Daniel B. Klein
The Hume-Rousseau Affair
“The blow-up between two of Europe’s most illustrious intellectuals was an affaire célèbre throughout Europe at the time. The two protagonists could not have disagreed more in their moral and political tendencies and influence.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
When Diktats and Conscience Conflict
“Grotius was a great liberal because he saw that everyone has moral agency, as an individual: Rulers are to be judged by the ruled. Everyone has the capacity and the responsibility to judge.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
98% Propaganda
“Authoritarianism indoctrinates its votaries and buffaloes others into a false and oversimplified worldview, in which the only important factor is vaccination. But the causes of hospitalization and death are multifarious.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
Sweden to the Political Left of the Whole USA?
“Leftists might deny that they generally favor greater governmentalization, but the reality is that their ideas and policies almost always lead to bigger government. They often seem to be in denial about that, just as they are in denial about the downside of governmentalizing social affairs.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
10 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Call Leftists “Liberal”
“If we are to stand up for liberal civilization, we must first appreciate the great arc of liberalism—that is, the development of liberalism, beginning, say, with the printing press in the fifteenth century and its subsequent ups and downs, and across liberal civilization, not just the American scene.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
The Bad and the Very Bad
“Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America in the hope of preventing the death of liberal civilization. For Tocqueville, liberal civilization was a somewhere to be defended by its sons and daughters. Throughout his famous work, he expresses hope. Heeding his warning enhances our prospects.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
So Sordid and So Selfish: What Governmentalization Does to Us
“The governmentalization of social affairs throws us into the passive position, where our sentiments are “almost always so sordid and so selfish.” That is what liberalism understands. Shout it from the rooftops: Governmentalization sucks.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
FDR Versus Liberalism: Quotations From David Green, 1987
“In my view, one does well to climb out of Roosevelt’s trenches and rejoin the great arc of Western civilization. The more people who uphold the liberal semantic christened by Adam Smith, the better.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
Tocqueville’s Gumptious American
“Some Americans still resemble Tocqueville’s description. And the description can inspire people to regain the ‘I can’ spirit. I mean people everywhere. Perhaps it is elsewhere, today, that one is more likely to see hungry souls—active, dedicated, but upholding the spirit of fair play and the rules of plain justice. May we everywhere grow the…
Darth Sidious’s Lockdown
“Scrupling the ill consequences of frenzy and restrictions is the least we can expect from anyone who has ever maintained pretensions of giving some presumption to the freedom of association and other liberal principles.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
