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Parting Thought of the Year

I don't know much about the rest of his political beliefs (he is purportedly the first person to call himself an anarchist and is also termed a socialist), but man did Pierre-Joseph Proudhon have it right in describing what it really means to be "governed", particularly if to the open-ended extent that totalitarians and collectivists, whether claiming to be left or right, would carry their endless scheming for control over humanity :


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 place(d) 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.

(h/t to John Stossel)



Amen.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Stoessel sounds like he would like to bring Israelie tactics to the US. We know all those body scanners are designed and manufactured in Israel. So they get to make trillions by scaring the hell out of americans.

There is a story out today that the alleged Christmas Day underwear bomber, didnt have a blasting cap, therefore it couldnt have blown up! A small little fact that should further be investigated.

Wasnt it Roosevelt who said, "all we have to fear is fear itself", well it looks to me like 2010 will be a continuation of the decade of fear. Stop being fearful, grab your constitution, demand term limits, demand campaign financing of every elected official and then every sitting elected out of office. We need a whole new deck!
Tom Noyes said…
You might want to do some more research on this anarchist before you quote this guy so approvingly. His most famous assertion was "Property is theft!"
Tyler Nixon said…
And?

The words stand on their own. One need not subscribe to his philosophy (which I noted is rather conflictingly described as both socialist and anarchist) nor his every pronunciation to cite this quote "approvingly."

Sorry you seem confused by the obvious distinction.
tom said…
His most famous assertion was "Property is theft!"

You are leaving out 2/3rds of the context. He said

"Property is theft.

Property is impossible.

Property is freedom."

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