AOL News is reporting an AP story with the telling opening sentence, “Thirty years after it began as just another quirky movement in Berkeley, Calif., the push to ban smoking in restaurants, bars and other public places has reached a national milestone.”
Think about all the other quirky ideas being kicked around, ideas that seem innocuous now yet are less than 30 years from being law. Vigilance over any attack on Liberty is a must. Simple movements slowly pervade the collective conscience — or, more aptly, the conscious of the collectivists — and become the next great idea for interventionism. Before you know it, the greater majority, inculcated at government schools, believe that the yoke of coercion and compulsion has always been present. And like many in the former Soviet republics, the majority begins to fear Liberty, and subsequently turns to government as the protector from that fear: Liberty.
Invite friends and acquaintances to Mises.org and let’s continue to build the resource base to defend our prized Liberty against the “quirky” dreams of the do-gooders and their government allies. The 30-year clock is already ticking.
