… is from page 401 of Michael Oakeshott’s 1948 essay “The Political Economy of Freedom” as this essay is reprinted the 1991 Liberty Fund collection of some of Oakeshott’s work, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays:
Collectivism is indifferent to all elements of our freedom and the enemy of some.
DBx: Although he understates the portion of our freedom to which collectivism is an enemy, Oakeshott is correct that – contrary to the wishful thinking of so many progressives – collectivism by its nature is no friend of individual freedom. Collectivism necessarily suffocates individual freedom. Trusting collectivism to protect and nurture individual freedom makes no more sense than trusting a hungry shark to protect and nurture a seal.
