The Allure of the 'Nanny State' - Paul Rahe

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/11/19/Uncommon_Knowledge_Soft_Despotism_with_Paul_Rahe

Paul A. Rahe, author of Soft Despotism: Democracy's Drift relates political behavior to human nature. Rahe argues that overbearing "nanny state" government policies are caused by anxiety over social freedoms.

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Paul A. Rahe discusses the danger that a consolidation of government poses for the people of the United States, the psychological disposition that makes democratic peoples vulnerable to servile temptation, and the institutions that once, in some measure, shielded Americans from these propensities.

Asserting that the Obama administration is pursuing tyrannical ambitions, he offers some of the reasons why it is now possible for the nation to recover its original liberty. - Hoover Institution

Dr. Paul A. Rahe is a historian of political philosophy, Professor of History and Political Science at Hillsdale College, and author of the study Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution. His most recent book is Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift.

Peter M. Robinson is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he writes about business and politics, edits Hoover's quarterly journal, the Hoover Digest, and hosts Hoover's television program, Uncommon Knowledge.

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[realisoph]

"The more commercial we become, the more liberal we become, the freer we are, the heavier the burden on individuals to fashion lives for themselves."

Adding "the more we pretend to know", for many people today, these allures present the fundamental, yet false, reasoning.

But, happily, ever more people realize it as the big fraud it is, the overweighed, separate self.

And thus, at last, the propensity to look for a helping hand or to feel incertitude, transforms into the helping hand itself.

[RenegadeTimes]

I will add this though.

With dependency comes lack of one's control over their lives. . Independent humans "think" differently.

[Membrane556]

The Nanny state is humanities' number one enemy.

[nurbSoldier]

@3:42 regarding college seniors, if this is not damning of schools trying to mold people, then I do not know what is.

[allgoo19]

@Mastikator

"Just because someone is a slave doesn't mean that he's not physically or mentally equal..."

Makes no sense.

What's your idea of equality if the slavery is allowed in the society? Such society actaully existed in the past, if when and which country?

By the way, we are tryinto to decide who's retarded here by this dialogue and you are not the judge of it. You prove it and others will judge. OK?

"What the resaon Iceland terminated the anaychy? "

Answer?

[Mastikator]

@allgoo19 Are you retarded or something? Just because someone is a slave doesn't mean that he's not physically or mentally equal. It means that he's socially unequal. You're either twisting my words in the most retarded way imaginable, or you're not listening to what I'm saying. So that ends this conversation. Don't speak to me.

[allgoo19]

@Mastikator

"Most people are physically and mentally equal.."

Wow! Super ignorant!

Have you opened up a history book and how peasants had been abused? You think equality is given to the people by god or something? Never heard of slavery?

What kind of mentality you have?

And how about your answer to this "What the resaon Iceland terminated the anaychy? "?

[Mastikator]

@allgoo19 Most people are physically and mentally equal. There is no such thing as a superhero who can overpower many. At least, its so rare that it's insignificant. That's banal, it's absurd. Is that really the best kind of excuse you can come up with? Seriously?

Secondly, monarchy is a form of religion, it's based on the idea that the monarch either has divine rights, or is directly divine. Dictatorships that are without a dogma to justify the tyranny never last long.

[allgoo19]

@Mastikator

"Monarchies started as cult .."

Not necessarily so. It started as "strong takes all", if anything cultish in it, they just used it for reasoning. Monarcy can exist without cult, it 's just called dictatorship. Without the state there's no equality among the people because no gov. to back it up. Anarchy won't last long because it'll soon turn into "strong takes all" society and nobody stopping it.

What the resaon Iceland terminated the anaychy?

[Mastikator]

@allgoo19 Monarchies started as cult leaders claimed to be gods.

Medival Iceland was anarchic for a very long time. During its anarchic time it was way more peaceful than anything in Europe, and the people living there had it much better too since they weren't serfs.

[allgoo19]

@Mastikator

"Show evidence.."

It's in the history. You'll find it everywhere if you look. See how monarchy started.

Now your turn to show me the evidence.

When the anarcy worked for prolonged time, like more than 100 yr.?

By the way, your boat analogy is a bit off.

[hartmut1164]

He does do not mention that the welfare state is result of concrete problem.

Take Bismark's social reform acts (and Bismark was a right-wing conservative - even for his times) or the Poor Laws of Elizabeth I or the creation of the Swedish Model: I all cases the social tension were mounting up to point that such measurements were needed.

The social security is needed to keep society together - and is therefore a part of the framework in which free enterprise can act.