I Chose Liberty - Ludwig von Mises Institute

262 I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians
That is a lot different. Already going into the Philippines is an indication that he is going
to take advantage of this situation. There are many in the administration that would like
to have a major conflict with Iraq and change that government. I see those moves as very
dangerous. There is a good minority group of people in this country that are very much
aware and concerned about this. Unfortunately we are in the minority.
I have resisted these moves. There are many members of Congress who have gone along
with it not because they believed in it but because they were afraid to go home to their
districts without having voted to do something. Every place I go and talk, especially on the
radio shows, the people I talk to and those in my district are very pleased that I make an
effort to try to restrain government power.
I was talking to two conservative Republicans over the weekend. I brought up the issue
of the Patriot Act. They both agreed that it was the worst vote they ever cast and that it
would come back to haunt this country. Privately, they were both sorry they did it. They
had been listening to the patriotic fervor and got carried up in the moment and went along
too easily. They did not want to listen to criticism or someone who would challenge their
patriotism. They were not doing something because it was right or wrong. They were
thinking about how to act to anticipate the greatest number of supporters. If we had enough
momentum here or in the educational institutions or the media or with our people, these
guys would do better. They are supposed to be leaders yet in Congress most of them are
being pushed here and there. That is the way it always works. The prevailing philosophy
of the country creates the leaders and pushes them in certain directions. When attitudes
change enough you can get rid of them.
That is what happened in the Soviet system. Finally it was recognized that it wasn’t
working. They had tried it and it was a total failure. The result was a non-violent revolution.
It collapsed because the ideas collapsed. That could happen here. Welfare is not functional
in the long term. It will collapse on itself. Although that is good there is also a danger
because you might end up with something more authoritarian to replace it. With the Soviets,
at least that system broke up. The world is better off without it.
People accept what we are doing because there is a mass psychology of patriotism and
people misplace it. It is fine to be patriotic and believe in the American ideal and freedom.
This patriotic zeal that says we all have to be together and do anything and everything
because we have been attacked by terrorists is a false patriotism.
Samuel Johnson said, “Patriotism is the refuge of a scoundrel,” and that is so often the
case. People will hide behind patriotism when they want to do some of the worst things.
The masses and greatest number of people get carried up in this. The support for war comes
not so much from the people but what they hear from the leaders and propaganda on
television.
I saw this during the time we were preparing for the Persian Gulf War. The immediate
reaction of the people was proper. They wondered why do we have to go there. In the three
or four months of preparations all the major networks kept pumping them up about the
need for war. The people responded to this mass psychological conditioning by becoming
in favor of it.