Kevin,
You're right. I should have asked which we had more reason to fear, liberty
or power.
My answer to your first question is that there are certainly good reasons to
engage in historic preservation, but there aren't sufficiently good reasons
to justify the taking of money by force (taxation) to do so.
One of the reasons for studying history is to learn its lessons, one of
which is the dangers of government, and another of which is the benefits of
free enterprise.
Regards,
Sam
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
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Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 3:07 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Ft Monroe & public funds
Sam--
The answer to your first question is "yes." To my eye, the question you
pose is a false dichotomy. We have good reason to worry about both. It
does take citizens of good character and right disposition to sustain a
democracy. And the propensity of power to corrupt is real, and must be
guarded against.
A large question posed by this conversation is, "does there exist any good
reason to engage in public historic preservation of *any* kind?"
And an even larger one is "does there exist any good reason to study
history, other than personal entertainment?"
I would submit that there does exist a strong rationale to answer both
questions, but that it is not a libertarian one. From the perspective of
Free Market Libertarianism, I think the answer to both questions is "no."
All best,
Kevin
---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:56:57 -0500
>From: Sam Treynor <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Ft Monroe & public funds
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>Kevin -
>
>Who should we worry about, those ordinary people who, given liberty, might
>not do what is best, or those hungry for power, who given coercive
>authority, might use it to oppress?
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University
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