The Establishment Quotes



Opponents of the strict separation of church and state use this quotation to support their view. However, Story herein describes public sentiment, not what was passed and ratified in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. See {614309} and {614310} for his statements from the same work that show that there was no question in his mind but that church and state are separated by the Constitution and the First Amendment.


He was referring to the institutions in the particular fields. An established institution in education like a university might develop an innovation in astronomy or language translation, but not likely develop significant innovations in education. An established computer programming company might innovate the method of warehousing and shipping merchandise, but they are not likely to develop an innovative way of computer programming. That is typically done by a programming non-established firm or individual. There are a number of exceptions and this is not put forth as a general principle, but as a statistical observation. Established institutions are working harder and smarter to find ways of innovating regularly, and may succeed more frequently than the present.


Harding, not the most historically knowledgeable of American Presidents, had forgotten the revolutionary origin of the United States or its drastically experimental nature. It was the fear of Communism and the Russian Revolution that gave revolution a bad name at the time.


This quotation brought Mises much criticism at the time and has destroyed his moral credibility for the rest of his career. Like many others who supported the wealthy ruling classes, he expressed admiration for Fascism. Worse he claimed that Nazi German and Italian Fascism saved Europe when subsequent events proved that they destroyed Europe along with 30-40 million people killed. However, unlike most of the right wing Fascist enthusiasts of the day, he did—in the last sentence of this quotation which is often omitted by critical quoters—observe that Fascism success would not be permanent or long lived. His lack of moral condemnation of Fascism and Fascists however was clear. Some of his apologists and decuples observe that his philosophy tended to avoid all kinds of moral judgments pro and con about almost everything. It was this lack of a moral / ethical framework that most of his critics point to as a great failing of his. Also, many argue that this is another example of Mises tendency to exaggerate. Mises also took great criticism on what he claimed were “best intentions”; this included virulent racial and religious discrimination, militarism, aggression and expansionism, persecution of the handicapped. Ironically much later, Mises admitted that all of the Nazi evil was clear before it was implemented, {632449}. Some scholars think that Mises who was almost amoral outside the context of economics, began to develop a moral awareness in the reality of the Nazi charnel that much of Europe had become. One problem is that a person like Mises loses much credibility because of his lack of moral sensibilities and moral perception of a way of life and then exaggerates so many of his examples. However, many of his ideas and insights are very important in man’s quest of an economic system that produces substantial increases in standard of living and development and at the same time assure a modicum of subsistence and dignity and a fair opportunity to achieve much more. Mises’s ideas should not be ignored because of the failings of Mises the man.


The PLO and most of the Arab nations, took the position that the United Nations original partition of Palestine into a Jewish and a Palestinian nations -- UN General Assembly Resolution 181 – was “illegal”. That view has served as the basis for the Arab Israeli problems since. The basis of the illegality they claimed was the right of the Palestinians to self determination. However, it is a right which they deny to the Jews living in Palestine who also had a right to self determination. The UN solution was to partition the land into two nations so that the each had the right of self determination. However, the Arab leadership wanted only Arabs to have the right of self determination.


Trump often used the phrase "Drain the swamp" in his campaigning to mean get ride of the establishment figures who had, for the most part, dominated politics, for decades. When he was elected, he had to appoint a cabinet, but when he did so, it was almost exclusivly made up of people who had been a part of the political and corporate establishment -- the swamp.