Conceded, the millions incapable of overcoming their passions to rule -- dictate how our lives should be lived -- are hopelessly lost to our cause. And the same may be said of the millions who prefer a robot status to individuality -- being one's own man!

Ther are wisdom in question was pronounced. Here it is: "I desire neither to rule or be ruled." And these are not twin desires, but one. For every would-be ruler is hopelessly ruled by his desire to rule. To be free, he must free himself of any such desire.

What can we do to replace the oncoming darkness with the light of freedom? The answer is as simple to state as it is difficult to achieve: promote an understanding and practice among more and more of an all-too-rare wisdom.

Briefly, the lust for such power stems not from the strength but a weakness of character. Thus the millions of power mongers: weaklings who know not how to run their own lives, although they "know" how to run yours and mine!

From enlightenment to darkness! From a government of strictly limited power to a condition of rulers unlimited. If we are to again get on the right track, we shall have to find the correct answer to who shall rule the rulers! More precisely, how shall we curb this ruling passion?

Why do so few good men give so little heed to the present slump into socialism? Because they are enjoying the prosperity that still exists! What they fail to grasp is that our well-being rests solely on the individual creativity that socialism has not yet destroyed!

All subsidies or giveaways depend upon prior production. If there were no production, there could be no giveaways. That government should have become the instrument of such coercive redistribution is a far cry from the limited role it once served.

If direct taxation does not yield sufficient funds, then government will tax indirectly by diluting the medium of exchange -- Inflation! Additional inflation -- legal monetizing of debt -- has occurred every year for the past several decades.

Government produces nothing on its own. If it is to own and control the results of production, it must either seize such goods and services from producers or raise the funds with which to purchase them.

It is not only thieves who seek their private gain at the expense of others; millions of good men do likewise -- and quite innocently. Reflect on the vast number of people the government pays for not working, or not farming; think of the countless thousands of other private gains at the expense of producers.

It is a sin -- the breaking of moral law. One of the wisest observations relating to this thesis was written inantiquity -- no one knows precisely when.

Sin is not the violation of a law or convention ... but ignorance ... which seeks its own private gain at the expense of others.

All good men will concede that blackmail -- "to coerce (into doing something) as by threats" -- is evil. Is not the oft parroted Marxist line, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" precisely the same evil, that is, when coercively implemented?

The second type of socialism is the Welfare State: government ownership and/or control of the results of production. Is this evil? Yes, for it is wrong in conception and it breeds additional wrongs.

They substitute their know-nothing-ness for the miraculous wisdom of the free and unfettered market -- each free to act creatively as he pleases. Limited government? That idea never would occur to one who presumes to know everything, and for precisely the same reason: blindness!

The Planned Economy is featured by power mongers -- bearers of false witness -- who haven't the slightest idea of how little they know. They do not even know of your and my existence! Yet, they never question their ability to govern all of us in that primitive, barbaric sense: "to exercise authority over; direct; control; rule; manage."

Why is the Planned Economy disastrous? Instead of individuals seeking their own creative ventures -- each task unique -- substitutes take over. Who are they? With some notable exceptions, they are, as mentioned above, the millions of politicians and bureaucrats who choose to bear false witness -- immoral "planners" of our lives.

Is it not true that all creativities have their origin in the individual -- no exception? And is it not self-evident, also, that no two individuals are remotely alike in creative abilities? Each human being is unique! Because each of us is unique, it is morally wrong to treat people as replaceable parts in the social machinery, mere means for achieving some national plan or other.

Good men, when they understand the nature of the Planned Economy and the Welfare State, will see that socialism is evil. And by evil I mean "morally bad or wrong; injurious; bringing misfortune; anything that causes disaster," as my dictionary puts it.

One definition of "govern" is "to restrain; hold incheck.". Another definition of "govern" is "to exercise authority over; direct; control; rule; manage." This is precisely the kind of governing exercised by socialism. It is nothing more than a modem adaptation of primitive "thinking." And it is as evil as can be!

Communism, Nazism, Fascism, the planned economy and the welfare state are modern forms of authoritarianism, differing only in inconsequential details.

Socialism is an apt designation for the whole kit and caboodle!