HKB
5 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: forms of government · rights and liberties · religious persecution and toleration · political legitimacy and consent · faction, party, and civil strife · tyranny and resistance · tyranny and despotism · tyrannical party control · tyrannical control by factions · sachevaril sermon burning · protestantism · natural law and higher law
Usually: argument (5) · injustice endured (3) · censure (2) · indignation (2) · skepticism (2) · detachment (1)
“those who by force break through, and by force justify the violation of them, are truly and properly rebels.” John Adams, Novanglus, and Massachusettensis · insight
“Yet party spirit, however pernicious or absurd, is a principle of union as well as of dissension.” Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire · insight
He claims Christianity’s doctrines and institutional changes affected Rome’s fall while also noting church organization encouraged unity; he then applies the episode to modern European security thinking.
the important straits which connect the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas. The foundation of Constantinople more essentially contributed to the preservation of the East, than to the ruin of the West. As the happiness of a future life is the great object of religion, we may hear without surprise or scandal, that the introduction or at least the abuse, of Christianity had some influence on the decline an…
Tocqueville warns that European associations enforcing passive obedience undermine freedom as citizens must submit to tyrannical controls, whereas American association preserves individual independence through civil forms of organization.
of military life. They centralize the direction of their resources as much as possible, and they intrust the power of the whole party to a very small number of leaders. The members of these associations respond to a watchword, like soldiers on duty; they profess the doctrine of passive obedience; say rather, that in uniting together they at once abjure the exercise of their own judgment and free will; and the tyrann…
Tocqueville says European associations mimic military organization with centralized leadership and passive obedience, producing tyrannical internal control that can outweigh the government’s authority they claim to oppose.
of military life. They centralize the direction of their resources as much as possible, and they intrust the power of the whole party to a very small number of leaders. The members of these associations reply to a watchword, like soldiers on duty: they profess the doctrine of passive obedience; say rather, that in uniting together they at once abjure the exercise of their own judgment and free will; and the tyrannic…
Adams continues disputing claims that liberty principles are inapplicable or harmful, mocks advocates of “implicit passive obedience,” and argues that resistance to tyranny historically produced lasting gains for liberty and Protestantism.
can be in general true, and not applicable to particular cases, I cannot comprehend. I thought their being true in general, was because they were applicable in most particular cases. Gravity is a principle in nature. Why? because all particular bodies are found to gravitate. How would it sound to say, that bodies in general are heavy; yet to apply this to particular bodies and say, that a guinea, or a ball is heavy,…
Adams continues with Locke’s view that people should judge when governors act contrary to trust, warns against passive obedience, and uses this to dismiss pro-government New York and Boston writers.
returned to again, as soon as the winds, weather, and other circumstances would let him." This chiefly takes place with respect to kings, whose power is limited by fundamental laws. If it is objected, that the people being ignorant, and always discontented, to lay the foundation of government, in the unsteady opinion and the uncertain humour of the people, is to expose it to certain ruin; the same author will answer…