The State Is The Great Fictitious Entity

I Find It Hard To Understand Why Those Who Demand Unitary Education By The State Do Not Also Demand A Unitary Press By The State... Either The State Is Infallible, In Which Case We Could Not Do Better Than To Submit To It The Entire Domain Of Intelligent Thought, Or It Is Not, In Which Case It Is No More Rational To Hand Over Education To It Than The Press.

But We Assure The Socialists That We Repudiate Only Forced Organization, Not Natural Organization. We Repudiate The Forms Of Association That Are Forced Upon Us, Not Free Association. We Repudiate Forced Fraternity, Not True Fraternity. We Repudiate The Artificial Unity That Does Nothing More Than Deprive Persons Of Individual Responsibility. We Do Not Repudiate The Natural Unity Of Mankind Under Providence.

Here I Encounter The Most Popular Fallacy Of Our Times. It Is Not Considered Sufficient That The Law Should Guarantee To Every Citizen The Free And Inoffensive Use Of His Faculties For Physical, Intellectual And Moral Self-improvement. Instead, It Is Demanded That The Law Should Directly Extend Welfare, Education, And Morality Throughout The Nation. This Is The Seductive Lure Of Socialism. And I Repeat: These Two Uses Of The Law Are In Direct Contradiction To Each Other.

All You Have To Do, Is To See Whether The Law Takes From Some What Belongs To Them In Order To Give It To Others To Whom It Does Not Belong. We Must See Whether The Law Performs, For The Profit Of One Citizen And To The Detriment Of Others, An Act Which That Citizen Could Not Perform Himself Without Being Guilty Of A Crime. Repeal Such A Law Without Delay. ... [i]f You Don't Take Care, What Begins By Being An Exception Tends To Become General, To Multiply Itself, And To Develop Into A Veritable System.

Socialism, Like The Ancient Ideas From Which It Springs, Confuses The Distinction Between Government And Society. As A Result Of This, Every Time We Object To A Thing Being Done By Government, The Socialists Conclude That We Object To Its Being Done At All . . . . It Is As If The Socialists Were To Accuse Us Of Not Wanting Persons To Eat Because We Do Not Want The State To Raise Grain