... A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it...
The Federalist Papers #10 "The Union as a Safeguard against domestic Faction" On the other hand without Union if any state did fall victim to such a bad judgement, the rest would have been able to heed it's example and stay out of it.
As it is, every single disaster Madison tried to scare his contemporaries with is a prominent feature of our political landscape - arbitrary printing of paper money, obscene bancrupcy laws and writing off foreign debts, huge "public" sector plus equalizing taxation and regulations...
The "other improper and wicked" projects... Where to start?...
He probably quoted the most outrageous and least likely fallacies he could imagine occuring. Still, his prophesy/warning came true with accuracy of 100% - only the other way around.
I would hesitate to entrust a herd of pigs to a guy with such a poor track record (not just those things mentioned here but many others that were also not supposed to happen). Any reason why I should trust his views on the neccesity of forming a Union?
On the other hand he was probably only exposed to the company of smart and educated people like Hamilton, Jay, Washington, etc. So he had ample reasons to underestimate the depth of regular human stupidity and ignorance (not selfishness - the Fed. Papers arguments are based on presumption of human selfishness and nearsightedness*).
Since pigs are smart and reasonable animals, he would probably do well managing a herd of them. Am I fair or what?
Reading history (real history - the first hand) is driving me mad.
When I only read the textbooks written by modern historians, it seemed to me that those historical guys had not realised what they had been doing because the state of knowlege had not been as developed and that the historical events were only now being interpreted correctly based on our modern experience - which we are accumulating every day with significant costs and the theoretical work of our scientists.
When you read the first-hand accounts, you realise that those ancient guys had very clear and correct understanding of all the same problems and processes, including causes - that face us now - which did not in the least prevent people from repreating the same errors and us from still repeating them.
*
"... To presume a want of motives for such contests as an argument against their existence would be to forget that men are ambitious, vindictive and rapacious."
Hamilton, Fed. Papers #6
BTW, someone asked if the Man is evil or good - here above is one opinion. miko
