Friday, August 14, 2009

Quote of the Month, from Ayn Rand

Relevant not just to the ongoing health care/health insurance debate, but to the state of our current culture in general:
“[T]his is the issue at the base of all dictatorships, all collectivist theories and all human evils. I could not understand how any man could be so brutalized as to claim the right to dispose of the lives of others, nor how any man could be so lacking in self-esteem as to grant to others the right to dispose of his life.”
Observe that this is the fundamental modus and evil of Progressives. Beyond all the wonky debates about cost, efficiency, risk management, etc., apart from the faux concerns about "fairness," "greed," and so forth, Progressives simply don't trust free human beings, and therefore lust to chain them. It's reminiscent of the joke in the film Rob Roy: "Rob, do ya know why Calvinists dislike shaggin' standin' ooop?... They fear it'll lead to dancin'!"

And, indeed it will. Such is the mentality of all Puritans, whose basic view of human beings leads them to believe that they must, above all, not be allowed to exercise their own choices. Paraphrasing Mencken, god forbid, there might actually be happy people in the world!