Some people just can't stand being told what to do, even if it's for our own good. Every person in America, for example.
For Barry Goldwater, tyranny could take a number of forms. Basically, any infringement on individual freedom—other than those put in place to maintain order—is a form of tyranny.
Being that it was smack in the middle of the Cold War era, Goldwater, and pretty much all of America, saw communism as the reigning tyranny of their day. A state-controlled economy, and basically state-controlled everything, goes against everything America was founded on. The dreariness of the Soviet Union wasn't helping communism's PR campaign at all.
But communism wasn't the only tyranny game in town, and Barry Goldwater saw many of the goals of liberalism as heading down that tyrannical path. If a man can't be free unless both his spiritual and economic sides are free, and if a centralized government is attempting to take those liberties away, it must be tyrannical, right? Any help you accept from the government is a liberty-sucking, dependency-inducing, initiative-destroying scheme by a government just looking to take more control over your life.
Or maybe that's stretching it just a touch.
Questions About Freedom and Tyranny
- Consider current political debates about the War on Terror. How are they similar to past debates about the threat of communism? What's different?
- Does Goldwater address the difference between necessary federal government intervention and tyranny?
- Goldwater said that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Did he think his views were extremist?
- What kind of federal government programs did Barry see as a threat to liberty?
Chew on This
Government assistance might seem benign, but you don't get something for nothing—the government will demand more say over your life.
Holy overstatement, OMG. Communism, liberalism, and tyranny are three totally different things. The Senator is way off base here.