He was one of the martyrs to that terrible delusion, which should teach us, among its other morals, that the influential classes, and those who take upon themselves to be leaders of the people, are fully liable to all the passionate error that has ever characterized the maddest mob. Clergymen, judges, statesmen--the wisest, calmest, holiest persons of their day--stood in the inner circle round about the gallows, loudest to applaud the work of blood, latest to confess themselves miserably deceived.
Hawthorne, of course, refers to the judicial murder of Matthew Maule (for the crime of witchcraft) in The House of The Seven Gables, but I can't help wondering if he didn't put his finger on something important: there is nothing magical about the powers of government. They are wielded by ordinary people with ordinary limitations. They may be very clever politically or rhetorically, but they are mere men and women after all.
With respect to the financial crisis President Obama said in his George Mason University speech,
It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth. But at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the cycle that is crippling our economy, where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs, which leads to even less spending, where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit. [Read the whole text of this speech here.]I'm not convinced, however. We have witnessed dramatic increase, not decrease, in the government's involvement in economic matters over the past few years, so it strikes me as odd that so many (notably at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland) would fault the "completelyunfettered market" [Angela Merkel's words] for the recent banking crisis. More than likely perverse incentives created by government intrusion set the conditions and wound the clock for collapse. But the template has been struck (just as it was with witch-hunting in Puritan New England) and no sensible objection can be heard above the din of the mob of righteously angry elites.
The same thing has been true for years on the matter of "Global Warming" (or, as it is more popularly known today, "Climate Change"). Despite a demonstrable recent cooling trend, there are those who claim--rather conveniently--that we have only "four years" to fix the mess...or certain doom awaits.
Do I see torches floating ominously through the trees?
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