"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."
***
"Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. 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."
"Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. 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."
***
"If every person has the right to defend - even by force - his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right - its reason for existing, its lawfulness - is based on individual rights. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force - for the same reason - cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups."
- Frederic Bastiat, `The Law'
"If every person has the right to defend - even by force - his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right - its reason for existing, its lawfulness - is based on individual rights. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force - for the same reason - cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups."
- Frederic Bastiat, `The Law'
posted by E. David Quammen @ 6:57 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
That is of such clarity that one wonders what perversions of character one must suffer to cloud the eye to the undeniable truth of it.
One must also wonder at the epidemic of perversions of character the seem prevalent in our society. How is this germ spread? What weakness predisposes one to the contagion of cloudy vision in the face of such sharp delineation of the truth?
Are there natural immunities available to the more fit that the pedestrian organism is not party to, or is it a voluntary innoculation of character and virtue that reveal the beauty of such clear truth?
Some would have us think the afflicted of unclear vision are the model to be emulated, that they are host to entities that offer another view just as valued.
Yet, I think perhaps they are host only to the fevers of weakness and depravity with the concomitant hallucinations that fevers of infection bring.
Believe the name, for the condition you describe, is most accurately called EVIL. Yet try to get people to to it for what it really is. And they think your some kind of 'nut'.
I am some kind of nut. I like to flatter myself that I am as nutty as Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Monroe, Hamilton, Payne, et al., if not as eloquent.
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