thugdom as society
one of the delicious aspects of learning is the unfolding of new layers underneath something assumed by a man to have been thoroughly understood. in my recent long journey around the USSA, i kept coming back to the distortion upon which “government” relies: that it, and not individuals, compose society — that government is the finest, highest manifestation of all good sought in this life.
bastiat perhaps wrote most incisively on this shell game. though i’ve quoted him on it repeatedly (e.g., here), it didn’t hit me until last week how much putrid hate lies within the confusion.
searching for something else today, i ran into a sidebar that deals specifically with this problem. i recommend a patient visit, so you can savor such morsels as
The people = government doctrine is equivalent to political infantilism — an agreement to pretend that the citizen’s wishes animate each restriction or exaction inflicted upon him. This doctrine essentially makes masochism the driving force of political life — assuming that if government is beating the citizens, they must want to be beaten, and they have no right to complain.
~ James Bovard
also on the same page, though not in the sidebar:
It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.
~ Thomas Sowell
none of this is new, of course. however, it’s nice to sneak in some explosive quotes when conversing with normalons.