The Reformers

For thousands of years reformers of various types have sought to make improvements to the political system. I have no doubt that in the Persia of Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BCE would be reformers were saying, “the king is too powerful, too tyrannical and too rich”.



There is a place for reform and improvement, but the radical reformer is to be dreaded and avoided. Henry David Thoreau said, “If anything ail a man, so that he does not perform his functions, if he have a pain in his bowels even,- for that is the seat of sympathy,-he forthwith sets about reforming the world.” We should take HDT at his word. We have regrettably, suffered through hours of so-called debate by democrat party pretenders to the office of President. Most of whom seem to suffer from a pain in the bowels. So-far it is the viewers who need the Xanax. We must deal with the possibility, however remote, that one of these people could become president.



Reformers on a grand scale are present in every generation for thousands of years. And the deaths from their reforms is staggering. Institutions are in need of improvement, but the reformers wish to cut with a broadsword and not a scalpel. In the 20th century alone the toll by reformers match Stalin’s famous remark, “one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a mere statistic”.



Reformers justify their violence by claiming a common good. During the French revolution to overthrow Louis XVI the resulting terror murdered both the king and queen. Perhaps they were evil but did the goal of overthrowing the monarchy equal the resulting terror and the reign of Napoleon? Reformers in the United States abhorred slavery and worked to end the practice, in the process, nearly destroyed the nation they thought should be made better. Surely, the 600,000 to 700,000 deaths call into question the reform effort.



The socialist revolution in Russia fermented by Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the Czar and murdered his family. The resulting civil war killed hundreds of thousands and sent thousands more into exile. Perhaps the Czar was evil, however does that justify the Soviet Union and 50 million deaths. China was ruled by emperors for thousands of years until Mao. It is estimated that the Communist regime under Mao killed at least 50 million and as many as 100 million. Maybe reformers should be more modest in their goals.



Eric Hoffer author of the True Believer has a few words for would-be reformers. “Scratch an intellectual, and you find a would-be aristocrat who loathes the sight, the sound and the smell of common folk” and, “If a doctrine is not unintelligible, it has to be vague; and if neither unintelligible nor vague, it has to be unverifiable”. All of this was on display for the world to see this week. The ideas promoted by democrats are threatening and they will lead to violence on a massive scale. The sad reality is they have been tried before and found inadequate.