Feelings rule today; is liberty dead?

“…there is none sadder or more striking than this, that you may make everything else out of the passions of men except a political system that will work, and that there is nothing so pitilessly and unconsciously cruel as sincerity formulated into dogma.”  James Russell Lowell

“It is honour, justice, culture, that make liberty invaluable, else worse than worthless if it means only freedom to be base and brutal.” James Russell Lowell

Feelings rule today; is liberty dead?

…”Modern populations are resolved to extend the functions of government immeasurable beyond its old duties of defense and maintenance of internal order; for the public is now fascinated with the possibility of obtaining necessities and comforts through action of the state…”  Henry Adams

“Corrupt and stupid governments may be tolerated when their activities are confined by prescription to a small and certain sphere; in this age of aggrandizement, however, corrupt and stupid governments deliver us up precipitately to class warfare and international anarchy.”  Henry Adams

“The causes of the dissatisfaction of the masses with their condition … will be always laid on those who have a larger share of the world’s goods than others.”  Henry Adams

Turn of the century observations are depressing, right?