Following my previous post about the prevalence of 'fairness' over morality and common sense, I came across the following quote from Ronald Reagan, 1979:
"Someone once said that every form of government has one characteristic peculiar to it and if that characteristic is lost the government will fall. In a monarchy it is affection and respect for the royal family. If that is lost the monarch is lost. In a dictatorship it is fear. If the people stop fearing the dictator he'll lose power. In a representative government such as ours it is virtue. If virtue goes the government fails. Are we choosing paths that are politically expedient and morally questionable? Are we in truth losing our virtue? ... If so we may be nearer the dustbin of history than we realize."The term 'dustbin of history', it seems, was first coined by none other than Leon Trotsky, co-leader of Russia's October 1917 revolution. While ratifying the revolution at the Second Congress of the Soviets, members of the the center and right wings of the Socialist Revolutionaries left the room in protest, claiming that Trotsky and Lenin had no legal right to seize power. As they walked out, Trotsky shouted:
"You are pitiful isolated individuals; you are bankrupts; your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on -- into the dustbin of history!"
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