02903cam a22003613u 4500 76859 UtSlPG 20260610134759.0 m cr n 260607r20251921utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d 22005444 UtSlPG en iso639-1 HN Ludovici, Anthony M. (Anthony Mario), 1882-1971 The false assumptions of "democracy" Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2025 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Release date is 2025-09-11 Sean/IB@DP "The false assumptions of "democracy" by Anthony M. Ludovici is a political treatise written in the early 20th century. It argues that modern democratic ideals rest on muddled language and seductive slogans, and urges a rigorous redefinition of key political terms. The work challenges egalitarianism and socialism, defends private property as a life-affirming principle, and seeks to disentangle justice, freedom, and equality from popular misconceptions. The opening of the treatise frames its project with a supportive letter and a preface that, in the shadow of the Great War, calls for a sober “stock-taking” of ideals and a reclarification of language to avert social breakdown. The introduction claims that the loss of a common culture has emptied abstract words—freedom, justice, equality—of meaning, turning them into emotional “missiles,” with journalism and propaganda accelerating the decay; Rousseau’s misuse of “Nature,” “Freedom,” and “Man” is cited as a model of how such confusion births revolution. The first chapter defends private property as the biological and moral expression of growth and self-extension, criticizes abolitionist schemes as symptoms of cultural exhaustion, concedes real abuses (misallocated power, degrading labor, unhealthy poverty, unearned advantages), and proposes changing social valuations so wealth does not automatically equal power. Subsequent early chapters argue that “immanent justice” is a myth because nature is amoral and justice is purely social, and that equality (including “equality of opportunity”) is incoherent beyond mathematics—leaving only equal protection of interests under law as a sensible aim. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: London: Heath Cranton, Ltd., 1921 Democracy Social problems Great Britain -- Social conditions Willoughby de Broke, Richard Greville Verney, baron, 1869-1923 https://archive.org/details/falseassumptions00ludo/page/n3/mode/2up https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76859 117584 117584