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Yet these are dark times for liberty. The rise of socialism is bad enough, but there are other dangers as well.
- The political elites in both major parties are using every excuse to build up the welfare-warfare-police-surveillance state.
- The Fed is opening the money spigot, more than it ever has.
- The pandemic is still with us, yet another misbegotten excuse for vast spending.
- Among the general public, many people are too confused or frightened to resist.
- In academia, there is passivity or even celebration at the demise of essential rights.
- Almost no national politician will tell the truth about where we're headed.
Of course, this is hardly the first time statism has cast a dark shadow over civilization. In the years following the stock market crash of 1929, various sorts of socialism battled for control.
In different countries, it had different names—Bolshevism, National Socialism, Fascism, New Dealism, Fabianism—but the essential principles were the same. As Mussolini put it: "Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."
In Austria, however, one prominent economist refused to go along. His name was Ludwig von Mises, known all over the continent for his pioneering contributions to economic theory, his personal integrity, his tenacity, his love of liberty, and his dogged opposition to all forms of despotism.
Read the full letter here.
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