Rudolph Giuliani In His Own Words

The date is March 20, 1994. The forum is a conference on crime in major cities sponsored by the New York Post. The speaker is Rudy Giuliani: [Emphasis is mine]

We constantly present the false impression that government can solve problems that government in America was designed not to solve. Families are significantly less important in the development of children today than they were 30 or 40 years ago. Religion has less influence than it did 30 or 40 years ago. Communities don’t mean what they meant 30 or 40 years ago.

As Americans, we’re not sure we share values. We’re sometimes even afraid to use the word values. We talk about teaching ethics in schools — people say, “What ethics? Whose ethics? Maybe we can’t.” And they confuse that with teaching of religion. And we are afraid to reaffirm the basics upon which a lawful and a decent society are based. We’re almost embarrassed by it.

We look upon authority too often and focus over and over again, for 30 or 40 or 50 years, as if there is something wrong with authority. We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don’t see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.

Okay, so there you have it. Freedom is about your willingness to give up your freedom.

And War is Peace.

And Ignorance Is Strength.