josh@topaz.ARPA (J Storrs Hall) (03/30/85)
Here's a little quote from the book, "the Welfare State", a collection of essays edited by, oddly enough, someone named Marx (herbert l., and published in 1950): "The world has never had a good definition of "liberty", and the American people, just now, are much in need of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word "liberty" may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while for others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same thing, "liberty". And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called called by two different different and incompatible names--"liberty" and "tyranny". It was originally said by Abraham Lincoln in 1864. The question I'd like to raise is why, among modern American liberals, is the word "tyranny" so rarely heard? --JoSH