Ron Paul, speaking Saturday at a Ludwig von Mises Institute event in Costa Mesa, California, presented his optimistic prediction for the future of the movement to ensure respect peace and liberty in the United States and around the world. Paul, who is chairman and founder of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, both observes “a tremendous growth in the ideas of liberty” over the last thirty years and advises that “the militarism of big government is coming to an end.”
In his speech, Paul identifies 1913, the year both the Federal Reserve and income tax were created in the US, as a year he would like to “repeal” and also as the beginning of a century of movement of the US government away from constitutional restraints intended to protect liberty. This government-without-bounds, Paul argues, is approaching collapse, offering a “tremendous opportunity to reverse that trend” but also the risk that authoritarians will take control if the advocates of non-aggression are insufficiently prepared.
A small minority—Paul suggest about seven percent—of the people, if they are committed, can bring about the change for which Paul aspires. He notes that a small minority, for example, succeeded in winning America’s independence from Great Britain in the 1700s. But, Paul cautions that the majority of people will also need to accept the change for it to be successfully implemented.
As Paul so often stresses, education is the key. In particular, Paul explains economist Ludwig von Mises’ advice that success will require both people composing intellectual principles and people taking those principles and making them “palatable to the masses of people.” This is how Mises discusses the matter in his book Human Action:
The supremacy of public opinion determines not only the singular role that economics occupies in the complex of thought and knowledge. It determines the whole process of human history.
The customary discussions concerning the role the individual plays in history miss the point. Everything that is thought, done and accomplished is a performance of individuals. New ideas and innovations are always an achievement of uncommon men. But these great men cannot succeed in adjusting social conditions to their plans if they do not convince public opinion.
The flowering of human society depends on two factors: the intellectual power of outstanding men to conceive sound social and economic theories, and the ability of these or other men to make these ideologies palatable to the majority.
Listen to Paul’s complete presentation here.
