Socialism is not security. Socialism cannot recognize individual rights.
Dwight Eisenhower, as reported in the New York Times, December 9, 1949, page 23:
“If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison. They’ll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government.”
…he cautioned against complacency, saying that Americans should be motivated by the same sentiment that prompted Patrick Henry to declare in 1775, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”
… “We owe it to ourselves, to understand the nature of the times and not trade the principles that made this nation great for some panacea dished out by a bureaucrat sitting in an easy chair in Washington.”
— Dwight Eisenhower, Speech to the Chamber of Commerce, Galveston, Texas, December 8, 1949. Link to NYT article…
In his speech, he uses the word “value” to speak of the worth of human dignity and equality.
The bureaucrat trying to “solve all of our problems for us… will make us kept men and women, an it is the one thing that today I believe we must watch more than all else. ”
“the things that you admire most, among the men whose names are written large in the history of the United States… courage, stamina, readiness to risk everything that they have including their lives for that which they believe; a determination never to be defeated, and readiness to take care of themselves and their families”.
“I believe there are trends today that are marking out for each of us paths for us to follow. Those paths gradually diverge on the one side of the surrender of our responsibilities, or individual and local community problems to central government, and on the other, the desire of any kind of leader who says, “Just let me do it. Don’t you bother yourself. Just let me do it.” We must solve our own problems, locally and individually. Those two paths are going to diverge until one day they will be as far apart as the poles.”
“The reason then for taking thought today is that we choose the right road; not be tempted by a surface of paternalism, by subsidies by any other manner or means that a self-leader chooses in order to get you to give up your priceless birthright.”
“I want to mention only one thought and that is — the sense of value. So frequently in the [news]papers words that are translated into personal security, which I think are suppposed to mean for us: from this day onward until we are gathered up, each of us, to his Maker, we are going to live without struggle, without great fear and everything is going to be all right.”
“Fundamentally, and whether we realize it or not, our sense of values still puts the human individual, your freedom, your dignity and your equality as a human puts it above all else. … We will not bow our necks to centralized government.”
source: https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/file/pre_presidential_speeches.pdf
- This was 14 years after the Social Security Act promised security.
- If you want to preserve your equality as a human being, you must not bow down to government.
- The principles that made this nation great are surrendered if you accept government benefits.
Do you agree with Dwight Eisenhower that an entitlement taker does not merit “his dignity and his equality as human”?
After all, all men are either free or slave.
Black’s Law Dictionary
Do you agree with Dwight Eisenhower that subsidies by any means from a self-appointed leader will get you to give up your priceless birthright?
Throughout the history of mankind, the human cry for freedom involves a commitment to
- Live free or die.
- As Patrick Henry said: “Give me liberty or give me death.”
- As Eisenhower said “readiness to risk everything that they have including their lives”
Without the worth of human dignity and equality — to manage your own affairs in life without interference by bureaucrats making your choices for you.
And some people want to be told to wear a seatbelt. They want to go to a government licensed physician to beg for permission to live, then go to a government licensed pharmacist to purchase their life saving medication. Free people resent laws that require us to beg for permission to live. Or any other permission to purchase a necessity of life. No state shall impair the obligation of contracts.
If you find yourself enjoying the tranquility of servitude, then, in the words of Samuel Adams, “crouch down and lick the hands which feed you”.