Our Enemy, The State by Albert J. Nock - 1935 http://www.barefootsworld.net/nockoets1.html I IF WE look beneath the surface of our public affairs, we can discern one fundamental fact, namely: a great redistribution of power between society and the State. This is the fact that interests the student of civilization. He has only a secondary or derived interest in matters like price-fixing, wage-fixing, inflation, political banking, "agricultural adjustment," and similar items of State policy that fill the pages of newspapers and the mouths of publicists and politicians. All these can be run up under one head. They have an immediate and temporary importance, and for this reason they monopolize public attention, but they all come to the same thing; which is, an increase of State power and a corresponding decrease of social power. .... Indeed, it is by this means that the aim of the collectivists seems likeliest to be attained in this country; this aim being the complete extinction of social power through absorption by the State. Their fundamental doctrine was formulated and invested with a quasi-religious sanction by the idealist philosophers of the last century; and among peoples who have accepted it in terms as well as in fact, it is expressed in formulas almost identical with theirs. Thus, for example, when Hitler says that "the State dominates the nation because it alone represents it," he is only putting into loose popular language the formula of Hegel, that "the State is the general substance, whereof individuals are but accidents." Or, again, when Mussolini says, "Everything for the State; nothing outside the State; nothing against the State," he is merely vulgarizing the doctrine of Fichte, that "the State is the superior power, ultimate and beyond appeal, absolutely independent."
Anyone else get the feeling we are on this precipice? November should tell the tale. There is a far better breed of conservatives on the horizon, who are working towards pulling us back. Vote Out The Statist! ================ The historical method, moreover, establishes the important fact that, as in the case of tabetic or parasitic diseases, the depletion of social power by the State can not be checked after a certain point of progress is passed. History does not show an instance where, once beyond this point, this depletion has not ended in complete and permanent collapse. In some cases, disintegration is slow and painful. Death set its mark on Rome at the end of the second century, but she dragged out a pitiable existence for some time after the Antonines. Athens, on the other hand, collapsed quickly. Some authorities think that Europe is dangerously near that point, if not already past it; but contemporary conjecture is probably without much value. That point may have been reached in America, and it may not; again, certainty is unattainable - plausible arguments may be made either way. Of two things, however, we may be certain: the first is, that the rate of America's approach to that point is being prodigiously accelerated; and the second is, that there is no evidence of any disposition to retard it, or any intelligent apprehension of the danger which that acceleration betokens.
There is a far better breed of conservatives on the horizon, who are working towards pulling us back. ------------------------ lmao
explain the humor of that statement. I am a conservative, and was appalled by Bush's foray into Iraq. I'm also from Wisconsin, the home of Paul Ryan, who is gaining ground, and is a genuine conservative. (ie; fundamentally, limited government as a cornerstone of his core principles) Iraq could have been overthrown without a bullet being shoot, or an American dying in vain. Reagan brought down the Evil Empire through persuasion not by usurption. BTW: Do you have any 'Readings' you'd like to offer, besides a snide, worthless remark?
explain the humor of that statement. --------------------------------------- Pardon me. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. Regards and have a nice day.