Powerful government tends to draw into it people with bloated egos, people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man. Or as Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek said, "in government, the scum rises to the top".
Interpretation
The quote highlights how powerful government can attract individuals who are arrogant and willing to exert control over others.
Walter E. Williams references Friedrich Hayek's quote to illustrate the idea that in positions of power, especially in government, those with inflated egos and a lack of humility are often the ones who dominate. This phenomenon suggests that the structures of authority can attract and promote individuals who prioritize their own interests and ambitions over the well-being of the people they govern.
In practice
During a political debate, one might reference this quote to critique the motivations of certain leaders.
However, if we wish to be compassionate with our fellow man, we must learn to engage in dispassionate analysis. In other words, thinking with our hearts, rather than our brains, is a surefire method to hurt those whom we wish to help.
In a free society, government has the responsibility of protecting us from others, but not from ourselves.
What we call the market is really a democratic process involving millions, and in some markets billions, of people making personal decisions that express their preferences. When you hear someone say that he doesn't trust the market, and wants to replace it with government edicts, he's really calling for a switch from a democratic process to a totalitarian one.
The true test of one's commitment to liberty and private property rights doesn't come when we permit people to be free to do those voluntary things with which we agree. The true test comes when we permit people to be free to do those voluntary things with which we disagree.
If one person has a right to something he did not earn, of necessity it requires that another person not have a right to something that he did earn.
The essence of government is force, and most often that force is used to accomplish evil ends.
It was clear, for example, in 1988 that the political process had already become perilously remote from the electorate it was meant to represent.
The Iranian regime supports violent extremists and challenges us across the region. It pursues a nuclear capability that could spark a dangerous arms race and raise the prospect of a transfer of nuclear know-how to terrorists. Its president denies the Holocaust and threatens to wipe Israel off the map. The danger from Iran is grave, it is real.
American power worldwide is at its historic zenith.
For Conservatives, all disputes over law, liberty and justice are addressed to a historic and existing community. The root of politics, they believe, is attachment - the motive in human beings that binds them to the place, the customs, the history and the people who are theirs.
In contrast to totalitarianism, democracy can face and live with the truth about itself.
Like a cyclone, imperialism spins across the globe; militarism crushes peoples and sucks their blood like a vampire.
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