"Human dignity," writes Professor Rahe, "is bound up with taking responsibility for conducting one's own affairs." "We can be what once we were, or we can settle for a gradual, gentle descent into servitude."

Welcome to the twenty-first century.
“It does not tyrannize, it gets in the way.” The all-pervasive micro-regulatory state “enervates,” but nicely, gradually, so after a while you don’t even notice. And in exchange for liberty it offers security: the “right” to health care; the “right” to housing; the “right” to a job—although who needs that once you’ve got all the others?

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-state-despotic-4096

In his review of Rahe's book, "Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift...", Mark Steyn writes and quotes most ably, column titled "The state despotic, our gradual slide into servitude."