Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Rudy Guiliani, Control Freak

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan's blog for this 1994 quote from Guiliani:

We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.


In other words, to Guiliani, freedom is about submission to authority. And up is down, left is right, freedom is slavery, and we've always been at war with Oceania.

And now, not 15 years later, Guiliani is here to take what he likely believes is his rightful place in authority to tell you and me "what we want," and "what we can be" -- and to cede to him a "great deal of discretion" about what what each of us do in our own lives.

Color me unenthusiastic.

I'm one of those rebellious souls who recognizes that in the sphere of our lives, there is indeed an authority who determines who we are and, who we can be. But it's not big government control-freak hack politicians like Rudy.

It's ourselves.