All the civilizations we know have been created and directed by small intellectual aristocracies, never by people in the mass. The power of crowds is only to destroy.
Illogic in crowds
A crowd thinks in images, and the image itself calls up a series of other images, having no logical connection with the first … A crowd scarcely distinguishes between the subjective and the objective. It accepts as real the images invoked in its mind, though they most often have only a very distant relation with the observed facts … Crowds being only capable of thinking in images are only to be impressed by images.
No thirst for truth in the masses
The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduces them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.
No checks on prosperity
No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in its policy.
Fight limits on the individual
And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for this is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system.
What if?
What if our foreign policy of the past century is deeply flawed and has not served our national security interests? What if we wake up one day and realize that the terrorist threat is a predictable consequence of our meddling in the affairs of others, and has nothing to do with us being free and prosperous? What if propping up repressive regimes in the Middle East endangers both the United States and Israel? What if occupying countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, and bombing Pakistan are directly related to the hatred directed toward us? What if someday it dawns on us that losing over 5,000 American military personnel in the Middle East since 9/11 is not a fair trade-off for the loss of nearly 3,000 American citizens? What if it is finally realized that war and military spending are always destructive to the economy? What if all wartime spending is paid for through the deceitful and evil process of inflating and borrowing? What if we finally see that wartime conditions always undermine personal liberty? What if conservatives who preach small government wake up and realize that our interventionist foreign policy provides the greatest incentive to expand the government? What if the American people woke up and understood that the official reasons for going to war are almost always based on lies and promoted by war propaganda in order to serve special interests? What if we as a nation came to realize that the quest for empire eventually destroys all great nations? What if the American people learn the truth: That our foreign policy has nothing to do with national security? That it never changes from one administration to the next? What if war and preparation for war is a racket serving the special interests? What if President Obama is completely wrong about Afghanistan, and it turns out worse than Iraq and Vietnam put together? What if Christianity actually teaches peace, and not preventive wars of aggression? What happens if my concerns are completely unfounded? Nothing. But what happens if my concerns are justified, and ignored? Nothing good.
The truth about Afghanistan
This national security establishment created the Taliban in the first place, exploited 911 as a false pretext to invade Afghanistan when bin Laden wasn’t even in Afghanistan, stayed there for 10 years after the death of bin Laden for no other apparent reason than protecting the CIA’s control of the opium trade, turned the place into a hellhole failed narco state, and when it all collapses into dust they turn around and say, “Oh, no! Don’t watch the news.”
Insidious forces within
I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.
Money talks
The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson. History depicts Andrew Jackson as the last truly honorable and incorruptible American president.
Fixing the open border
An open border will take years to fix. We will suffer a trillion-dollars in entitlement costs, and legal, education, food, housing, and transportation assistance to accommodate the 8-10 million who during this administration will cross illegally into the United States.