A Republic is not obliged to act upon the world, either to change it or instruct it. Empire, on the other hand, must put forth its power.
What is it that now obliges the American people to act upon the world? .
It is not only our security that we are thinking of -- our collective security. Beyond that is a greater thought.
It is our turn.
Our turn to do what?
Our turn to assume the responsibilities of moral leadership in the world.
Our turn to maintain a balance of power against the forces of evil everywhere -- in Europe and Asia and Africa, in the Atlantic and Pacific, by air and by sea. .
It is our turn to keep the peace of the world. .
But this is the language of Empire. The Roman Empire never doubted that it was the defender of civilization. Its good intentions were peace, law and order. The Spanish Empire added salvation. The British Empire added the noble myth of the white man's burden. We have added freedom and democracy. Yet the more that may be added to it the more it is the same language still. A language of power.
Other quotes from Garet Garrett
Lenin, the greatest theorist of them all, did not know what he was going to do after he had got the power.
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Loyalty of the law-making power to the executive power was one of the dangers the political fathers foretold.
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There are many aspects of government. The one least considered is what may be called the biological aspect, in which government is like an organism with such an instinct for growth and self-expression that if let alone it is bound to destroy human freedom - not that it might wish to do so but that it could not in nature do less. No government ever wants less government ... that is, less of itself. No government ever surrenders power, even its emergency powers -- not really. It may mean to surrender them, but on the first new occasion it will take them all back. |