This obscure French pamphlet from 1850 predicted today’s America Frédéric Bastiat’s 1850 pamphlet, The following quotes come from French classical liberal, economic journalist and legislator
>>“The Law.”<<
1. It started with “hope and change” ”While
society is struggling toward liberty, these famous men who put
themselves at its head are filled with the spirit of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. They think only of subjecting mankind to the
philanthropic tyranny of their own social inventions. Like Rousseau,
they desire to force mankind docilely to bear this yoke of the public
welfare that they have dreamed up in their own imaginations…
Listen to the ideas of a few of the writers and politicians during that period [the late 1780s]:
SAINT-JUST: The legislator commands the future. It is for him to will the good of mankind. It is for him to make men what he wills them to be.
ROBESPIERRE: The function of government is to direct the physical and moral powers of the nation toward the end for which the commonwealth has come into being.
BILLAUD-VARENNES: A people who are to be returned to liberty must be formed anew. A strong force and vigorous action are necessary to destroy old prejudices, to change old customs, to correct depraved affections, to restrict superfluous wants, and to destroy ingrained vices…. Citizens, the inflexible austerity of Lycurgus created the firm foundation of the Spartan republic. The weak and trusting character of Solon plunged Athens into slavery. This parallel embraces the whole science of government.
LE PELLETIER: Considering the extent of human degradation, I am convinced that it is necessary to effect a total regeneration and, if I may so express myself, of creating a new people.”
2. And a social justice agenda ”Now
this must be said: When justice is organized by law — that is, by force
— this excludes the idea of using law (force) to organize any human
activity whatever, whether it be labor, charity, agriculture, commerce,
industry, education, art, or religion. The organizing by law of any one
of these would inevitably destroy the essential organization — justice.
For truly, how can we imagine force being used against the liberty of
citizens without it also being used against justice, and thus acting
against its proper purpose?”
3. That enabled Obamacare ”But
when the law, by means of its necessary agent, force, imposes upon men a
regulation of labor, a method or a subject of education, a religious
faith or creed — then the law is no longer negative; it acts positively
upon people. It substitutes the will of the legislator for their own
wills; the initiative of the legislator for their own initiatives. When
this happens, the people no longer need to discuss, to compare, to plan
ahead; the law does all this for them. Intelligence becomes a useless
prop for the people; they cease to be men; they lose their personality,
their liberty, their property.
Try to imagine a
regulation of labor imposed by force that is not a violation of liberty;
a transfer of wealth imposed by force that is not a violation of
property. If you cannot reconcile these contradictions, then you must
conclude that the law cannot organize labor and industry without
organizing injustice.”
4. And the IRS scandal, DOJ malfeasances, etc. ”Sometimes
the law defends plunder and participates in it. Thus the beneficiaries
are spared the shame, danger, and scruple which their acts would
otherwise involve. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of
judges, police, prisons, and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers,
and treats the victim — when he defends himself — as a criminal. In
short, there is a legal plunder”
5. Where law was used as a weapon ”But,
generally, the law is made by one man or one class of men. And since
law cannot operate without the sanction and support of a dominating
force, this force must be entrusted to those who make the laws.
This fact, combined
with the fatal tendency that exists in the heart of man to satisfy his
wants with the least possible effort, explains the almost universal
perversion of the law. Thus it is easy to understand how law, instead of
checking injustice, becomes the invincible weapon of injustice. It is
easy to understand why the law is used by the legislator to destroy in
varying degrees among the rest of the people, their personal
independence by slavery, their liberty by oppression, and their property
by plunder. This is done for the benefit of the person who makes the
law, and in proportion to the power that he holds.”
6. And condoned in a culture of political corruption ”The law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy.”
7. Imbued with such a philosophy, Washington was a political free-for-all ”But
on the other hand, imagine that this fatal principle has been
introduced: Under the pretense of organization, regulation, protection,
or encouragement, the law takes property from one person and gives it to
another; the law takes the wealth of all and gives it to a few —
whether farmers, manufacturers, ship owners, artists, or comedians.
Under these circumstances, then certainly every class will aspire to
grasp the law, and logically so.”
8. Public education remained ever powerful “You
say: “There are persons who lack education,” and you turn to the law.
But the law is not, in itself, a torch of learning which shines its
light abroad. The law extends over a society where some persons have
knowledge and others do not; where some citizens need to learn, and
others can teach. In this matter of education, the law has only two
alternatives: It can permit this transaction of teaching-and-learning to
operate freely and without the use of force, or it can force human
wills in this matter by taking from some of them enough to pay the
teachers who are appointed by government to instruct others, without
charge. But in this second case, the law commits legal plunder by
violating liberty and property.”
9. Leading to Common Core being foisted upon the children ”Open
at random any book on philosophy, politics, or history, and you will
probably see how deeply rooted in our country is this idea — the child
of classical studies, the mother of socialism. In all of them, you will
probably find this idea that mankind is merely inert matter, receiving
life, organization, morality, and prosperity from the power of the
state. And even worse, it will be stated that mankind tends toward
degeneration, and is stopped from this downward course only by the
mysterious hand of the legislator. Conventional classical thought
everywhere says that behind passive society there is a concealed power
called law or legislator (or called by some other
terminology that designates some unnamed person or persons of undisputed
influence and authority) which moves, controls, benefits, and improves
mankind.”
10. The media was effectively an organ of the administration “Present-day
writers — especially those of the socialist school of thought — base
their various theories upon one common hypothesis: They divide mankind
into two parts. People in general — with the exception of the writer
himself — form the first group. The writer, all alone, forms the second
and most important group. Surely this is the weirdest and most conceited
notion that ever entered a human brain!”
11. …Really ”These
socialist writers look upon people in the same manner that the gardener
views his trees. Just as the gardener capriciously shapes the trees
into pyramids, parasols, cubes, vases, fans, and other forms, just so
does the socialist writer whimsically shape human beings into groups,
series, centers, sub-centers, honeycombs, labor-corps, and other
variations. And just as the gardener needs axes, pruning hooks, saws,
and shears to shape his trees, just so does the socialist writer need
the force that he can find only in law to shape human beings. For this
purpose, he devises tariff laws, tax laws, relief laws, and school
laws.”
12. Truly ”It
is no wonder that the writers of the nineteenth century look upon
society as an artificial creation of the legislator’s genius. This idea —
the fruit of classical education — has taken possession of all the
intellectuals and famous writers of our country. To these intellectuals
and writers, the relationship between persons and the legislator appears
to be the same as the relationship between the clay and the potter.”
13. So the welfare state that had once started small… ”But
how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the
law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other
persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen
at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do
without committing a crime.
Then abolish this law
without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a
fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a
law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it
will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.”
14. Grew and grew and grew ”Here
I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered
sufficient that the law should be just; it must be philanthropic. Nor
is it sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free
and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual, and
moral self-improvement. Instead, it is demanded that the law should
directly extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation.
This is the seductive
lure of socialism. And I repeat again: These two uses of the law are in
direct contradiction to each other. We must choose between them. A
citizen cannot at the same time be free and not free.”
15. When re-election time came, they spoke of Republicans ”throwing granny off the cliff” and wanting “dirtier air, dirtier water“ ”Socialism,
like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction
between government and society. As a result of this, every time we
object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that
we object to its being done at all.
We disapprove of state
education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any
education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that
we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then
they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as
if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat
because we do not want the state to raise grain.”
16. The community organizers sprung to action “The
claims of these organizers of humanity raise another question which I
have often asked them and which, so far as I know, they have never
answered: If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not
safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of
these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their
appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that
they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind? The
organizers maintain that society, when left undirected, rushes headlong
to its inevitable destruction because the instincts of the people are so
perverse. The legislators claim to stop this suicidal course and to
give it a saner direction. Apparently, then, the legislators and the
organizers have received from Heaven an intelligence and virtue that
place them beyond and above mankind; if so, let them show their titles
to this superiority.
They would be the
shepherds over us, their sheep. Certainly such an arrangement
presupposes that they are naturally superior to the rest of us. And
certainly we are fully justified in demanding from the legislators and
organizers proof of this natural superiority…these organizers desire
access to the tax funds and to the power of the law in order to carry
out their plans. In addition to being oppressive and unjust, this desire
also implies the fatal supposition that the organizer is infallible and
mankind is incompetent.”
17. Chanting slogans like ”This is what democracy looks like” “The
strange phenomenon of our times — one which will probably astound our
descendants — is the doctrine based on this triple hypothesis: the total
inertness of mankind, the omnipotence of the law, and the infallibility
of the legislator. These three ideas form the sacred symbol of those
who proclaim themselves totally democratic.
The advocates of this doctrine also profess to be social.
So far as they are democratic, they place unlimited faith in mankind.
But so far as they are social, they regard mankind as little better than
mud.”
18. And speaking of all sorts of previously unknown ”rights” ”The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending his acquired rights.
He will claim that the state is obligated to protect and encourage his
particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the
protected industry is thus able to spend more and to pay higher wages to
the poor workingmen.
Do not listen to this
sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will
build legal plunder into a whole system. In fact, this has already
occurred. The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at
the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the
pretense of organizing it.”
19. While the President said ”You didn’t built that“ “Thus, according to [a tutor to the Dauphin in the Court of Louis XIV] Bossuet,
persons derive nothing from themselves. Patriotism, prosperity,
inventions, husbandry, science — all of these are given to the people by
the operation of the laws, the rulers. All that the people have to do
is to bow to leadership…It cannot be disputed that these classical
theories [advanced by these latter-day teachers, writers, legislators,
economists, and philosophers] held that everything came to the people
from a source outside themselves.”
20. And while the President won re-election, due to efforts of the House and various scandals, he now makes statements like “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone“ “In
cases where the alleged evil is so great that ordinary governmental
procedures cannot cure it, Mably recommends a dictatorship to promote
virtue: “Resort,” he says, “to an extraordinary tribunal with
considerable powers for a short time. The imagination of the citizens
needs to be struck a hard blow.” This doctrine has not been forgotten.
Listen to Robespierre:
The principle of the republican government is virtue, and the means required to establish virtue is terror. In our country we desire to substitute morality for selfishness, honesty for honor, principles for customs, duties for manners, the empire of reason for the tyranny of fashion, contempt of vice for contempt of poverty, pride for insolence, greatness of soul for vanity, love of glory for love of money, good people for good companions, merit for intrigue, genius for wit, truth for glitter, the charm of happiness for the boredom of pleasure, the greatness of man for the littleness of the great, a generous, strong, happy people for a good-natured, frivolous, degraded people; in short, we desire to substitute all the virtues and miracles of a republic for all the vices and absurdities of a monarchy.
At what a tremendous height above the
rest of mankind does Robespierre here place himself! And note the
arrogance with which he speaks. He is not content to pray for a great
reawakening of the human spirit. Nor does he expect such a result from a
well-ordered government. No, he himself will remake mankind, and by
means of terror.”
21. While his party pushes an inequality meme ”When
a politician views society from the seclusion of his office, he is
struck by the spectacle of the inequality that he sees. He deplores the
deprivations which are the lot of so many of our brothers, deprivations
which appear to be even sadder when contrasted with luxury and wealth.
Perhaps the politician
should ask himself whether this state of affairs has not been caused by
old conquests and lootings, and by more recent legal plunder. Perhaps
he should consider this proposition: Since all persons seek well-being
and perfection, would not a condition of justice be sufficient to cause
the greatest efforts toward progress, and the greatest possible equality
that is compatible with individual responsibility? Would not this be in
accord with the concept of individual responsibility which God has
willed in order that mankind may have the choice between vice and
virtue, and the resulting punishment and reward?
But the politician
never gives this a thought. His mind turns to organizations,
combinations, and arrangements — legal or apparently legal. He attempts
to remedy the evil by increasing and perpetuating the very thing that
caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder. We have seen that
justice is a negative concept. Is there even one of these positive legal
actions that does not contain the principle of plunder?”
22. And dreams of equalization ”You
say: “There are persons who have no money,” and you turn to the law.
But the law is not a breast that fills itself with milk. Nor are the
lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from a source outside the
society. Nothing can enter the public treasury for the benefit of one
citizen or one class unless other citizens and other classes have been forced to
send it in. If every person draws from the treasury the amount that he
has put in it, it is true that the law then plunders nobody. But this
procedure does nothing for the persons who have no money. It does not
promote equality of income. The law can be an instrument of equalization
only as it takes from some persons and gives to other persons. When the
law does this, it is an instrument of plunder.
With this in mind,
examine the protective tariffs, subsidies, guaranteed profits,
guaranteed jobs, relief and welfare schemes, public education,
progressive taxation, free credit, and public works. You will find that
they are always based on legal plunder, organized injustice.”
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23. And the conservatives are left with a tall task ”Now,
legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we
have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection,
benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public
schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to
relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so
on. All these plans as a whole — with their common aim of legal plunder —
constitute socialism.
Now, since under this
definition socialism is a body of doctrine, what attack can be made
against it other than a war of doctrine? If you find this socialistic
doctrine to be false, absurd, and evil, then refute it. And the more
false, the more absurd, and the more evil it is, the easier it will be
to refute. Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out
every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation.
This will be no light task.”
24. A very tall task ”Socialists desire to practice legal plunder, not illegal plunder.
Socialists, like all other monopolists, desire to make the law their
own weapon. And when once the law is on the side of socialism, how can
it be used against socialism? For when plunder is abetted by the law, it
does not fear your courts, your gendarmes, and your prisons. Rather, it
may call upon them for help.
To prevent this, you
would exclude socialism from entering into the making of laws? You would
prevent socialists from entering the Legislative Palace? You shall not
succeed, I predict, so long as legal plunder continues to be the main
business of the legislature. It is illogical — in fact, absurd — to
assume otherwise.”
25. And so here we stand today “As
long as these ideas prevail, it is clear that the responsibility of
government is enormous. Good fortune and bad fortune, wealth and
destitution, equality and inequality, virtue and vice — all then depend
upon political administration. It is burdened with everything, it
undertakes everything, it does everything; therefore it is responsible
for everything.”
Where does it all end? Here’s what Bastiat says:
“But if the government undertakes to
control and to raise wages, and cannot do it; if the government
undertakes to care for all who may be in want, and cannot do it; if the
government undertakes to support all unemployed workers, and cannot do
it; if the government undertakes to lend interest-free money to all
borrowers, and cannot do it; if, in these words that we regret to say
escaped from the pen of Mr. de Lamartine, “The state considers that its
purpose is to enlighten, to develop, to enlarge, to strengthen, to
spiritualize, and to sanctify the soul of the people” — and if the
government cannot do all of these things, what then? Is it not certain
that after every government failure — which, alas! is more than probable
— there will be an equally inevitable revolution?”
When the COURTS are a PLUNDERING system of CRIMINAL RICO for the "BANK FRAUD" then we have to stop the crime wave immediately.
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