If freedom is incompatible with security, the masses will decide for security.
The masses, then, have become prepared to abandon freedom if this promises to reestablish the rationality of the world. If freedom is incompatible with equality, they will give up freedom. If it is incompatible with security, they will decide for security. To be free or not has become a secondary question, since the freedom available does not help to banish the demons. Since the “free” society is the one that is threatened by the demons, it seems more than plausible to blame freedom and to expect delivery from despair through the abandonment of freedom.
ACTION POINT: The passage refers to the embrace by Europe of Nazism to escape the demons of war and depression. Why will society be more likely to embrace complete regimentation and totalitarianism in the absence of strong institutions?
The End of Economic Man
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker