Quotes from book
Omnipotent Government

Name: Omnipotent Government
Author: Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises

Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War is a book by Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises first published in 1944 by Yale University Press. It is one of the most influential writings in Libertarian social thought and critique of statist ideology and socialism, examining the rise of Nazism as an example. The book treats Nazism as a species of orthodox socialist theory. At the same time the book offers a critique of economic interventionism, industrial central planning, the welfare state and world government, denouncing the trends of the Western Allies towards the total state. The book was made available online by the Ludwig von Mises Institute in 2004.

“The characteristic feature of militarism is not the fact that a nation has a powerful army or navy. It is the paramount role assigned to the army within the political structure.”

Ludwig von Mises book Omnipotent Government

Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War (1944)
Context: The characteristic feature of militarism is not the fact that a nation has a powerful army or navy. It is the paramount role assigned to the army within the political structure. Even in peacetime the army is supreme; it is the predominant factor in political life. The subjects must obey the government as soldiers must obey their superiors. Within a militarist community there is no freedom; there are only obedience and discipline.