“From the time that Aaron, the first high priest, acceded to the people’s wish by casting a golden calf (Ex. 32), the religious leadership has always prepared the way for apostasy” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 232).
Our Enemy the State
“Modern statism is the soured remnant of the Enlightenment idea of inevitable progress. This miserable wreckage, which once heralded joyfully the coming of the secular version of the kingdom of God, now hoarsely wheezes that if we worship it we shall receive salvation from extinction. The danger is not to be taken lightly. Woebegone as …
Because the Fearful Have a Choke-Chain On
“The entire ‘exhaustion-of-resources’ syndrome is one huge apology for totalitarian control over the citizens” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 224).
Depends on What You’re Conserving
“Conservatives of practically all types, like Wills and Will, fall all over each other exalting the prerogatives of the idol state. That is why when they take power from avowed social democratic parties—as in Sweden, Britain and the United States—there are no fundamental changes. They go with the tide; an electorate that demands the property …
The Real Problem
“In other words, bureaucrats shuffle not papers, but people” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 205).
No Kidding
“There is no arena in society in which the elite are able to acknowledge themselves unfit to govern” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 202).
Just a Hop and a Jump
“The distance between social democracy and totalitarianism is very short, largely because the latter is implied in the former” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 201).
The Biggest Reef in the World
“Self-delusion about human nature is the reef waiting to make a wreck out of ideologies that wander out of a narrow channel” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 190).
Although It Isn’t
“It once was considered immoral to take a person’s property for the benefit of others by threatening the use of force, but now inequality is advanced as a greater evil than theft” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 181).
Institutionalized Strife
“The alternative to free economic activity is not cooperation but coercion . . . Redistribution is absolutely incompatible with peace. Accepted as a norm for civil life, it means that social strife is inevitable” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 134).