The State
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* 1


In order to keep the collective interest safe, a man who has cured his
neighbor unlawfully it is an offense to do good unlawfully — is
condemned on the pretext that he has no qualification; a man is prevented
from championing the cause of a (free) citizen who has placed his trust in
him; a writer is arrested; a publisher ruined; a propagandist thrown into
prison; a man who cried out or behaved in a certain fashion is sent before
the criminal assizes.


* 2


The importance of "controlling the public mind" has been recognized with
increasing clarity as popular struggles succeeded in extending the
modalities of democracy, thus giving rise to what liberal elites call "the
crisis of democracy" as when normally passive and apathetic populations
become organized and seek to enter the political arena to pursue their
interests and demands, threatening stability and order. As Bernays
explained the problem, with "universal suffrage and universal schooling...
at last even the bourgeoisie stood in fear of the common people. For the
masses promised to become king."


* 3


There have certainly been very few examples of states, who have, by arts or
policy, improved the original dispositions of human nature, or endeavored,
by wise and effectual precautions, to prevent its corruption.


* 4


...the poor people can learn nothing but what the king and his
schoolmasters please...


* 5


...government, ere civilized, knows no other secret or policy, than that of
entrusting unlimited powers to every governor or magistrate, and
subdividing the people into so many classes and orders of slavery. From
such a situation, no improvement can ever be expected in the sciences, in
the liberal arts, in laws, and scarcely in the manual arts and
manufactures. The same barbarism and ignorance, with which the government
commences, is propagated to all posterity, and can never come to a period
by the efforts or ingenuity of such unhappy slaves.


* 6


In all times and in all places, whatever may be the name of that the
government takes, whatever has been its origin, or its organization, its
essential function is always that of oppressing and exploiting the masses,
and of defending the oppressors and exploiters. Its principal
characteristic and indispensable instruments are the policeman and the tax
collector, the soldier and the prison. And to these are necessarily added
the time serving priest or teacher, as the case may be, supported and
protected by the government, to render the spirit of the people servile and
make them docile under the yoke.


* 7


In private life most people are fairly realistic. When one is making out
one's weekly budget, two and two invariably make four. Politics, on the
other hand, is a sort of sub-atomic or non-Euclidean word where it is quite
easy for the part to be greater than the whole or for two objects to be in
the same place simultaneously. Hence the contradictions and absurdities I
have chronicled above, all finally traceable to a secret belief that one's
political opinions, unlike the weekly budget, will not have to be tested
against solid reality.


* 8


Where the influence of political power on the creative forces in society is
reduced to a minimum, there culture thrives the best, for political
rulership always strives for uniformity and tends to subject every aspect
of social life to its guardianship.


* 9


...when we assent implicitly to any political doctrine, there is no room
for reason...


* 10


...the independent establishment of the state founds my lack of
independence; its condition as a "natural growth," its organism, demands
that my nature do not grow freely, but be cut to fit it. That it may be
able to unfold in natural growth, it applies to me the shears of
"civilization"; it gives me an education and culture adapted to it, not to
me, and teaches me to respect the laws, to refrain from injury to state
property (that is, private property), to reverence divine and earthly
highness, etc.; in short, it teaches me to be -- unpunishable,
"sacrificing" my ownness to "sacredness" (everything possible is sacred;
property, others' life, etc.). In this consists the sort of civilization
and culture that the state is able to give me: it brings me up to be a
"serviceable instrument," a "serviceable member of society."


* 11


Is the state likely to be able to awaken so secure a temper and so forceful
a self-consciousness in the menial? Can it make man feel himself? Indeed,
may it even do so much as set this goal for itself? Can it want the
individual to recognize his value and realize this value from himself?


* 12


...how is an "unlimited freedom" to be thinkable inside of the state or
society? The state may well protect one against another, but yet it must
not let itself be endangered by an unmeasured freedom, a so-called
unbridleness. Thus in "freedom of instruction" the state declares only this
- that it is suited with every one who instructs as the state (or, speaking
more comprehensibly, the political power) would have it. The point for the
competitors is this "as the state would have it...." In bidding freedom of
instruction keep within the due bounds, the state at the same time fixes
the scope of freedom of thought; because, as a rule, people do not think
farther than their teachers have thought.


* 13


...as for supporting schools, I am doing my part to educate my fellow
countrymen now. It is for no particular item in the tax bill that I refuse
to pay it.


* 14


...do what is right quietly and persistently not only without asking
permission from Government, but consciously avoiding its participation. The
strength of the Government lies in the people's ignorance, and the
Government knows this, and will therefore always oppose true enlightenment.
It is time we realized that fact. And it is most undesirable to let the
Government, while it is spreading darkness, pretend to be busy with the
enlightenment of the people.


* 15


...this Government knows very well what is really dangerous to it, and will
never let people who submit to it and act under its guidance do anything
that will undermine its authority. For instance take the cue before us: a
Government such as ours, or any other which rests on the ignorance of the
people will never consent to their being really enlightened. It will
sanction all kinds of pseudo-educational organizations controlled by itself
-- schools, high schools, universities, academies, and all kinds of
committees and congresses, and publications sanctioned by the censor- so
long as these organizations and publications serve its purpose -- that is,
stupefy the people, or at least do not hinder their stupefaction. But as
soon as those organizations or publications attempt to cure that on which
the power of Government rests (namely, the blindness of the people), the
Government will simply, and without rendering any account to anyone, or
saying why it acts so and not otherwise, pronounce its veto, and will
rearrange or close the establishments and organizations, and forbid the
publications. And therefore, as both reason and experience clearly show,
such an illusory, gradual conquest of rights is a self-deception which
suits the Government admirably, and which it, therefore, is even ready to
encourage.


Events :
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     The State -- Added : April 13, 2020

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