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It all comes back to "Honest Abe"
by Paul Bonneau
2 paulbx1 dfgh net

Attribute to The Libertarian Enterprise

I was thinking about what keeps people asleep about reality, and what can cause them to wake up. One point that seems an excellent "shot of caffeine in the morning" is learning about Saint Lincoln.

Pardon my joke. Of course Lincoln has not yet made it through the beatification/canonization process to be declared a saint, although that fact almost seems to be a mistake, given how he is revered in all the official propaganda and indoctrination channels. But there is a funny thing about him...

Most people reflexively give Lincoln the nod as the best president ever. Yet libertarians and anarchists generally give him the opposite rating, as the worst ever, even calling him a dictator. Now, isn't that a juicy difference of opinion? Can something be done with it?

What is fortunate about discussing Lincoln and his times, is that it took place 150 years ago. One can get some historical perspective out of it, rather than getting bogged down in irrelevancies and reflexive, fortified partisan positions as is common when discussing current and recent events. The question can be asked, and answered with a fair amount of confidence and not much work, "Virtually everybody thinks he was either the worst or the best president; so which is it?"

Almost everybody will start with the "he's best" position. No matter. Their curiosity will naturally be piqued by the realization that some people think him the worst. All they have to do is display the tiniest bit of curiosity. Of course, one should send them to read some of Thomas DiLorenzo's work, first thing. It doesn't take much reading to start eroding the myth. Other sources are the book When In the Course of Human Events by Charles Adams, and One Nation, Indivisible? A Study of Secession and the Constitution by Robert Hawes. By now there must be many more.

Nice thing about the Internet, people can start reading the bad news about Lincoln, of which there is no shortage.

Having done this, it naturally makes a person wonder, how and why it came to be that Lincoln is regarded as the best of all presidents? Ah, that is an opening for so many "waking up" exercises. It's enough to make you rub your hands in glee.

It's almost like Lincoln is one of those pivots or inflection points in the mind. A person's opinion of him, changing from "best" to "worst", has to have a strong effect on one's worldview. Talk about bringing an entire government school "education" into doubt, or the beginning of questioning mainstream media!

It's ironic that for so long, Lincoln has been a major tool for the ruling class; but now that the Internet is here, this President and his reputation has almost instantly been transformed a huge flaw in the facade of power.

It is possible that a person can absorb a significant amount of knowledge of him and still think Lincoln is great. That is your sign that there is no point in discussing anything further with this person. A pure waste of your time. There are lots of other fishies in the sea...

I have more than once had the experience, that Lincoln has come up in an internet discussion—and not one person, or only a small minority, has defended him, while everyone else attacked him. And this on non-libertarian sites! The myth is crumbling, and quickly. Good riddance! It appears Saint Lincoln is soon to be roasting in Hell.

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