Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner
Interpretation
Mencken critiques the degradation of the law-making process, suggesting that it is no longer based on rational discourse but rather on coercion and manipulation.
H. L. Mencken's quote highlights the deterioration of democratic processes where laws should ideally be crafted through rational debate and public discourse. Instead, he points to a troubling reality where the formation and enforcement of laws are influenced by fear, intimidation, and corruption. This shift undermines the integrity of governance and reflects a deeper societal malaise regarding justice and power dynamics.
In practice
This quote is perfect for a speech on the importance of ethics in politics.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
Capablanca was snatched too early from the chess world. With his death we have lost a great chess genius, the like of whom we will never see again.
Man's ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.
Well, I don't like your clothes. You look perfectly ridiculous in them. Why on earth don't you go up and change? It's perfectly childish to be in mourning for a man who is actually staying a whole week with you in your house as a guest. I call it grotesque.
Man is a history-making creature, who can neither repeat his past, nor leave it behind.
The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.
I grew up with four T.V. channels. If you missed a show, you missed it. You gotta wait a week for the next one. I'd mail-order books: take a quarter, get an envelope, send off for it and wait until it arrived. I grew up waiting for things.
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