“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
C. S. Lewis
This quote calls to mind what might be some of the better aspects of a ‘conservative’ perspective: that which involves a well-intended concern about how paternalism detracts from individual liberty.
But the Devil is in the details. People can abuse the cause for liberty to legitimize injustice and valorize callousness, such as is the case when people–ironically—use conservativism to promote two major threats to human freedom : oligarchy and plutocracy.
Let’s be clear. The problem of paternalistic totalitarianism you and Fire Engine point out does not necessarily detract from the legitimacy of animal liberation, nor do the atrocities of Mao and Stalin necessarily prove global capitalism to be the best of all possible systems human minds might imagine and implement.
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