Liberty Letters Quote of the Day: Burke On Tyranny’s Changing Faces

[8] It is very rare indeed for men to be wrong in their feelings concerning public misconduct; as rare to be right in their speculation upon the cause of it. I have constantly observed, that the *38generality of people are fifty years, at least, behindhand in their politicks. There are but very few, who are capable of comparing and digesting what passes before their eyes at different times and occasions, so as to form the whole into a distinct system. But *39in books everything is settled for them, without the exertion of any considerable diligence or sagacity. For which reason *40men are wise with but little reflexion, and good with little self-denial, in the business of all times except their own. We are very uncorrupt and tolerably enlightened judges of the transactions of past ages; where no passions deceive, and where *41the whole train of circumstances, from the trifling cause to the tragical event, is set in an orderly series before us. Few are the partizans of departed tyranny; and to be a *42Whig on the business of an hundred years ago, is very consistent with every advantage of present servility. This retrospective wisdom, and *43historical patriotism, are things of wonderful convenience; and serve admirably to reconcile the old quarrel between speculation and practice. *44Many a stern republican, after gorging himself with a full feast of admiration of the Grecian commonwealths and of *45our true Saxon constitution, and discharging all the *46splendid bile of his virtuous indignation on King John and King James, sits down perfectly satisfied to the *47coarsest work and homeliest job of the day he lives in. I believe there was no professed admirer of Henry the Eighth among the instruments of the last King James; nor in the court of Henry the Eighth was there, I dare say, to be found a single advocate for the favourites of Richard the Second.
No complaisance to our Court, or to our age, can make me believe nature to be so changed, but that public liberty will be among us, as among our ancestors, obnoxious to some [9] person or other; and that opportunities will be furnished for attempting, at least, some *48alteration to the prejudice of our constitution. *49These attempts will naturally vary in their mode, according to times and circumstances. For ambition, though it has ever the same general views, has not at all times the same means, nor the same particular objects. A great deal of the *50furniture of ancient tyranny is worn to rags; the rest is entirely out of fashion. Besides, there are few Statesmen so very clumsy and awkward in their business, as *51to fall into the identical snare which has proved fatal to their predecessors. When an arbitrary imposition is attempted upon the subject, undoubtedly it will not bear on its forehead the name of *52Ship-money. There is no danger that *53an extension of the Forest laws should be the chosen mode of oppression in this age. And when we hear any instance of ministerial rapacity, to the prejudice of the rights of private life, it will certainly not be the *54exaction of two hundred pullets, from a woman of fashion, for leave to lye with her own husband.
*55Every age has its own manners, and its politicks dependent upon them; and the same attempts will not be made against a constitution fully formed and matured, that were used to destroy it in the cradle, or to resist its growth during its infancy.
*56Against the being of Parliament, I am satisfied, no designs have ever been entertained since the Revolution. Every one must perceive, that it is strongly the interest of the Court, to have some second cause interposed between the Ministers and the people. The gentlemen of the House of Commons have an interest equally strong, in sustaining the part of that intermediate cause. *57However they may hire out the usufruct of their voices, they never will part with the fee and inheritance. Accordingly *58those who have been of the most known devotion to the will and pleasure of a Court, have, at the same time, been most forward in asserting an [10] high authority in the House of Commons. When they knew who were to use that authority, and how it was to be employed, they thought it never could be carried too far. It must be always the wish of an unconstitutional Statesman, that an House of Commons who are entirely dependent upon him, should have every right of the people entirely dependent upon their pleasure. It was soon discovered, that the *59forms of a free, and the ends of an arbitrary Government, were things not altogether incompatible.
*60The power of the Crown, almost dead and rotten as Prerogative, has grown up anew, with much more strength, and far less odium, under the name of *61Influence. An influence, which operated without noise and without violence; an influence, which converted the very antagonist, into the instrument, of power; which contained in itself a perpetual principle of growth and renovation; and which the distresses and the prosperity of the country equally tended to augment, was an admirable substitute for a Prerogative, that, being only the offspring of antiquated prejudices, had *62moulded in its original stamina irresistible principles of decay and dissolution. The ignorance of the people is a bottom but for a temporary system; the interest of active men in the State is a foundation perpetual and infallible. However, some circumstances, arising, it must be confessed, in a great degree from accident, prevented the effects of this influence for a long time from breaking out in a manner capable of exciting any serious apprehensions. Although Government was strong and flourished exceedingly, *63the Court had drawn far less advantage than one would imagine from this great source of power.Edmund Burke, Thoughts On the Present Discontents, 1784 Liberty Letters hopes the lesson is obvious: don’t suppose that a politician, political party, or partisan political movement is up to no good (including the one that you may be involved with) simply because none of the historical words that spell tyranny are in vogue. The word “socialism” is a clear example. It is a bad word, with a bad reputation; and so it is rarely used, and always changing names and faces. Thus we have socialism, communism, fascism, fabianism, democratic socialism, liberation theology, the third way, compassionate conservatism, corporatism, planned economies, state-monopoly capitalism, futurism, the welfare state, internationalism, the regulatory state, and so forth. They all mean the same thing in the great fundamentals, and there are so many other labels that can be used, are used, and will be used. Burke’s lesson is fundamental, and speaks of a re-occurring motif in history. That is why we must look at the principles involved, to the fine print, and think – not look to the labels, not get caught up in blind partisanship, and in personality worship. Forced redistribution of the wealth, intrusive regulation of private property and industry, denial of freedom of religion in any setting, regulation of the press, controls over private associations, graduated income taxes, centralized control over education, huge property confiscations by the state, the creations of national banks in private hands with an exclusive monopoly, etc., are all fundamentally the same, but will rarely be mentioned in the flashing lights of their packaging that they are steps toward tyranny, or indeed, already tyrannical. Liberty Letters is a project of the Latter-day Center for Moral Liberalism