Fireside Chat: Authoritarianism
Everything not compulsory is forbidden according to liberals. This is because, to an extent, authoritarianism is adroit. In Federalist 20, Hamilton and Madison elucidate that “The surrounding powers impose an absolute necessity of union to a certain degree, at the same time that they nourish by their intrigues the constitutional vices which keep the republic in some degree always at their mercy.”[1] In the first book of Kings, Rehoboam forsook the council of the wise and discoursed with men who were devoted to him since boyhood, and vowed to chastise the children of Israel with scorpions instead of alleviating their load by serving them.[2] Rehoboam went so far as to erect an idol, ordain that the children of Israel serve their golden calves, and erected a priesthood not of the children of Levi.[3]Rehoboam’s excarnation led to the usurpation of the throne due to his tyranny, placing Josiah in his stead, removing the accidie. When the tyrannical lead, they insist that their control of the culture, as well as their sovereignty, is absolute. As John Stuart Mill warned:
Representative institutions necessarily depend for permanence upon the readiness of the people to fight for them in case of their being endangered. If too little valued for this, they seldom obtain a footing at all, and if they do, are almost sure to be overthrown, as soon as the head of the government, or any party leader who can muster force for a coup de main, is willing to run some small risk for absolute power.[4]
If the populace no longer cares for involvement in their governments, then the institutions will make the public slaves to the machine of government.
[1] Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, “Federalist Paper 20,” in American State Papers (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1952), 77.
[2] I Kings 12: 1-15.
[3] I Kings 12: 27-33.
[4] John Stuart Mill, “Representative Government,” in American State Papers (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1952), 350-351.