Wednesday 6 April 2005

It's ideas, stupid!

You know the world's a better place when liberals are whining. But here's a liberal with a good point: that the political battle that counts is the one for people's minds. And the conservatives are winning, apparently.

That's right folks. Apparently while the liberals were tripping over their sandals in the sixties, waving placards and falling into their wind chimes, other people were apparently engaged in a battle of ideas.

And the idea-mongers are winning. How 'bout that?

It's not an idea that was lost on John Adams. He knew that the revolution that was needed in America over two centuries ago was one inside people's heads. It wasn't lost on Thomas Paine, who said of such a battle:
An army of principle will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot; it will succeed where diplomatic management would fail; it is neither the Rhine, the Channel, nor the ocean that can arrest its progress; it will march on the horizon of the world ... and it will conquer!
It's not an idea that is lost on me either, but sometimes libertarians need to be reminded that the revolution we are trying to foment is inside people's heads.

It's about ideas, stupid.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Peter,

I just read your speech, Putting the P into Politics, linked from your post above.

What a call to action! That is a truly great and inspirational piece of work. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I sometimes wonder why I keep on struggling, why I keep fighting, when I am tired and just want to rest. Then I read something like this and I gird my loins, stop whining, and just get on with it.

Give 'em hell
Julian

Peter Cresswell said...

Thanks Julian. You'd be surprised what other stuff lurks in the archives, stuff which I hope proves equally inspiring. :-)

Cheers,
PC