Nock, Nock

摘要

IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY, "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man", Alfred Jay Nock had this to say about America's system of self-government: "I could see how 'democracy' might do very well in a society of saints and sages led by an Alfred or an Antoninus Pius. Short of that, 1 was unable to see how it could come to anything but an ochlocracy of mass-men led by a sagacious knave." Nock was among the first writers to call himself a libertarian and, via William F. Buckley and the National Review, exercised significant influence on American conservatism. Given that the Republican Party, the closest thing to a vehicle for the promotion of conservative ideas, is in the business of gathering votes, the equivocal feelings of some conservatives about the demos are usually kept quiet. Occasionally, though, they break cover.