default to more regulation and more government control over the lives of individuals? For every regulation imposed someone has to pay a price. Costs mean very little to socialists since someone else is always paying the price, at least until they run out of sheep to fleece. One day they wake up and they are the sheep. Only then do they care that the cost of their favorite program is their liberty.
     -- Ken, Allyn, WA     
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    They found this nation because they wanted freedom from religious dogma and now it has become full circle. We have a country that over 50 percent go church and yet we have the worst corruption, incarceration, health care, and standard of living in the western industrial world. Anon, is right again, the cost of repression is far greater. Ken, we are being fleeced not by the socialists but by plutocracy (corporate whore's and their government lackeys and the media they own) - a very different politic.
     -- RBESRQ     
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    True both with blood and money.
     -- Justin, Elkland     
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    RBESRQ, Do socialists not believe that liberty and justice can only be achieved through a strong centralized government representing labor and production? And isn't that like saying a few drops of arsenic will kill you but a gallon of it will cure you? You are right to indict the lobbyists and their quarry, but you fail to recognize the socialist policies that empower them.
     -- Justin, Elkland     
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    Justin, thanks for your thoughtful feedback. Yes, socialists do believe that Liberty and Justice can be achieved through a strong centralized (small) government, representing, not only labor and production, but also the happiness and well-being of all the people they represent. We have presently a Plutocracy that is dress in socialist clothing and the media and most of America is falling for it hook line and sinker. Today the government has shifted so far to the right that they are falling over themselves to introduce more and more draconian legislation that inhibits our freedom day by day - all under the blanket of propagandized terrorism. It is so blatant which proves they don't care hiding it anymore. In actual fact your analogy should read in reverse. Don't go back to far, say last ten years; what socialist policies are you referring that empower the plutocracy - funnily enough your observation may be correct as we have socialized Wall Street and corporate America losses and privatized their profits - well done!
     -- RBESRQ     
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    It's the same as it's ever been: the malevolent gravitate to positions of power so that they may exercise it to their advantage. Why should we only go back ten years to see cleptocrats? All you have to do to see the beginning, when it really took off, is look at 1913 when the Federal Reserve was created by merging government with the private banking system. Then look at 1916 when the income tax was enabled by amending the constitution. The income tax give the private banking system, not the government, a guaranteed revenue stream. Go on to the 1930's and FDR's new deal. FDR's administration picked the winners and losers among private business. To stay in business all you had to do was support the administration. How simple. "Beware the military/industrial complex" from the 1950's. Military contractors are kept alive by government and their being private is just a facade for the actual corporatism that exists. In return, military contractor, financial, automobile corporations (and so on) give former politicians lucrative lobbying jobs. And lets not forget the lucrative and corrupt unions who do the very same thing. They lobby politicians to provide contracts that require union labor. They fill their coffers and pockets with government contracts as well. Corruption is everywhere and it is all enabled by all powerful government that has the power to confiscate what does not belong to them.
     -- Ken, Allyn, WA     
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    I almost forgot to mention the education industry, specifically the university industry. Why has the cost of a degree gone up so much faster than the general rate of inflation? It is because of the subsidy of education provided by government drives ever higher the price that the market will bear. It distorts the true cost, and provides inflated incomes to those in the university system. Why does government provide these subsidies? Benevolence? Maybe they think that more marginal students (who would not be there but for the subsidy) graduating from womyn's studies programs and the like will lead to great profit and benefit to society. More likely politicians know that the subsidy, leading to higher incomes for the education industry, will gain their support and will ensure leftist propaganda will be taught to impressionable and naive students. Subsidies will certainly get the support of marginal students who would otherwise have to work for a living.
     -- Ken, Allyn, WA     
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    Right on, Ken! Fascism is the preferred form of government for the private central bank in America although a public (yet controlled by the most wealthy and powerful) central bank is the base for communist countries. I think RBE should realize that historically fascism took hold in European countries which were openly socialistic-democracies. As well, I doubt that RBE can give ONE example of a socialist government that is small and/or not a plutocracy. He forgets that the real rich and powerful OWN the Monopoly game in which we are all but game tokens. BTW a centralized government IS a plutocracy. That is why the USA is founded as a Republic of Republics of Republics. The primary republic is the County, then the State republic, then a federal 'zone' that administers the affairs of the confederated States according to republican jurispridence -- each has their own republican government. Distribuitive government is representative of the diversity of the people. Centralized government SUCKS! It is always oppressive and given enough power will assume the power of all. And a really small centralized government is a monarchy/dictatorship, so watch the f#$% out!
     -- E Archer, NYC     
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