Wednesday, October 12, 2011

"Truth Does Not Need Any Propaganda"

Who said it and in what context was it said?



"Truth does not need any propaganda;

...it holds its own. The characteristic mark of truth is that it is the correct representation of reality, i.e., of a state of affairs that is and works whether or not anybody recognizes it. The recognition and pronouncement of truth is as such a condemnation of everything that is untrue. It carries on by the mere fact of being true.
Therefore let the false prophets go on. Do not try to imitate their policies. Do not try as they do to silence and to outlaw dissenters. The liars must be afraid of truth and are therefore driven to suppress its pronouncement. But the advocates of truth put their hopes upon their own rightness. Veracity does not fear the liars. It can stand their competition. The propagandists may continue to spread their fables and to indoctrinate youth. They will fail lamentably."

Not sure? One hint, it is not written concerning the current state of the Church (although I could not help but see the parallels).

Okay, here is the context,
"The main propaganda trick of the supporters of the allegedly 'progressive' policy of government control is to blame capitalism for all that is unsatisfactory in present-day conditions and to extol the blessings which socialism has in store for mankind. They have never attempted to prove their fallacious dogmas or still less to refute the objections raised by the economists. All they did was to call their adversaries names and to cast suspicion upon their motives. And, unfortunately, the average citizen cannot see through these stratagems. Consider, for instance, the problem of mass unemployment prolonged year after year. The 'progressive' interprets it as an evil inherent in capitalism. The naive public is ready to swallow this explanation. People do not realize that in an unhampered labor market, manipulated neither by labor-union pressure nor by government-fixed minimum wage rates, unemployment affects only small groups for a short time. Under free capitalism unemployment is a comparatively unimportant temporary phenomenon; there prevails a permanent tendency for unemployment to disappear. Economic changes may bring about new unemployment. But at the wage rates established in a free labor market everyone eager to earn wages finally gets a job. Unemployment as a mass phenomenon is the outcome of allegedly 'pro-labor' policies of the governments and of labor union pressure and compulsion."

Still stumped?

Could this be someone writing against those people doing the "Occupy Wall Street" thing?

Nope.

Maybe it is someone writing in response to the Democrat party for this:
In an email sent Monday morning, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Director Robby Mook appealed for signatures to an online petition in support of those who want "to let billionaires, big oil and big bankers know that we're not going to let the richest 1% force draconian economic policies and massive cuts to crucial programs on Main Street Americans." Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/10/lawmakers-pick-sides-as-wall-street-protests-mount/#ixzz1aP8YDyjQ


Nope. It came from "Bureaucracy," Chapter VII, 1944 by Ludwig von Mises.


You've got to read on to the conclusion:
"The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement. They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent. They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office. Every man but one a subordinate clerk in a bureau. What an alluring utopia! What a noble cause to fight!"

A tip of the tam to Martial Artist.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:35 AM

    In place of liberty and it's attendant responsibility, such people desire licentiousness. It's the philosophy of a three year old child, when his parents tell him "no."

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Licentiousness with you paying for it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:41 PM

    It seems to me that truth needs all the propaganda it can get, if these are the definitions of capitalism and socialism that are being bruited about. I have no explanation or particular interest in the Occupy phenomenon.

    I do have an interest in the fact that the rich can afford lawyers to find or create loopholes which enable them to escape paying the same percentage of taxes that the middle-class and poor are forced to pay. It is not "socialism" that calls this wrong.

    And R. Sherman, I live in a state that has a tremendously high amount of unemployment, mostly older people who have worked at their jobs for years and are suddenly laid off. They are honest people who would be horrified at the idea of socialism--you do them and your self a real disservice to say they are "three year old children" who desire "licentiousness."

    UP, I do not believe this represents your real feelings about government problems and the poor. REAL capitalism (see dictionary definition) is the only thing that can save this country or its people.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous12:06 PM

    Anon, indeed, there are many who are facing difficulty, and I did not mean to lump all such individuals into the same category. Rather, I was thinking of the #Occupy types, who want all their needs met without any effort. They desire to do what they will with no consequences or decisions. They are not the suddenly unemployed, whose circumstances are not of their own making but of external forces over which they have no control.

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous12:17 PM

    Anon, see also, this. "Pay for my college, because it's what I want."

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am all for real capitalism to be unleashed from the shackles of bureaucracy.

    ReplyDelete