Author Topic: Election Eve Reading: "The Law"  (Read 1893 times)

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Offline Big Dog

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Election Eve Reading: "The Law"
« on: November 05, 2012, 05:41:14 PM »
On this night before the Election, I am rereading The Law by Frederic Bastiat.

Published in France in 1850 (immediately after the Third French Revolution), The Law is one of the great works of socio-political writing. Conservatives and libertarians find ourselves nodding in agreement as we read.

Exerpt:
Alas, two entirely different influences—greed and false philanthropy—use law to destroy its own objective.

Greed: Human nature impels man to satisfy his desires with the least possible expenditure of effort, which often requires his satisfaction at the expense of others. Law makers often shape law to plunder the people and benefit themselves. The rebelling plundered classes then attempt either to stop legal plunder or to share in it. Legal plunder forces citizens to choose between their moral sense and their respect for the law and eliminates the correlation between justice and law.

False philanthropy: Under the pretexts of organization, regulation, protection, and encouragement, law takes property from one person and gives it to another. Socialists do not consider the law sufficient that it should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual, and moral self-improvement. Instead, they demand the law directly to extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation.


I gave The Law to my son before the 2010 election. This is my gift to you, my friends:

The Law (click on link for the complete work in PDF).
Government is the negation of liberty.
  -Ludwig von Mises

CAVE FVROREM PATIENTIS.

Offline Jasonw560

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Re: Election Eve Reading: "The Law"
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2012, 06:04:59 PM »
Thanks. DLing it now.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
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Offline Jasonw560

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Re: Election Eve Reading: "The Law"
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2012, 06:25:56 PM »
Just a couple of pages into it (I skip fowards  :-), because I don't want others to tell me what I should think about what I am reading) and think every lawmaker should have this as required reading and constant study while in office.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-Aristotle

"Metaphors needn't be explained to educated people"-Ted
Nugent

"Life ain't fair. Get over it or wear a helmet" -diesel driver