Power

From "oxymoronica"

The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them.

Lenny Bruce

Paradoxically, revolutionaries that attain power "become a conservative the next day" (Hannah Arendt). True reform comes from the outside. Take, for instance, the Prohibition success: it was a colossal government failure; as H. L. Mencken said, "One [government] composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top, there is no limit to repression." In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote:

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service, when it is violating all His laws.

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