Friday, January 15, 2016

Every Socialist’s Dishonest Rhetorical Gimmick

By Thomas DiLorenzo

From Frederic Bastiat, The Law (1850), p. 22:
“Socialism, like the old policy from which it emanates, confounds Government and society.  And so, every time we object to a thing being done by Government, it [i.e., socialism and socialists] concludes that we object to its being done at all.  We disapprove of education by the State — then we are against education altogether.  We object to a State religion — then we would have no religion at all.  We object to an equality which is brought about by the State then we are against equality, etc., etc.  They might as well accuse us of wishing men not to eat because we object to the cultivation of corn by the State.”
The above originally appeared at LewRockwell.com

2 comments:

  1. You might say this is an authoritarian argument. If the "authorities" don't make people do it, it won't get done. If that's true, then it probably didn't need done anyway. I people do it because they want to, not because they have to, it will get done better with less cost and less coercive overhead.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I use this quote regularly on Facebook.

    ReplyDelete