David Henderson has celebrated H.L. Mencken’s birthday by posting some of his best aphorisms on democracy and politics. I would just like to commend the following one, which seems to me to be the most relevant for contemporary policy issues: from soft paternalism to military interventions.
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
Sep 13 2013
Here's an excerpt from the latest draft of The Case Against Education. The link between practical skill and worldly success is subtler than either mainstream defenders or contrarian detractors of modern education imagine. The skillful do a good job. The successful have a good job. Despite its weak effect o...
Sep 13 2013
Via Scott Shackford, at Reason, we learn of "The Scourge of Illegal, Underground Dinner Parties." In short, people are paying to attend dinner parties featuring fancy food. And such transactions are unregulated. Naturally, people are concerned. Presumably, some of those concerned parties are restaurants that are subj...
Sep 12 2013
David Henderson has celebrated H.L. Mencken's birthday by posting some of his best aphorisms on democracy and politics. I would just like to commend the following one, which seems to me to be the most relevant for contemporary policy issues: from soft paternalism to military interventions. The urge to save humanity is...
READER COMMENTS
Patrick R. Sullivan
Sep 12 2013 at 4:51pm
‘An idealist is one who, upon noting that a rose smells sweeter than an onion, concludes that it will also make better soup.’
or, paraphrasing; The cynic is perennially in the position of a guest at a wedding, who has known the bride and has had her confidence. Presumably the groom, beautifully barbered and arrayed, about to embark upon the honeymoon, is the one to be envied. The cynic looks forward two weeks…two months…two years….Such are the enduring satisfactions in life.
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