Tuesday, March 18, 2008

von Mises on the power of ideas

The more I read by Ludwig von Mises, the more I find to like.

von Mises writes (1927), "Repression by brute force is always a confession of the inability to make use of the better weapons of the intellect -- better because they alone give promise of final success. This is the fundamental error from which Fascism suffers and which will ultimately cause its downfall... The ultimate outcome of the struggle, however, will not be decided by arms, but by ideas. It is ideas that group men into fighting factions, that press the weapons into their hands, and that determine against whom and for whom the weapons shall be used. It is they alone, and not arms, that, in the last analysis, turn the scales."

Liberalism, The Argument of Fascism

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