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Neither Liberty nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government
The history of the United States, from the 19th century to present day, is included in this examination of the very foundations of unwarranted government intrusiveness that illuminates the two essential elements that have led to the expansion of the state’s authority—the ideology that the government should serve as a savior whenever people face threats to their well-being and the public fear that follows the perception of a large-scale threat to peace or prosperity. When these two factors operate simultaneously, people demand that the government take protective measures on their behalf. Hence, in an outburst of opportunism, the growth of government accelerates during the crisis, at the expense of liberty. Dr. Higgs’s conclusion is undeniable: placing confidence in the government to function as savior or problem solver does not lead to the peace, prosperity, and safety that people crave. On the contrary, that misplaced confidence ultimately leads to tyranny and diminished security—in Benjamin Franklin’s words, “Neither liberty nor safety.”
- GenresPolitics
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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About the author
Robert Higgs
63 books70 followersRobert Higgs is an American economic historian and economist combining material from Public Choice, the New Institutional economics, and the Austrian school of economics; and a libertarian anarchist in political and legal theory and public policy. His writings in economics and economic history have most often focused on the causes, means, and effects of government power and growth.
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June 7, 2021
Building on themes Higgs explored in Crisis and Leviathan, this collection of essays explores the political economy of fear. Higgs persuasively demonstrates the many ways that the state exploits and cultivates fear in order to expand its authority and secure popular submission. Higgs maintains a focus on crises and war in particular - after all, "war is the mother's milk of the state." I was surprised to see that Higgs adopted a somewhat hopeful attitude toward the supposed inevitability of an ever-expanding state.
As he put it: "Were we ever to stop being afraid of the government itself and to cast off the phony fears it has fostered, the government would shrivel and die, and the host would disappear for the tens of millions of parasites in the United States—not to speak of the vast number of others in the rest of the world--who now feed directly and indirectly off the public's wealth and energies. On that glorious day, everyone who had been living at public expense would have to get an honest job, and the rest of us, recognizing government as the false god it has always been, could set about assuaging our remaining fears in more productive and morally defensible ways."
As he put it: "Were we ever to stop being afraid of the government itself and to cast off the phony fears it has fostered, the government would shrivel and die, and the host would disappear for the tens of millions of parasites in the United States—not to speak of the vast number of others in the rest of the world--who now feed directly and indirectly off the public's wealth and energies. On that glorious day, everyone who had been living at public expense would have to get an honest job, and the rest of us, recognizing government as the false god it has always been, could set about assuaging our remaining fears in more productive and morally defensible ways."
Displaying 1 of 1 review