“The essential characteristic of Western civilization that distinguishes it from the arrested and petrified civilizations of the East was and is its concern for freedom from the state. The history of the West, from the age of the Greek polis down to the present-day resistance to socialism, is essentially the history of the fight for liberty against the encroachments of the officeholders.”

I think the west is rapidly loosing the fight for the hearts & minds of its people & the will to fight for liberty. We, the people, are being purposely dumbed down to accept the idea that Big Government knows best.

Warrdoc, You nailed it!

Our Congress passes illegal laws to buy votes and obtain bribes (political contributions).
Our President refuses to enforce some laws and passes his own illegal laws with executive orders.
Our 5-4 DC Supremes say that illegal (unconstitutional) laws are fine with them.
Our DC employees in both parties and in all three branches flaunt their disdain for the law that applies to them—the Constitution.

It is time to get our wannabe masters back under control, and voting is not working. Our Constitution has been damaged. It is time to revive and strengthen it with a convention of states. Visit and support www.conventionofstates.com today.

Warrdoc is correct.

Great quote ... but would somebody please inform Von Mises' ghost that "freedom from the state" is an idea that really never gained traction in the U.S.?

Or anywhere else, for that matter.

Riches Rule, unaccountable to anything but itself, is the oldest political truism extant.

Durham: A Constitutional Convention is a great idea, in theory. But how would reconvening the Convention circumvent the inevitability of 'Riches Rule?'

The first one sure didn't. It just set aside a foreign Power's claim to domestic wealth and threw in a meaningless, Dr. Feelgood Bill of Rights for ordinary citizen-suckers to place their faith in - seriously misplaced faith at that.

Quite true.  Few would know it though since American History is no longer a required subject much less Western Civilization, except the parts where all the nations have become socialist democracies under the UN.  Americans threw off the claims of Church and Crown and had to fight a bloody war in the process.  IN many ways it was the culmination of Christian civilization and reformation that empowered the West.  Liberty has been the cause of mankind, and America acquired it while Europeans continued to suffer under the rule of monarchy.

The only real hope for liberty in America is for liberty to become the foundation for other countries.  Future Jefferson's and Franklin's and Washington's will be needed and a populace that is tired of being oppressed by a system of oligarchy.

Using unfettered history as a basis, Von Mises is far more accurate than not. Mann's comment above also has merit. The last election cycle demonstrates an ignorance towards and lack of desire for freedom, liberty, truth, individual sovereignty, inalienable rights and the laws of nature and of nature's God.