Why Statists Love Lincoln and Hate Nullification, Secession, Federalism, and Freedom

“For fully developed imperialism, the individual no longer has value.  He is valuable to it only as a member of he whole, as a soldier of an army.  For the [classical] liberal, the number of fellow members of his nationality is no unduly important mater.  It is otherwise for imperialism.  It strives for the numerical greatness of the nation.  To make conquests and hold them, on must have the upper hand militarily, and military importance always depends on the number of combatants at one’s disposal.  Attaining and maintaining a large population thus becomes a special goal of policy.  The democrat strives for the unified national state because he believes that this is the will of the nation.  The imperialist wants a state as large as possible; he does not care whether that corresponds to the desire of the peoples.”

“The imperialistic people’s state scarcely differs from the old princely state in its interpretation of sovereignty and its boundaries.  Like the latter, it knows no other limits to the expansion of its rule than those drawn by the opposition of an equally strong power.  Even its lust for conquest is unlimited . . . .  Foreign peoples are in its eyes not subjects but objects of policy.”

–Ludwig von Mises, “The Roots of Imperialism”

My five-week online Mises Academy course on “Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism” begins this evening.  It’s not too late to enroll.

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