Is that really a quote of Ron Paul? It is mistaken. Many times, and perhaps most of the time, ideas without action are worthless, save as titillations to the mind.
Yes, it is. No, it's
not mistaken.
"But in the US, his books now become instant best-sellers and he tours university campuses pushing a libertarian agenda. Where once he believed he was seeding the ground for a movement that would triumph well after his own career is over, to his own astonishment, policies he has espoused to almost universal ridicule for decades might just be about to go into law.
And this is why the economic and political establishment fears Ron Paul as one of the most dangerous men in America. His innocuous-sounding plan to subject the US central bank to a regular audit of its activities is a Trojan horse for the wider aim to End the Fed – the title of his latest book. Behind the liberal-sounding policies lies an audacious agenda to erase 100 years of economic orthodoxy and take the US back to a Nineteenth-century version of every-man-for-himself capitalism. Inch by inch, he is making progress.
"The college kids I think are interested in the anti-war position, in personal civil liberties and allowing them to do with their own lives what they want – but I tell them, if you ruin your own life don't come begging the government to take care of you."
Paul greets The Independent at his rooms in Congress, decked out in the formal regalia of public office, with flags and seals, but with portraits in one corner that reveal his inspirations: members of the Austrian school of economists whose founder Friedrich von Hayek predicted government attempts to intervene in the economy would set their people on "the road to serfdom".
"Ideas are the only things that count, and politicians are, for the most part, pretty much irrelevant," he says. "What was boiling out there I just brought to life. This material has been available in a quiet way on the internet and from a few libertarian think-tanks, but I was pretty shocked when college kids started calling out 'End the Fed, End the Fed.'"
Growing up in Pittsburgh, Paul was fascinated by the jar of coins that his parents kept on the kitchen shelf. He became a stamp and coin collector – still is – and he is fascinated by what gives money value. He's got a proportion of his savings in gold. Currencies come and currencies go, he says, but when people wanted to escape Vietnam during the war, they paid with gold coins at the border. "Most people think gold is beautiful, that's why it's money. It's because it's beautiful and rare and divisible and it lasts a long time. We don't use lead."
He decided to go into politics on the day, in 1971, when Richard Nixon said the dollar could no longer be exchanged for gold. Since then, the global financial architecture has been built entirely on the world's faith in the good credit of the US government. Paul is crouched under it, convinced the architecture will collapse."
Ideas
without action are worthless.... yes, did you watch the video in this thread?
Ideas are what matters, politicians are irrelevant does
NOT thus mean, do nothing.
Is there no direct quote from Dr. Paul on this? I am not terribly fond of placing such words into anyone's mouth.
For myself I can say that my ideas came primarily from within myself, from the innate sense of sovereignty that I can recall experiencing even as a very young person. Many years of thought, reading, and discussion helped bring those thoughts and feelings into sharper focus and better articulation, but they originated within myself and I might be willing to bet a small sum that the same is so for many people, maybe even Ron Paul. Perhaps it is a personality type and some do not hold such a sense of individuality. I cannot speak for others.
Anyone have a quote from RP on this question?
Yes, and I have already referenced
the link. Introduction
(more there), great read.
"I decided to run for Congress because of the disaster of wage and price controls imposed by the Nixon administration in 1971. When the
stock market responded euphorically to the imposition of these controls and the closing of the gold window, and the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and many other big business groups gave enthusiastic support, I decided that someone in politics had to condemn the controls, and offer the alternative that could explain the past and give hope for the future: the Austrian economists’ defense of the free market. At the time I was convinced, like Ludwig von Mises, that no one could succeed in politics without serving the special interests of some politically powerful pressure group."[...]
Because of my interest in individual liberty and the free market, I became closely associated over the years with friends and students of Mises, those who knew the greatness of Mises from a long-term personal friendship with him. My contact, however, was always through his writings, except on one occasion. In 1971, during a busy day in my medical office, I took a long lunch to drive 60 miles to the University of Houston to hear one of the last formal lectures Mises gave—this one on socialism.
Although 90 a the time, he was most impressive, and his presentation inspired me to more study of Austrian economics. My subsequent meetings and friendship with the late Leonard Read and his Foundation for Economic Education also inspired me to work harder for a society unhampered by government intrusion into our personal and economic lives. My knowledge has been encouraged and bolstered through the extraordinary work of the Mises Institute, with its many publications and conferences, and its inspiring work among students choosing academic careers.
My friendships with two important students of Mises, Hans Sennholz and Murray Rothbard, were especially helpful in getting first-hand explanations of how the market functions. They helped me to refine my answers to the continual barrage of statist legislation that dominates the U.S. Congress. Their personal assistance was invaluable to me in my educational and political endeavors."
@all - Reality folks. Accept it. Don't be like some moderators here at this forum who called individuals who went to Mises.org (to study Austrian Economics) trolls. They were simply following the suggestions and recommendations of Ron Paul. Embrace it, don't hate it.
