Thursday, September 10, 2009

Ike's Warning

No, it's not the "military-industrial-complex" warning. Ike responds to a fellow soldier about the "...danger posed by those seeking freedom from the 'mental stress and burden' of democracy". He suggested reading The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. Hoffer writes that "...dictatorial systems make one contribution to their people which leads them to tend to support such systems-freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning these tremendous complex and difficult questions". One who might support a dictatorship "...desire nothing more than insulation from the pressures of a free society". Eisenhower's added that his experience taught him "...that the rise of extreme movements and authoritarianism could take root anywhere-even in a democracy".
(Source: "Ike's other warning" by Max Blumenthal, author. Op-ed article in The Virginian Pilot on 9/8/09)

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