Obama’s assertion was especially insulting....

What Obama Really Thinks

by Daniel Flynn

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help,”

“Did we not bring you into existence?” Socrates imagined the state saying to him should he have attempted to evade its death sentence. “Your father married your mother by our aid and begat you,” officials might have continued. Athens provided for the “education of children, in which you were also trained.” The message? You owe even your life to your government.

Philosophers still debate whether Plato wished readers of the Crito to embrace or reject this total conception of state power. No such ambiguity surrounds Barack Obama’s remarks crediting the success of individuals to the state.

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help,” the president told an audience in Roanoke, Virginia last Friday.

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