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… is from page 580 of the late, great Yale Brozen [2]‘s marvelous 1965 essay ”The Revival of Traditional Liberalism” (available on-line, free, here [3]) as it appears in Liberty Fund’s 1981 single-volume collection of New Individualist Review [4]:
It is typical of the interventionists that they suggest simple answers based on the treatment of all people as if they were identical, homogeneous units. It is typical that they will force people to do what they regard as being good for these people, whether or not those whose freedom is being infringed regard this as desirable.
DBx: Force is among the most primitive, and hence most simple-minded and least refined, reactions that we hairless apes resort to. And so it is nothing less than sadly astonishing that some of the most prominent enemies of peaceful commerce and voluntary cooperation have become known as “Progressives.” “Progressives'” first and overriding instinct whenever they encounter some economic or social situation that they disapprove of is to forcibly push, pull, demand, and prohibit individuals who are going peacefully about their own business to behave in ways that “Progressives” have divined is best.