Historic Views on Government – Peter Berger

Honest opinion about government from Peter Ludwig Berger:

It is not possible to impose a socialist system without force, since those who are dispossessed in this imposition will not graciously assent to their fate. Hence, as Marx and all the other mainline Marxists argued, there must be a dictatorship. What neither Marx nor most of his epigones understood is that this need for dictatorship increases rather than decreases with the successful establishment of socialism: Central planning of the economy and despotic policies are intrinsically linked phenomena. The degree of power required by "the plan" requires dictatorial powers;…there is a natural tendency for a despotic elite to seek control over the economy on which its power rests. Of course, one can imagine different developments–all those included in the vision of a democratic socialism–and no social scientist can confidently assert that such developments are impossible. Yet enough is now known about the empirical workings of "real existing socialism" to make one highly skeptical of the chances for such a future possibility.
   The Capitalist Revolution, 1986

A professor at Boston University, where he has directed the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture, Peter Berger has written many books, such as the classic Invitation to Sociology (1963) as well as American Apostasy (1989), Confession, Conflict, and Community (1986), Facing Up to Modernity (1977), and The War Over the Family (with Brigitte Berger, 1983).

Quotation and short bio from The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Values. Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, editors. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Publishing, 1996.

Historic Views on Government – Tyrrell

Honest opinion about government from R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.:

The socialist theory is a fable. The socialist reality is a very uncomfortable place to live: political tyrants having replaced the bosses of yore; coercion having vanquished liberty; shortages and want having replaced economic growth and self-reliance. Greed remains, but long ago it was surpassed in popularity and maliciousness by envy. Where there once was optimism there is now pessimism. The citizen who once hoped to be an entrepreneur now queues up like everyone else for a new pair of socks or a feast of moldy state-issued potatoes.

Wherever socialism has slithered into power there is either unspeakable cruelty or slow economic decomposition. Russia, the Socialist Motherland, offers its citizens both. The decrepitude of Britain, upon whose wealth the sun could not set four decades ago, is evidence of socialism's knack for despoiling an economy. More recently we have witnessed the amazing impoverishment of Germany under the Social Democrats and the almost instantaneous economic collapse of France's theretofore robust economy under Francois Mitterand's Socialists.

The intelligent quest is for the free society with equality of opportunity. The quest for equality of result is the path to the widest inequality of all: despotism.
   The Liberal Crack-Up, 1984

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor-in-chief of American Spectator. Known for his witty, sardonic style, he is the author of The Liberal Crack-Up (1984) and The Conservative Crack-Up (1992).

Quotation and short bio from The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Values. Rod L. Evans and Irwin M. Berent, editors. Holbrook, Mass.: Adams Publishing, 1996.