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.
I have nowhere claimed nor even implied that unbelief is a guarantee of good conduct or even an indicator of it.
He who despises himself esteems himself as a self-despiser.
Men and governments must act to the best of their ability. There is no such thing as absolute certainty but there is assurance sufficient for the purposes of human life.
No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk and of wasting time trying to understand it.
So many indigenous people have said to me that the fundamental difference between Western and indigenous ways of being is that even the most open-minded westerners generally view listening to the natural world as a metaphor, as opposed to the way the world really is. Trees and rocks and rivers really do have things to say to us.
If there be a God and one has never sought him, it will be small consolation to remember that one could not get proof of his existence.
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