Liberty and Property.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

26Liberty and Propertyis indivisible. He who has not the faculty tochoose among various brands of cannedfood or soap, is also deprived of the power tochoose between various political parties andprograms and to elect the officeholders. Heis no longer a man; he becomes a pawn in thehands of the supreme social engineer. Evenhis freedom to rear progeny will be takenaway by eugenics. Of course, the socialistleaders occasionally assure us that dictatorialtyranny is to last only for the period oftransition from capitalism and representativegovernment to the socialist millenniumin which everybody’s wants and wishes willbe fully satisfied. Once the socialist regimeis “sufficiently secure to risk criticism,” MissJoan Robinson, the eminent representativeof the British neo-Cambridge school, is kindenough to promise us, “even independentphilharmonic societies” will be allowed toKarl Marx, Sur Kritik des Sozialdemoskratischen Programmsvon Gotha, ed. Kreibich (Reichenberg, 1920), p. 23.