Forget "Going Galt" — How About Just "Going Proudhon"?
Here’s a quote that should be circulated far more often than it is:
To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so.
To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished.
It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored.
That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.
–Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, translated by John Beverly Robinson
And you thought Galt’s Speech was long.
Meanwhile, would the liberaltarians care to explain why we plain old libertarians should seek out a grand coalition with that — either at the conservative or the liberal end of the insanity spectrum?
Previously:
–In Defense of “Sitting Above It All” Libertarianism (or Anti-Liberaltarianism)
–Return of the “Liberaltarians”
–Where Does One Draw the “Liberal-tarian” Line?
–Anyone Still Foolish Enough…
Filed under: Law, Libertarianism