Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2view/view476.html#Tarquin

The lesson for today is from Aristotle and Livy: Tarquin the Proud, telling his son how to establish a tyranny. Tarquin was king in Rome. His son pretended to defect, and went to a neighboring city where he became a general. He sent a messenger to his father to ask what he should do next.Tarquin took the messenger into the garden, and using his stick cut off the heads of all the tall poppies so that none stood out. Then he sent the messenger on his way without reply.His son got the message.The United States seems determined to plant Jacobin Democracy everywhere. Wherever Democracy is established, it always cuts off the heads of the tallest poppies. This is why Cicero and the other sages of classical times rejected Democracy as a form of government: it permitted no one to rise, so that the choices were mediocrity or a tyrant to overthrow the Democracy. The Founding Fathers of the United States understood this very well.When I was in school, every pupil in the United States learned the story of Tarquin and the tallest poppies before eighth grade. Today I don’t suppose anyone has. We sow the wind. The coming Democracy will reap the whirlwind. Perhaps we will achieve empire without going through that stage.