Athens Warning for Comfortable Democracies

“I was reminded of—and perhaps haunted by—what the historian Gibbon said of Athens. “In the end,” he wrote in his epitaph for the ancient Republic, “more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life and they lost it all—security, comfort and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom of responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free”

“Early in this century, the idea began to take hold in the United States that the problems of our society were growing so large that individuals could no longer cope with them. Instead, people began asking the government to assume responsibility for solving their problems—and to do the things for them that they once did for themselves. Government gradually became a beneficent protector against the evils of modern life. That trend accelerated during the 1960s as we were promised through the powers of government that we could fight a land war in Asia, abolish the business cycle, eradicate pollution, and put a man on the moon, all at the same time. The result of President Johnson’s “guns and butter” economy, broken promises, and an overbearing government, was predictable.”