Great Book – Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin

A few years ago I sent a copy of “What’s So Great About America”, by Dinesh D’Souza, to my children and grandchildren. D’Souza’s book drives a stake through the lies and distortions of American history that modern liberals believe and love to spread. I’m now going to distribute a new book, “Liberty and Tyranny” by Mark Levin. It is a concise reminder of what made us great, where we have gone wrong, and what to do about it. Every older American and conservative should read and pass on this book. If ever there was a time for a call to action to save America for our children, it is now.

Amazon Review No. 1:
“Finally, someone is able to encapsulate the current mess the US is in into a succinct, comprehensive thesis that explains not only where we are, how we got here but, most importantly, what to do about it.

An engrossing read that introduces new terminology in the use of the word 'Statist' instead of 'Liberal' to better pinpoint the mindset and agenda of the far left (as they have strayed so far from the path that to call them liberal is to insult true liberals everywhere).”

Amazon Review No. 2:
“Levin's latest sounds a clarion call to all Americans to embrace our conservative heritage. In clear and concise language, this instant classic shows how "statism" has undermined the foundations established by the Founding Fathers and why conservatives need to become more active. A must read for anyone who is concerned with the direction of our country.”

An excerpt from Pages 15, 16, and 17 from Mark Levin, “Liberty and Tyranny”, Threshhold Editions, New York, NY, 2009.

“The Conservative must accept that the Statist does not share his passion for liberty and all the good that flows from it. The Statist does not acknowledge the tremendous benefits to society from the individual pursuits of tens of millions of others. The Statist rejects the Founders' idea of the dignity of the individual, who can flourish through ordered liberty, for one rooted in unpredictability, irrationality and, ultimately, tyranny.

It is observed that the Statist is dissatisfied with the condition of his own existence. He condemns his fellow man, surroundings, and society itself for denying him the fulfillment, success, and adulation he believes he deserves. He is angry, resentful, petulant, and jealous. He is incapable of honest self, assessment and rejects the honest assessment by others of himself, thereby evading responsibility for his own miserable condition. The Statist searches for significance and even glory in a utopian fiction of his mind's making, the earthly attainment of which, he believes, is frustrated by those who do not share it. Therefore, he must destroy the civil society, piece by piece.

For the Statist, liberty is not a blessing but the enemy. It is not possible to achieve Utopia if individuals are free to go their own way. The individual must be dehumanized and his nature delegitimized.

Through persuasion, deception, and coercion, the individual must be subordinated to the state. He must abandon his own ambitions for the ambitions of the state. He must become reliant on and fearful of the state. His first duty must be to the state-not family, community, and faith, all of which have the potential of threatening the state. Once dispirited, the individual can be molded by the state.

The Statist's Utopia can take many forms, and has throughout human history, including monarchism, feudalism, militarism, fascism, communism, national socialism, and economic socialism.

They are all of the same species-tyranny. The primary principle around which the Statist organizes can be summed up in a single word-equality.

Equality, as understood by the Founders, is the natural right of every individual to live freely under self-government, to acquire and retain the property he creates through his own labor, and to be treated impartially before a just law. Moreover, equality should not be confused with perfection, for man is also imperfect, making his application of equality, even in the most just society, imperfect. Otherwise, inequality is the natural state of man in that each individual is born unique in all his human characteristics. Therefore, equality and inequality, properly comprehended, are both engines of liberty.

The Statist, however, misuses equality to pursue uniform economic and social outcomes. He must continuously enhance his power at the expense of self-government and violate the individual's property rights at the expense of individual liberty, for he believes that through persuasion, deception, and coercion he can tame man's natural state and man's perfection can, therefore, be achieved in Utopia. The Statist must claim the power to make that which is unequal equal and that which is imperfect perfect. This is the hope the Statist offers, if only the individual surrenders himself to the all-powerful state. Only then can the impossible be made possible.

President Barack Obama made this point when lecturing the Wesleyan University graduating class of 2008 during his campaign: "[O]ur individual salvation depends on collective salvation." But salvation is not government's to give. Indeed, it is not a grant to mankind from mankind. Under the wrong conditions and in the wrong hands, this deviant view is a powerful tool against humanity. The difficulty if not impossibility is in containing the soft tyranny so it does not metastasize into a more absolute tyranny, since the diminished and then vanquished civil society is the sole anecdote.

Editorial Note:
While I do not agree with every point in Levin’s Call to Action, I do agree that it is time for conservatives and other patriots to take their gloves off and get their hands dirty. If you are an older American, and think you are too old to get involved, you are wrong, wrong, wrong. You may be our only hope to save this country.