Government Viewed Through The Eyes Of H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken was an American original. Gibbons Burke described him thusly:
“The most prominent newspaperman, book reviewer, and political
commentator of his day, Henry Louis Mencken was a libertarian before
the word came into usage. His prose is as clear as an azure sky, and
his rhetoric as deadly as a rifle shot. Frequent targets of his lance
were Franklin Roosevelt and New Deal politics, Comstocks,
hygenists, “uplifters”, social reformers of any stripe, boobs &
quacks, and the insatiable American appetite for nonsense and gaudy
sham. But his life was not defined by negativity. He was positively
enthusiastic about to the writings of Twain and Conrad, the music of
Brahms, Beethoven and Bach, and the victuals offered up by Chesapeake Bay.”
Mencken was amongst the most quotable individuals to grace this planet. A sampling of how he viewed government is offered below.
If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.
Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.
A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed
(and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an
endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics
is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there
is no limit to oppression.
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the
intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone
ever lost public office thereby.
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to
think things out… without regard to the prevailing superstitions and
taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the
government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
To learn more about H. L. Mencken, I recommend the Gibbons Burke piece which is filled with many references and Murray Rothbard’s piece dealing with Mencken’s libertarianism.
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