Wednesday, February 28, 2007

What is it with LaRouche?

Today as I surfaced from the Foggy Bottom metro, I heard angels singing. And they were wearing sandwich boards that read "Global warming? Global Fraud." There were about 5 of them. And there were 3 or 4 others handing out Lyndon LaRouche literature, and people were taking it. Maybe it's just a DC thing, but I run in to these people fairly often. They're generally young, in their 20s, and look a little bit hippy but not over the top. I've spoken to a few, and they seem non-crazy. The literature, on the other hand, is quite crazy. LaRouche's big idea is to build an international rail network. He idolizes FDR. From today's handout, in an article titled "How FDR Reversed the 1933 Banking Crisis," there's this quote by FDR:

The New Deal was fundamentally intended as a modern expression of ideals set forthe one hundred and fifty years ago in the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States - 'a more perfect union, justice, domestic tranquility, the common defense, the general welfare and the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.' But we were not to be content with merely hoping for these ideals. We were to use the instrumentalities and powers of Government actively to fight for them.

All I can figure is that the severity of the Depression made FDR and his generation blind to the ideas which inspired the Founders, i.e. natural rights to life, liberty, and property. The Founders intended to strictly limit government, because they recognized that coercion is the primary means of government, and so it is antithetical to liberty. These eternal truths were swept aside by the wake of the Depression, and now we're stuck with an endless parade of charlatans and well-meaning dreamers. I just wish the dreamers would get themselves a real dream.

2 comments:

Howiecopywriter said...

If you were on the brink of starvation to death or freezing to death in the 1930s, the New Deal was a damn good deal. And LaRouche says we may need that again, like soon, as in now.

Will McBride said...

Agreed. That's called humanitarian aid, but do not confuse it with economic development. The World Bank and others have done this in Africa, with disastrous results.