WEBVTT

NOTE Anatomy of the State

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Anatomy of the State by Murray N. Rothbard, narrated by Harold Fritchie

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What the state is not

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The state is almost universally considered an institution of social service.

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Some theorists venerate the state as the apotheosis of society.

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Others regard it as an amiable, though often inefficient, organization for achieving social ends.

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But almost all regard it as a necessary means for achieving the goals of mankind,

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a means to be ranged against the private sector and often winning in this competition of resources.

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With the rise of democracy, the identification of the state with society has been redoubled

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until it is common to hear sentiments expressed which violate virtually every tenet of reason

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and common sense such as, we are the government.

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The useful collective term we has enabled an ideological camouflage to be thrown over

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If we are the government, then anything a government does to an individual is not only

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just and un-tyrannical but also voluntary on the part of the individual concerned.

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If the government has incurred a huge public debt which must be paid by taxing one group

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for the benefit of another, this reality of burden is obscured by saying that we owe it

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to ourselves.

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If the government conscripts a man or throws him into jail for dissident opinion, then

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he is doing it to himself and therefore nothing untoward has occurred.

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Under this reasoning, any Jews murdered by the Nazi government were not murdered, instead

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they must have committed suicide since they were the government, which was democratically

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chosen and therefore anything the government did to them was voluntary on their part.

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One would not think it necessary to belabor this point, and yet the overwhelming bulk

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of the people hold this fallacy to a greater or lesser degree.

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We must therefore emphasize that we are not the government, and the government is not

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us.

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The government does not in any accurate sense represent the majority of the people.

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But even if it did, even if 70% of the people decided to murder the remaining 30%, this

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would still be murder and would not be voluntary suicide on the part of the slaughtered minority.

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No organicist metaphor, no irrelevant bromide that, quote, we are all part of one another,

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must be permitted to obscure this basic fact.

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If then the state is not us, if it is not the human family getting together to decide

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Mutual Problems, If it is not a lodge meeting or country club, what is it?

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Briefly, the state is that organization in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly

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of the use of force and violence in a given territorial area.

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In particular, it is the only organization in society that obtains its revenue not by

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voluntary contribution or payment for services rendered, but by coercion.

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While other individuals or institutions obtain their income by production of goods and services

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and by the peaceful and voluntary sale of these goods and services to others, the state

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obtains its revenue by the use of compulsion, that is, by the use and the threat of the

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jailhouse and the bayonet.

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Having used force and violence to obtain its revenue, the state generally goes on to regulate

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and dictate the other actions of its individual subjects.

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One would think that simple observation of all states throughout history and over the globe would be proof enough of this assertion.

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But the miasma of myth has lain so long over state activity that elaboration is necessary.

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What the State Is

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Man is born naked into the world and needing to use his mind to learn how to take the resources given him by nature and to transform them, for example by investment in capital, into shapes and forms and places where the resources can be used for the satisfaction of his wants and the advancement of his standard of living.

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The only way by which man can do this is by the use of his mind and energy to transform resources as production and to exchange these products for products created by others.

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Man has found that through the process of voluntary mutual exchange, the productivity and hence the living standards of all participants in exchange may increase enormously.

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The only natural course for man to survive and to attain wealth, therefore, is by using

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his mind and energy to engage in the production and exchange process.

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He does this first by finding natural resources and then by transforming them, by mixing his

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labor with them, as Locke puts it, to make them his individual property, and then by

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exchanging this property for the similarly obtained property of others.

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The social path dictated by the requirements of man's nature, therefore, is the path of

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property rights and the free market of gift or exchange of such rights.

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Through this path, men have learned how to avoid the jungle methods of fighting over

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scarce resources so that A can only acquire them at the expense of B, and instead to multiply

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those resources enormously in peaceful and harmonious production and exchange.

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The great German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer pointed out that there are two mutually exclusive

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ways of acquiring wealth.

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One, the above way of production and exchange he called the economic means.

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The other way is simpler in that it does not require productivity.

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It is the way of seizure of another's goods or services by the use of force and violence.

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This is the method of one-sided confiscation, of theft of the property of others.

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This is the method which Oppenheimer termed the political means to wealth.

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It should be clear that the peaceful use of reason and energy in production is the natural

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path for man, the means for his survival and prosperity on this earth.

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It should be equally clear that the coercive, exploitive means is contrary to natural law.

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It is parasitic, for instead of adding to production, it subtracts from it.

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The political means siphons production off to a parasitic and destructive individual

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or group, and this siphoning not only subtracts from the number producing, but also lowers

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the producer's incentive to produce beyond his own subsistence.

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In the long run, the robber destroys his own subsistence by dwindling or eliminating the

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source of his own supply.

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But not only that, even in the short run, the predator is acting contrary to his own

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true nature as a man.

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We are now in a position to answer more fully the question, what is the state?

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The state, in the words of Oppenheimer, is the organization of the political means.

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It is the systemization of the predatory process over a given territory, for crime at best

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is sporadic and uncertain.

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The parasitism is ephemeral, and the coercive parasitic lifeline may be cut off at any time

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by the resistance of the victims.

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The State provides a legal, orderly, systematic channel for the predation of private property.

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that renders certain, secure, and relatively peaceful, the lifeline of the parasitic caste

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in society.

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Albert J. Nock wrote vividly that, the state claims and exercises the monopoly of crime.

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It forbids private murder, but itself organizes murder on a colossal scale.

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It punishes private theft, but itself lays unscrupulous hands on anything it wants, whether

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to the property of citizen or of alien.

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Since production must always precede predation, the free market is anterior to the state.

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The state has never been created by a social contract.

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It has always been born in conquest and exploitation.

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The classic paradigm was a conquering tribe pausing in its time-honored method of looting

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and murdering a conquered tribe to realize that the time span of plunder would be longer

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One method of the birth of a state may be illustrated as follows.

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In the hills of southern Ruritania, a bandit group manages to obtain physical control over

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the territory, and finally the bandit chieftain proclaims himself king of the sovereign and

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by the Independent Government of South Buretania.

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And if he and his men have the force to maintain this rule for a while,

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lo and behold, a new state has joined the family of nations.

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And the former bandit leaders have been transformed

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into the lawful nobility of the realm.

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How the State Preserves Itself

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Once a state has been established, the problem of the ruling group or caste is how to maintain their rule.

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While force is their modus operandi, their basic and long-run problem is ideological.

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For in order to continue in office, any government, not simply a democratic government, must have the support of the majority of its subjects.

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This support, it must be noted, need not be active enthusiasm.

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It may well be passive resignation as if to an inevitable law of nature.

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But support in the sense of acceptance of some sort it must be, else the minority of

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state rulers would eventually be outweighed by the active resistance of the majority of

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the public.

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Since predation must be supported out of the surplus of production, it is necessarily true

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It is true that the class constituting the state, full-time bureaucracy and nobility must be a rather small minority in the land, although it may, of course, purchase allies among important groups in the population.

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Therefore, the chief task of the rulers is always to secure the active or resigned acceptance of the majority of the citizens.

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Of course, one method of securing support is through the creation of vested economic interests.

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Therefore, the king alone cannot rule. He must have a sizable group of followers who enjoy the

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perquisites of rule, for example, the members of the state apparatus, such as the full-time

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bureaucracy or the established nobility. But this still secures only a minority of eager supporters,

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and even the essential purchasing of support by subsidies and other grants of privilege

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still does not obtain the consent of the majority. For this essential acceptance,

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The majority must be persuaded by ideology that their government is good, wise, and at least

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inevitable, and certainly better than any other conceivable alternatives. Promoting this ideology

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among the people is the vital social task of the intellectuals, for the masses of men do not create

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their own ideas or indeed think through these ideas independently. They followividely the ideas

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is adopted and disseminated by the body of intellectuals. The intellectuals are therefore

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the opinion-molders in society. And since it is precisely a molding of opinion that the

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state most desperately needs, the basis for age-old alliance between the state and the

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intellectuals becomes clear. It is evident that the state needs the intellectuals. It

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is not so evident why intellectuals need the state. Put simply, we may state that the intellectual's

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livelihood in the free market is never too secure, for the intellectual must depend on

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the values and choices of the masses of his fellow men, and it is precisely characteristic

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of the masses that they are generally uninterested in intellectual matters. The state, on the

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other hand, is willing to offer the intellectuals a secure and permanent birth in the state

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and thus a secure income and the panoply of prestige, for the intellectuals will be handsomely

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rewarded for the important function they perform for the state rulers, of which group they

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now become a part.

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The alliance between the state and the intellectuals was symbolized in the eager desire of professors

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at the University of Berlin in the 19th century to form the intellectual bodyguard of the

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House of Hohenzollern.

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In the present day, let us note the revealing comment of an eminent Marxist scholar concerning

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Professor Whitfogle's critical study of ancient oriental despotism.

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Quote, the civilization which Professor Whitfogle is so bitterly attacking was one which could

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make poets and scholars into officials, unquote.

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Of innumerable examples, we may cite the recent development of the science of strategy in

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and the service of the government's main violence-wielding arm, the military.

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A venerable institution, furthermore, is the official, or court historian, dedicated to

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purveying the ruler's view of their own and their predecessor's actions.

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Many and varied have been the arguments by which the state and its intellectuals have

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induced their subjects to support their rule.

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Basically, the strands of argument may be summed up as follows.

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A. The state rulers are great and wise men. They rule by divine right. They are the aristocracy

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of men. They are the scientific experts. Much greater and wiser than the good, but rather

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simple subjects. And B. Rule by the extent government is inevitable, absolutely necessary,

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and far better than the indescribable evils that would ensue upon its downfall.

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The union of church and state was one of the oldest and most successful of these ideological

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devices.

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The ruler was either anointed by God or, in the case of absolute rule of many Oriental

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despotisms, was himself God, hence any resistance to his rule would be blasphemy.

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The state's priestcraft performed the basic intellectual function of obtaining popular

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support and even worship for the rulers.

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Another successful device was to instill fear of any alternative system of rule or non-rule.

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The present rulers it was maintained supplied to the citizens an essential service for which

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they should be most grateful, protection against sporadic criminals and marauders.

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For the State, to preserve its own monopoly of predation did indeed see to it that private

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and unsystematic crime was kept to a minimum.

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The State has always been jealous of its own preserve. Especially has the State been successful

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in recent centuries in instilling fear of other State rulers. Since the land area of

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the globe has been parceled out among particular States, one of the basic doctrines of the

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State was to identify itself with the territory it governed. Since most men tend to love their

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homeland, the identification of that land and its people with the State was a means

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of Making Natural Patriotism Work to the State's Advantage.

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If Ruritania was being attacked by Waldavia, the first task of the state and its intellectuals

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was to convince the people of Ruritania that the attack was really upon them and not simply

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upon the ruling caste.

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In this way, a war between rulers was converted into a war between peoples, with each people

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coming to the defense of its rulers in the erroneous belief that the rulers were defending

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This device of nationalism has only been successful in Western civilization in recent centuries.

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It was not too long ago that the mass of subjects regarded wars as irrelevant battles between

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various sets of nobles.

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Many and subtle are the ideological weapons that the state has wielded through the centuries.

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One excellent weapon has been tradition.

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The longer that the rule of a state has been able to preserve itself, the more powerful

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this weapon, for then the X dynasty or the Y state has the seeming weight of centuries

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of tradition behind it.

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Worship of one's ancestors then becomes a none too subtle means of worship of one's

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ancient rulers.

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The greatest danger to the state is independent intellectual criticism.

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There is no better way to stifle that criticism than to attack any isolated voice, any race,

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Another potent ideological force is to deprecate the individual and exalt the collectivity of society, for since any given rule implies majority acceptance, any ideological danger to that rule can only start from one or a few independently thinking individuals.

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The new idea, much less the new critical idea, must needs begin as a small minority opinion.

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Therefore, the state must nip the view in the bud by ridiculing any view that defies the opinions of the mass.

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Listen only to your brothers, or a just society thus becomes ideological weapons for crushing individual dissent.

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By such measures, the masses will never learn of the non-existence of their emperor's clothes.

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H. L. Mencken wrote in 1949,

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All government can see in an original idea is potential change and hence an invasion of its prerogatives.

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The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself

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without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.

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Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so if he is romantic he tries to change it, and even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.

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It is also important for the state to make its rules seem inevitable.

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Even if its reign is disliked, it will then be met with passive resignation as witnessed

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the familiar coupling of death and taxes.

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One method is to induce historiographical determinism as opposed to individual freedom

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of will.

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If the X dynasty rules us, this is because the inexorable laws of history, or the divine

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It is also important for the state to inculcate in its subjects an aversion to any conspiracy

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theory of history.

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For a search for conspiracies means a search for motives and an attribution of responsibility

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for historical misdeeds.

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If, however, any tyranny imposed by the state, or venality, or aggressive war was caused

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not by the state rulers but by mysterious and arcane social forces, or by the imperfect

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state of the world, or if in some way everyone was responsible, then there is no point in

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the people becoming indignant or rising up against such misdeeds.

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Furthermore, an attack on conspiracy theories means that the subjects will become more gullible

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00:21:05.460 --> 00:21:10.660
in Believing the General Welfare Reasons that are always put forth by the state for engaging

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in any of its despotic actions.

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A conspiracy theory can unsettle the system by causing the public to doubt the state's

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00:21:18.860 --> 00:21:22.860
ideological propaganda.

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Another tried-and-true method for bending subjects to the state's will is inducing

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00:21:26.940 --> 00:21:28.600
guilt.

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Any increase in private well-being can be attacked as unconscionable greed, materialism,

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for Excessive Affluence.

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Profit-making can be attacked as exploitation and usury.

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Mutually beneficial exchanges denounced as selfishness and somehow, with the conclusion

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always being drawn, that more resources should be siphoned from the private to the public

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sector.

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The induced guilt makes the public more ready to do just that, for while individual persons

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00:21:59.520 --> 00:22:04.880
tend to indulge in selfish greed, the failure of the state's rulers to engage in exchanges

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States is supposed to signify their devotion to higher and nobler causes, parasitic predations

229
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being apparently morally and aesthetically lofty as compared to peaceful and productive

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work.

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In the present more secular age, the divine right of the state has been supplemented by

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the invocation of a new god, science.

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State rule is now proclaimed as being ultra-scientific, as constituting planning by experts.

234
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But while reason is invoked more than in previous centuries, this is not the true reason of

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the individual in his exercise of free will.

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It is still collectivist and determinist, still implying holistic aggregates and coercive

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manipulation of passive subjects by their rulers.

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The increasing use of scientific jargon has permitted the state's intellectuals to weave

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obscurantist apologia for state rule that would only have met with derision by the populace

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00:23:04.540 --> 00:23:12.180
A robber who justified his theft by saying that he really helped his victims by his spending

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giving a boost to retail trade would find few converts, but when this theory is clothed

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in Keynesian equations and impressive references to the multiplier effect, it unfortunately

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00:23:23.780 --> 00:23:29.780
carries more conviction, and so the assault on common sense proceeds, each age performing

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the task in its own way.

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Thus, ideological support being vital to the State, it must unceasingly try to impress

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the public with its legitimacy, to distinguish its activities from those of mere brigands.

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The unremitting determination of its assaults on common sense is no accident, for as Mencken

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vividly maintained, the average man, whatever his errors otherwise, at least sees clearly

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that government is something lying outside him and outside the generality of his fellow

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00:24:03.020 --> 00:24:09.500
men, that it is a separate, independent and hostile power only partly under his control

251
00:24:09.500 --> 00:24:13.260
and capable of doing him great harm.

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00:24:13.260 --> 00:24:17.500
Is it a fact of no significance that robbing the government is everywhere regarded as a

253
00:24:17.500 --> 00:24:23.700
crime of less magnitude than robbing an individual or even a corporation?

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What lies behind all this, I believe, is a deep sense of the fundamental antagonism between

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00:24:29.020 --> 00:24:32.440
the government and the people it governs.

256
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It is apprehended, not as a committee of citizens chosen to carry on the communal business of

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the whole population, but as a separate and autonomous corporation mainly devoted to exploiting

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the population for the benefit of its own members.

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When a private citizen is robbed, a worthy man is deprived of the fruits of his industry

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00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:57.840
and Thrift. When the government is robbed, the worst that happens is that certain rogues

261
00:24:57.840 --> 00:25:03.480
and loafers have less money to play with than they had before. The notion that they have

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00:25:03.480 --> 00:25:14.360
earned that money is never entertained. To most sensible men, it would seem ludicrous.

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How the State Transcends Its Limits

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As Bertrand de Jovenel has sagely pointed out, through the centuries men have formed

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concepts designed to check and limit the exercise of state rule, and one after another the state

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using its intellectual allies has been able to transform these concepts into intellectual

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rubber stamps of legitimacy and virtue to attach to its decrees and actions.

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Originally in Western Europe the concept of divine sovereignty held that the kings may

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rule only according to divine law. The kings turned the concept into a rubber stamp of divine

270
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approval for any of the king's actions. The concept of parliamentary democracy began as a popular

271
00:26:01.440 --> 00:26:07.600
check upon absolute monarchical rule. It ended with parliament being the essential part of the state

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00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:17.040
and its every act totally sovereign. As de Jauvenel concludes, many writers on theories of sovereignty

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have worked out one of these restrictive devices. But in the end, every single such theory has

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00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:30.400
sooner or later lost its original purpose and come to act merely as a springboard to power by providing

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00:26:30.400 --> 00:26:36.080
it with the powerful aid of an invisible sovereign with whom it could in time successfully identify

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00:26:36.080 --> 00:26:43.680
itself. Similarly, with more specific doctrines, the natural rights of the individual enshrined

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00:26:43.680 --> 00:26:50.960
in John Locke and the Bill of Rights became a status right to a job. Utilitarianism turned from

278
00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:56.800
arguments for liberty to arguments against resisting the state's invasion of liberty, and so on.

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00:26:58.640 --> 00:27:03.680
Certainly the most ambitious attempt to impose limits on the state has been the Bill of Rights

280
00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:09.120
and other restrictive parts of the American Constitution, in which written limits on government

281
00:27:09.120 --> 00:27:14.720
became the fundamental law to be interpreted by a judiciary supposedly independent of the

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00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:21.520
other branches of government. All Americans are familiar with the process by which the construction

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00:27:21.520 --> 00:27:29.120
of limits in the Constitution has been inexorably broadened over the last century. But few have been

284
00:27:29.120 --> 00:27:35.280
as keen as Professor Charles Black to see that the state has in the process largely transformed

285
00:27:35.280 --> 00:27:41.520
from judicial review itself, from a limiting device, to yet another instrument for furnishing

286
00:27:41.520 --> 00:27:45.800
ideological legitimacy to the government's actions.

287
00:27:45.800 --> 00:27:51.640
For if a judicial decree of unconstitutional is a mighty check to government power, an

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00:27:51.640 --> 00:27:57.720
implicit or explicit verdict of constitutional is a mighty weapon for fostering public acceptance

289
00:27:57.720 --> 00:28:00.880
of ever greater government power.

290
00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:06.320
Professor Black begins his analysis by pointing out the crucial necessity of legitimacy for

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00:28:06.320 --> 00:28:12.160
any government to endure, this legitimation signifying basic majority acceptance of the

292
00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:15.640
government and its actions.

293
00:28:15.640 --> 00:28:20.600
Acceptance of legitimacy becomes a particular problem in a country such as the United States

294
00:28:20.600 --> 00:28:26.580
where substantive limitations are built into the theory on which the government rests.

295
00:28:26.580 --> 00:28:44.060
Let Black illustrate the problem.

296
00:28:44.060 --> 00:28:49.300
The supreme risk to the government is that of disaffection and a feeling of outrage widely

297
00:28:49.300 --> 00:28:54.100
disseminated throughout the population and loss of moral authority by the government

298
00:28:54.100 --> 00:29:18.100
Almost everybody living under a government of limited powers must sooner or later be subjected to some governmental action which as a matter of private opinion he regards as outside the power of the government, or positively forbidden to government.

299
00:29:18.100 --> 00:29:24.260
A man is drafted, though he finds nothing in the Constitution about being drafted.

300
00:29:24.260 --> 00:29:27.700
A farmer is told how much wheat he can raise.

301
00:29:27.700 --> 00:29:32.820
He believes and he discovers that some respectable lawyers believe with him that the government

302
00:29:32.820 --> 00:29:37.220
has no more right to tell him how much wheat he can grow than it has to tell his daughter

303
00:29:37.220 --> 00:29:39.460
whom she can marry.

304
00:29:39.460 --> 00:29:44.620
A man goes to the federal penitentiary for saying what he wants to, and he paces his

305
00:29:44.620 --> 00:29:58.260
A businessman is told what he can ask and must ask for buttermilk.

306
00:29:58.260 --> 00:30:03.140
The danger is real enough that each of these people, and who is not of their number, will

307
00:30:03.140 --> 00:30:09.000
confront the concept of government limitation with the reality, as he sees it, of the flagrant

308
00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:14.400
overstepping of actual limits and draw the obvious conclusion as to the status of his

309
00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:18.380
government with respect to legitimacy.

310
00:30:18.380 --> 00:30:22.840
This danger is averted by the state propounding the doctrine that one agency must have the

311
00:30:22.840 --> 00:30:28.080
ultimate decision on constitutionality and that this agency in the last analysis must

312
00:30:28.080 --> 00:30:30.760
be part of the federal government.

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00:30:30.760 --> 00:30:36.980
Again, according to Black, the prime and most necessary function of the Supreme Court has

314
00:30:36.980 --> 00:30:41.540
has been that of validation, not that of invalidation.

315
00:30:41.540 --> 00:30:46.060
What a government of limited powers needs at the beginning and forever is some means

316
00:30:46.060 --> 00:30:50.940
of satisfying the people that it has taken all steps humanly possible to stay within

317
00:30:50.940 --> 00:30:52.800
its powers.

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00:30:52.800 --> 00:30:58.380
This is the condition of its legitimacy, and its legitimacy in the long run is the condition

319
00:30:58.380 --> 00:31:00.240
of its life.

320
00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:06.900
And the court, throughout its history, has acted as the legitimation of the government.

321
00:31:06.900 --> 00:31:10.980
For while the seeming independence of the federal judiciary has played a vital part

322
00:31:10.980 --> 00:31:15.900
in making its actions virtually wholly writ for the bulk of the people, it is also and

323
00:31:15.900 --> 00:31:21.660
ever true that the judiciary is part and parcel of the government apparatus and appointed

324
00:31:21.660 --> 00:31:26.300
by the executive and legislative branches.

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00:31:26.300 --> 00:31:31.460
Black admits that this means that the state has set itself up as judge in its own cause,

326
00:31:31.460 --> 00:31:37.020
Thus violating a basic juridical principle for aiming at just decisions.

327
00:31:37.020 --> 00:31:41.760
He brusquely denies the possibility of any alternative.

328
00:31:41.760 --> 00:31:46.780
To black this solution, while paradoxical, is blithely self-evident.

329
00:31:46.780 --> 00:31:51.260
The final power of the State must stop where the law stops it.

330
00:31:51.260 --> 00:31:53.040
And who shall set the limit?

331
00:31:53.040 --> 00:31:57.140
And who shall enforce the stopping against the mightiest power?

332
00:31:57.140 --> 00:32:01.140
Why the State itself, of course, through its judges and its laws?

333
00:32:01.140 --> 00:32:05.660
Who controls the temperate, who teaches the wise?

334
00:32:05.660 --> 00:32:10.500
Were the questions concerned governmental power in a sovereign nation, it is not possible

335
00:32:10.500 --> 00:32:15.060
to select an umpire who is outside government.

336
00:32:15.060 --> 00:32:20.740
Every national government, so long as it is a government, must have the final say on its

337
00:32:20.740 --> 00:32:23.180
own power.

338
00:32:23.180 --> 00:32:25.300
Black ads.

339
00:32:25.300 --> 00:32:30.620
The problem then is to devise such governmental means of deciding as will hopefully reduce

340
00:32:30.620 --> 00:32:57.140
In the last analysis, Black finds the achievement of justice and legitimacy from the state's

341
00:32:57.140 --> 00:33:09.340
Applying his thesis to the famous conflict between the Supreme Court and the New Deal,

342
00:33:09.340 --> 00:33:14.460
Professor Black keenly chides his fellow pro-New Deal colleagues for their short-sightedness

343
00:33:14.460 --> 00:33:17.700
in denouncing judicial obstruction.

344
00:33:17.700 --> 00:33:18.700
Quoting Black,

345
00:33:18.700 --> 00:33:23.560
The standard version of the story of the New Deal in the Court, though accurate in its

346
00:33:23.560 --> 00:33:26.660
way, displaces the emphasis.

347
00:33:26.660 --> 00:33:32.460
It concentrates on the difficulties, it almost forgets how the whole thing turned out.

348
00:33:32.460 --> 00:33:37.100
The upshot of the matter was, and this is what I like to emphasize, that after some

349
00:33:37.100 --> 00:33:41.820
twenty-four months of balking, the Supreme Court, without a single change in the law

350
00:33:41.820 --> 00:33:48.380
of its composition or indeed in its actual manning, placed the affirmative stamp of legitimacy

351
00:33:48.380 --> 00:33:54.380
on the New Deal, and on the whole new conception of government in America.

352
00:33:54.380 --> 00:33:59.500
In this way, the Supreme Court was able to put the quietus on the large body of Americans

353
00:33:59.500 --> 00:34:03.980
who had strong constitutional objections to the New Deal.

354
00:34:03.980 --> 00:34:08.780
Again quoting Black, Of course, not everyone was satisfied.

355
00:34:08.780 --> 00:34:14.020
The Bonnie Prince Charlie of Constitutional commanded laissez-faire still stirs the hearts

356
00:34:14.020 --> 00:34:18.340
of a few zealots in the highlands of choleric unreality.

357
00:34:18.340 --> 00:34:23.420
But there is no longer any significant or dangerous public doubt as to the constitutional

358
00:34:23.420 --> 00:34:29.380
powers of Congress to deal as it does with the national economy.

359
00:34:29.380 --> 00:34:35.300
We had no means other than the Supreme Court for imparting legitimacy to the New Deal.

360
00:34:35.300 --> 00:34:40.940
As Black recognized, one major political theorist who recognized, and largely in advance, the

361
00:34:40.940 --> 00:34:46.860
glaring loophole in a constitutional limit on government of placing the ultimate interpreting

362
00:34:46.860 --> 00:34:52.160
The main power in the Supreme Court was John C. Calhoun.

363
00:34:52.160 --> 00:34:57.200
Calhoun was not content with the miracle, but instead proceeded to a profound analysis

364
00:34:57.200 --> 00:35:00.440
of the constitutional problem.

365
00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:05.880
In his Disquisition, Calhoun demonstrated the inherent tendency of the state to break

366
00:35:05.880 --> 00:35:09.440
through the limits of such a constitution.

367
00:35:09.440 --> 00:35:10.440
Quoting Calhoun,

368
00:35:10.440 --> 00:35:16.840
A written constitution certainly has many and considerable advantages, but it is a great

369
00:35:16.840 --> 00:35:21.940
mistake to suppose that the mere insertion of provisions to restrict and limit the power

370
00:35:21.940 --> 00:35:27.380
of the government, without investing those for whose protection they are inserted, with

371
00:35:27.380 --> 00:35:32.620
the means of enforcing their observance, will be sufficient to prevent the major and dominant

372
00:35:32.620 --> 00:35:35.900
party from abusing its powers.

373
00:35:35.900 --> 00:35:40.420
Being the party in possession of the government, they will, from the same constitution of the

374
00:35:40.420 --> 00:35:46.180
Man which makes government necessary to protect society be in favor of the powers granted

375
00:35:46.180 --> 00:35:51.980
by the Constitution and opposed to the restrictions intended to limit them.

376
00:35:51.980 --> 00:35:57.020
The minor or weaker party, on the contrary, would take the opposite direction and regard

377
00:35:57.020 --> 00:36:03.580
them, the restrictions, as essential to their protection against the dominant party.

378
00:36:03.580 --> 00:36:08.260
But where there are no means by which they could compel the major party to observe the

379
00:36:08.260 --> 00:36:14.820
The only resort left to them would be a strict construction of the Constitution.

380
00:36:14.820 --> 00:36:19.860
To this the major party would oppose a liberal construction.

381
00:36:19.860 --> 00:36:25.380
It would be construction against construction, the one to contract and the other to enlarge

382
00:36:25.380 --> 00:36:29.500
the powers of the government to the utmost.

383
00:36:29.500 --> 00:36:34.020
But of what possible avail could the strict construction of the minor party be against

384
00:36:34.020 --> 00:36:38.020
It's the liberal construction of the major when the one would have all of the power of

385
00:36:38.020 --> 00:36:43.020
the government to carry its construction into effect and the other be deprived of all means

386
00:36:43.020 --> 00:36:45.860
of enforcing its construction.

387
00:36:45.860 --> 00:36:50.180
In a contest so unequal, the result would not be doubtful.

388
00:36:50.180 --> 00:36:53.780
The party in favor of the restrictions would be overpowered.

389
00:36:53.780 --> 00:36:57.820
The end of the contest would be the subversion of the Constitution.

390
00:36:57.820 --> 00:37:02.900
The restrictions would ultimately be annulled and the government be converted into one of

391
00:37:02.900 --> 00:37:06.180
Unlimited Power.

392
00:37:06.180 --> 00:37:11.060
One of the few political scientists who appreciated Calhoun's analysis of the Constitution was

393
00:37:11.060 --> 00:37:14.140
Professor J. Alan Smith.

394
00:37:14.140 --> 00:37:18.960
Smith noted that the Constitution was designed with checks and balances to limit any one

395
00:37:18.960 --> 00:37:25.020
governmental power and yet had then developed a Supreme Court with the monopoly of ultimate

396
00:37:25.020 --> 00:37:27.560
interpreting power.

397
00:37:27.560 --> 00:37:32.340
If the Federal Government was created to check invasions of individual liberty by the separate

398
00:37:32.340 --> 00:37:38.980
States who was to check the federal power. Smith maintained that implicit in the check

399
00:37:38.980 --> 00:37:44.820
and balance idea of the Constitution was the concomitant view that no one branch of government

400
00:37:44.820 --> 00:37:50.920
may be conceded the ultimate power of interpretation. It was assumed by the people that the new

401
00:37:50.920 --> 00:37:55.600
government could not be permitted to determine the limits of its own authority since this

402
00:37:55.600 --> 00:38:00.520
This would make it, and not the Constitution, supreme.

403
00:38:00.520 --> 00:38:05.960
Smith writes, It was obvious that were a provision of the Constitution was designed to limit

404
00:38:05.960 --> 00:38:11.400
the powers of a governmental organ, it could be effectively nullified of its interpretation

405
00:38:11.400 --> 00:38:16.640
and enforcement left to the authorities it was designed to restrain.

406
00:38:16.640 --> 00:38:20.640
Clearly common sense required that no organ of the government should be able to determine

407
00:38:20.640 --> 00:38:22.920
its own powers.

408
00:38:22.920 --> 00:38:29.200
Common Sense and Miracles dictate very different views of government.

409
00:38:29.200 --> 00:38:34.720
The solution advanced by Calhoun and seconded in this century by such writers as Smith was

410
00:38:34.720 --> 00:38:39.420
of course the famous doctrine of the concurrent majority.

411
00:38:39.420 --> 00:38:44.440
If any substantial minority interest in the country, specifically a state government,

412
00:38:44.440 --> 00:38:49.640
believed that the federal government was exceeding its powers and encroaching on that minority,

413
00:38:49.640 --> 00:38:56.240
The minority would have the right to veto this exercise of power as unconstitutional.

414
00:38:56.240 --> 00:39:00.980
Applied to state governments, this theory implied the right of nullification of a federal

415
00:39:00.980 --> 00:39:05.740
law or ruling within a state's jurisdiction.

416
00:39:05.740 --> 00:39:10.360
In theory, the ensuing constitutional system would assure that the federal government check

417
00:39:10.360 --> 00:39:16.060
any state invasion of individual rights, while the states would check excessive federal power

418
00:39:16.060 --> 00:39:18.560
over the individual.

419
00:39:18.560 --> 00:39:23.360
And yet, while limitations would undoubtedly be more effective than at present, there are

420
00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:27.920
many difficulties and problems in the Calhoun solution.

421
00:39:27.920 --> 00:39:33.560
If indeed a subordinate interest should rightly have a veto over matters concerning it, then

422
00:39:33.560 --> 00:39:35.960
why stop with the states?

423
00:39:35.960 --> 00:39:40.280
Why not place veto power in counties, cities and wards?

424
00:39:40.280 --> 00:39:45.560
Furthermore, interests are not only sectional, they are also occupational, social and so

425
00:39:45.560 --> 00:39:47.160
forth.

426
00:39:47.160 --> 00:39:51.280
of Bakers or Taxi Drivers or Any Other Occupation.

427
00:39:51.280 --> 00:39:55.840
Should they not be permitted a veto power over their own lives?

428
00:39:55.840 --> 00:40:00.600
This brings us to the important point that the nullification theory confines its checks

429
00:40:00.600 --> 00:40:03.960
to agencies of government itself.

430
00:40:03.960 --> 00:40:09.500
Let us not forget that federal and state governments and their respective branches are still states.

431
00:40:09.500 --> 00:40:13.840
They are still guided by their own state interests rather than by the interests of the private

432
00:40:13.840 --> 00:40:16.160
citizens.

433
00:40:16.160 --> 00:40:20.760
What is to prevent the Calhoun system from working in reverse, with states tyrannizing

434
00:40:20.760 --> 00:40:25.920
over their citizens and only vetoing the federal government when it tries to intervene to stop

435
00:40:25.920 --> 00:40:28.140
that state tyranny?

436
00:40:28.140 --> 00:40:31.400
Or for states to acquiesce in federal tyranny?

437
00:40:31.400 --> 00:40:36.400
What is to prevent federal and state governments from forming mutually profitable alliances

438
00:40:36.400 --> 00:40:40.540
for the joint exploitation of the citizenry?

439
00:40:40.540 --> 00:40:46.080
And even if the private occupational groupings were to be given some form of functional representation

440
00:40:46.080 --> 00:40:51.620
in Government, what is to prevent them from using the state to gain subsidies and other

441
00:40:51.620 --> 00:40:59.280
special privileges for themselves, or from imposing compulsory cartels on their own members?

442
00:40:59.280 --> 00:41:04.700
In short, Calhoun does not push his path-breaking theory on concurrence far enough.

443
00:41:04.700 --> 00:41:08.840
He does not push it down to the individual himself.

444
00:41:08.840 --> 00:41:14.020
If the individual, after all, is the one whose rights are to be protected, then a consistent

445
00:41:14.020 --> 00:41:19.620
The theory of concurrence would imply veto power by every individual, that is, some form

446
00:41:19.620 --> 00:41:22.700
of unanimity principle.

447
00:41:22.700 --> 00:41:28.180
When Calhoun wrote that it should be impossible to put or keep the government in action without

448
00:41:28.180 --> 00:41:35.220
the concurrent consent of all, he was, perhaps unwittingly, implying just such a conclusion.

449
00:41:35.220 --> 00:41:40.640
But such speculation begins to take us away from our subject, for down this path lie political

450
00:41:40.640 --> 00:41:44.880
systems which could hardly be called states at all.

451
00:41:44.880 --> 00:41:50.160
For one thing, just as the right of nullification for a state logically implies its right of

452
00:41:50.160 --> 00:41:55.840
secession, so a right of individual nullification would imply the right of any individual to

453
00:41:55.840 --> 00:41:59.120
secede from the state under which he lives.

454
00:41:59.120 --> 00:42:05.160
Thus, the state has invariably shown a striking talent for the expansion of its powers beyond

455
00:42:05.160 --> 00:42:08.760
any limits that might be imposed upon it.

456
00:42:08.760 --> 00:42:14.720
Since the state necessarily lives by the compulsory confiscation of private capital, and since

457
00:42:14.720 --> 00:42:20.240
its expansion necessarily involves ever greater incursion on private individuals and private

458
00:42:20.240 --> 00:42:26.640
enterprise, we must assert that the state is profoundly and inherently anti-capitalist.

459
00:42:26.640 --> 00:42:32.080
In a sense, our position is the reverse of the Marxist dictum that the state is the executive

460
00:42:32.080 --> 00:42:37.120
committee of the ruling class in the present day, supposedly the capitalists.

461
00:42:37.120 --> 00:42:42.980
Instead, the State, the organization of the political means, constitutes and is the source

462
00:42:42.980 --> 00:42:49.000
of the ruling class, rather ruling caste, and is in permanent opposition to genuinely

463
00:42:49.000 --> 00:42:51.860
private capital.

464
00:42:51.860 --> 00:42:57.800
We may therefore say, with de Jovenel, only those who know nothing of any time but their

465
00:42:57.800 --> 00:43:02.820
own, who are completely in the dark as to the manner of powers behaving through thousands

466
00:43:32.820 --> 00:44:00.820
What the State Fears

467
00:44:00.820 --> 00:44:05.740
What the state fears above all, of course, is any fundamental threat to its own power

468
00:44:05.740 --> 00:44:08.260
and its own existence.

469
00:44:08.260 --> 00:44:11.700
The death of a state can come about in two major ways.

470
00:44:11.700 --> 00:44:18.180
A. Through conquest by another state, or B. Through revolutionary overthrow by its own

471
00:44:18.180 --> 00:44:22.860
subjects, in short, by war or revolution.

472
00:44:22.860 --> 00:44:28.300
War and revolution as the two basic threats invariably arouse in the state rulers their

473
00:44:28.300 --> 00:44:56.300
The Fallacy of the Idea becomes evident when conscription is wielded against those who refuse to defend themselves, and are therefore forced into joining the state's military band.

474
00:44:56.300 --> 00:45:02.300
Needless to add, no defense is permitted them against this act of their own state.

475
00:45:03.300 --> 00:45:09.300
In war, state power is pushed to its ultimate, and under the slogans of defense and emergency,

476
00:45:09.300 --> 00:45:15.300
it can impose a tyranny upon the public such as might be openly resisted in time of peace.

477
00:45:16.300 --> 00:45:23.300
War thus provides many benefits to a state, and indeed every modern war has brought to the warring peoples

478
00:45:23.300 --> 00:45:35.480
War, moreover, provides to a State tempting opportunities for conquest of land areas over

479
00:45:35.480 --> 00:45:39.640
which it may exercise its monopoly of force.

480
00:45:39.640 --> 00:45:45.520
Randolph Bourne was certainly correct when he wrote that war is the health of the State,

481
00:45:45.520 --> 00:45:51.420
but to any particular State a war may spell either health or grave injury.

482
00:45:51.420 --> 00:45:56.360
We may test the hypothesis that the State is largely interested in protecting itself rather

483
00:45:56.360 --> 00:46:01.820
than its subjects by asking, which category of crime does the State pursue and punish

484
00:46:01.820 --> 00:46:08.780
most intensely, those against private citizens or those against itself?

485
00:46:08.780 --> 00:46:14.360
The gravest crimes in the State's lexicon are almost invariably not invasions of private

486
00:46:14.360 --> 00:46:21.760
Person or Property, but dangers to its own contentment, for example, treason, desertion

487
00:46:21.760 --> 00:46:30.360
of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register for the draft, subversion and subversive conspiracy,

488
00:46:30.360 --> 00:46:35.860
assassination of rulers, and such economic crimes against the State as counterfeiting

489
00:46:35.860 --> 00:46:42.460
its money or evasion of its income tax, or compare the degree of zeal devoted to pursuing

490
00:46:42.460 --> 00:46:44.460
As Mencken puts it in his inevitable fashion,

491
00:47:12.460 --> 00:47:19.460
The number of men sitting in Atlanta and Leavenworth for revolting against the extortions of the government is always ten times as great as the number of government officials condemned for oppressing the taxpayers to their own gain.

492
00:47:42.460 --> 00:47:51.260
How States Relate to One Another

493
00:47:51.260 --> 00:47:56.140
Since the territorial area of the earth is divided among different states, interstate

494
00:47:56.140 --> 00:48:00.860
relations must occupy much of a state's time and energy.

495
00:48:00.860 --> 00:48:06.380
The natural tendency of a state is to expand its power and externally such expansion takes

496
00:48:06.380 --> 00:48:10.340
place by conquest of a territorial area.

497
00:48:10.340 --> 00:48:16.180
Unless a territory is stateless or uninhabited, any such expansion involves an inherent conflict

498
00:48:16.180 --> 00:48:21.120
of interest between one set of state rulers and another.

499
00:48:21.120 --> 00:48:26.180
Only one set of rulers can obtain a monopoly of coercion over any given territorial area

500
00:48:26.180 --> 00:48:28.700
at any one time.

501
00:48:28.700 --> 00:48:34.220
Complete power over a territory by state X can only be obtained by the expulsion of state

502
00:48:34.220 --> 00:48:35.220
Y.

503
00:48:35.220 --> 00:48:41.620
War, while risky, will be an ever-present tendency of states punctuated by periods of

504
00:48:41.620 --> 00:48:47.520
peace and by shifting alliances and coalitions between states.

505
00:48:47.520 --> 00:48:52.740
We have seen that the internal or domestic attempt to limit the state in the 17th through

506
00:48:52.740 --> 00:48:59.020
19th centuries reached its most notable form in constitutionalism.

507
00:48:59.020 --> 00:49:04.920
Its external or foreign affairs counterpart was the development of international law especially

508
00:49:04.920 --> 00:49:12.560
such forms as the Law of War and Neutral's Rights. Parts of international law were originally

509
00:49:12.560 --> 00:49:17.200
purely private, growing out of the need of merchants and traders everywhere to protect

510
00:49:17.200 --> 00:49:26.020
their property and adjudicate disputes. Examples are Admiralty Law and the Law of Merchant.

511
00:49:26.020 --> 00:49:30.960
But even the governmental rules emerged voluntarily and were not imposed by any international

512
00:49:30.960 --> 00:49:37.360
Super-State. The object of the laws of war was to limit interstate destruction to the

513
00:49:37.360 --> 00:49:43.040
state apparatus itself, thereby preserving the innocent civilian public from the slaughter

514
00:49:43.040 --> 00:49:49.040
and devastation of war. The object of the development of neutrals' rights was to preserve

515
00:49:49.040 --> 00:49:54.400
private civilian international commerce, even with enemy countries, from seizure by one

516
00:49:54.400 --> 00:50:00.880
of the warring parties. The overriding aim, then, was to limit the extent of any war and

517
00:50:00.880 --> 00:50:05.800
and particularly to limit its destructive impact on the private citizens of the neutral

518
00:50:05.800 --> 00:50:09.400
and even the warring countries.

519
00:50:09.400 --> 00:50:15.320
The jurist F. J. P. Veale charmingly described such civilized warfare as it briefly flourished

520
00:50:15.320 --> 00:50:18.640
in 15th century Italy.

521
00:50:18.640 --> 00:50:23.000
The rich burghers and merchants of medieval Italy were too busy making money and enjoying

522
00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:28.280
life to undertake the hardships and dangers of soldiering themselves.

523
00:50:28.280 --> 00:50:33.480
So they adopted the practice of hiring mercenaries to do their fighting for them and being thrifty

524
00:50:33.480 --> 00:50:38.600
businesslike folk, they dismissed their mercenaries immediately after their services could be

525
00:50:38.600 --> 00:50:41.240
dispensed with.

526
00:50:41.240 --> 00:50:45.880
Wars were therefore fought by armies hired for each campaign.

527
00:50:45.880 --> 00:50:52.080
For the first time, soldiering became a reasonable and comparatively harmless profession.

528
00:50:52.080 --> 00:50:57.120
The generals of that period maneuvered against each other, often with consummate skill, but

529
00:50:57.120 --> 00:51:03.360
When one had won the advantage, his opponent generally either retreated or surrendered.

530
00:51:03.360 --> 00:51:08.720
It was a recognized rule that a town could only be sacked if it offered resistance.

531
00:51:08.720 --> 00:51:12.640
Immunity could always be purchased by paying a ransom.

532
00:51:12.640 --> 00:51:18.240
As one natural consequence, no town ever resisted, it being obvious that a government too weak

533
00:51:18.240 --> 00:51:23.120
to defend its citizens had forfeited their allegiance.

534
00:51:23.120 --> 00:51:28.320
had little to fear from the dangers of war which were the concern only of professional soldiers.

535
00:51:30.320 --> 00:51:35.680
The well-nigh absolute separation of the private civilian from the state's wars in 18th century

536
00:51:35.680 --> 00:51:42.560
Europe is highlighted by Neff. Even postal communications were not successfully restricted

537
00:51:42.560 --> 00:51:48.880
for long in wartime. Letters circulated without censorship with a freedom that astonishes the

538
00:51:48.880 --> 00:52:18.880
The Subjects of Two Warring Nations Talked to Each Other If They Met and When They Could Not Meet Corresponded Not As Enemies but As Friends The Modern Notion Hardly Existed That Subjects of Any Enemy Country Are Partly Accountable for the Belligerent Acts of Their Rulers Nor Had the Warring Rulers Any Firm Disposition to Stop Communications with Subjects of the Enemy

539
00:52:18.880 --> 00:52:29.880
and espionage in connection with religious worship and belief were disappearing, and no comparable inquisition in connection with political or economic communications was even contemplated.

540
00:52:30.880 --> 00:52:35.880
Passports were originally created to provide safe conduct in time of war.

541
00:52:36.880 --> 00:52:45.880
During most of the 18th century it seldom occurred to Europeans to abandon their travel in a foreign country with which their own was fighting.

542
00:52:45.880 --> 00:52:56.880
In trade being increasingly recognized as beneficial to both parties, 18th century warfare also counterbalances a considerable amount of trading with the enemy.

543
00:52:56.880 --> 00:53:03.880
How far states have transcended rules of civilized warfare in this century needs no elaboration here.

544
00:53:03.880 --> 00:53:09.880
In the modern era of total war combined with the technology of total destruction,

545
00:53:09.880 --> 00:53:16.200
The very idea of keeping war limited to the state apparatus seems even more quaint and

546
00:53:16.200 --> 00:53:22.200
obsolete than the original Constitution of the United States.

547
00:53:22.200 --> 00:53:28.300
When states are not at war, agreements are often necessary to keep frictions at a minimum.

548
00:53:28.300 --> 00:53:35.040
One doctrine that has gained curiously wide acceptance is the alleged sanctity of treaties.

549
00:53:35.040 --> 00:53:40.160
This concept is treated as the counterpart of the sanctity of contract, but a treaty

550
00:53:40.160 --> 00:53:44.200
and a genuine contract have nothing in common.

551
00:53:44.200 --> 00:53:50.480
A contract transfers, in a precise manner, titles to private property.

552
00:53:50.480 --> 00:53:56.080
Since a government does not, in any proper sense, own its territorial area, any agreements

553
00:53:56.080 --> 00:54:00.720
that it concludes do not confer titles to the property.

554
00:54:00.720 --> 00:54:06.320
If, for example, Mr. Jones sells or gives his land to Mr. Smith, Jones's heir cannot

555
00:54:06.320 --> 00:54:12.440
legitimately descend upon Smith's heir and claim the land as rightfully his.

556
00:54:12.440 --> 00:54:16.400
The property title has already been transferred.

557
00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:21.500
Old Jones's contract is automatically binding upon young Jones because the former had already

558
00:54:21.500 --> 00:54:23.960
transferred the property.

559
00:54:23.960 --> 00:54:27.680
Young Jones, therefore, has no property claim.

560
00:54:27.680 --> 00:54:32.720
Young Jones can only claim that which he has inherited from old Jones, and old Jones can

561
00:54:32.720 --> 00:54:36.960
only bequeath property which he still owns.

562
00:54:36.960 --> 00:54:42.040
But if at a certain date the government of, say, Ruritania is coerced or even bribed by

563
00:54:42.040 --> 00:54:47.960
the government of Wallavia into giving up some of its territory, it is absurd to claim

564
00:54:47.960 --> 00:54:52.520
that the governments or inhabitants of the two countries are forever barred from a claim

565
00:54:52.520 --> 00:54:58.540
According to Reunification of Ruritania on the grounds of the sanctity of a treaty, neither

566
00:54:58.540 --> 00:55:05.480
the people nor the land of Northwest Ruritania are owned by either of the two governments.

567
00:55:05.480 --> 00:55:10.920
As a corollary, one government can certainly not bind, by the dead hand of the past, a

568
00:55:10.920 --> 00:55:13.360
later government through treaty.

569
00:55:13.360 --> 00:55:18.780
A revolutionary government which overthrew the King of Ruritania could similarly hardly

570
00:55:18.780 --> 00:55:33.780
should only be called to account for the king's actions or debts, for a government is not, as is a child, a true heir to its predecessor's property.

571
00:55:33.780 --> 00:55:38.780
History as a Race Between State Power and Social Power

572
00:55:38.780 --> 00:55:47.780
Just as the two basic and mutually exclusive interrelations between men are peaceful cooperation or coercive exploitation,

573
00:55:47.780 --> 00:55:52.500
Production or Predation So the history of mankind, particularly its

574
00:55:52.500 --> 00:55:58.740
economic history, may be considered as a contest between these two principles.

575
00:55:58.740 --> 00:56:04.720
On the one hand there is creative productivity, peaceful exchange and cooperation.

576
00:56:04.720 --> 00:56:10.580
On the other, coercive dictation and predation over those social relations.

577
00:56:10.580 --> 00:56:17.740
Albert J. Nock happily termed these contesting forces social power and state power.

578
00:56:17.740 --> 00:56:23.500
Social power is man's power over nature, his cooperative transformation of nature's resources

579
00:56:23.500 --> 00:56:30.400
and insight into nature's laws for the benefit of all participating individuals.

580
00:56:30.400 --> 00:56:35.100
Social power is the power over nature, the living standards achieved by men in mutual

581
00:56:35.100 --> 00:56:37.380
exchange.

582
00:56:37.380 --> 00:56:43.180
State power, as we have seen, is the coercive and parasitic seizure of this production,

583
00:56:43.180 --> 00:56:51.180
A Draining of the Fruits of Society for the Benefit of Non-Productive, Actually Anti-Productive, Rulers

584
00:56:51.180 --> 00:56:57.180
While social power is over nature, state power is power over man.

585
00:56:57.180 --> 00:57:06.180
Through history, man's productive and creative forces have, time and again, carved out new ways of transforming nature for man's benefit.

586
00:57:06.180 --> 00:57:11.180
These have been the times when social power has spurted ahead of state power,

587
00:57:11.180 --> 00:57:17.220
and the degree of state encroachment over society has considerably lessened.

588
00:57:17.220 --> 00:57:22.600
But always after a greater or smaller time lag, the state has moved into these areas

589
00:57:22.600 --> 00:57:27.580
to cripple and confiscate social power once more.

590
00:57:27.580 --> 00:57:32.240
Amidst the flux of expansion or contraction, the state always makes sure that it seizes

591
00:57:32.240 --> 00:57:37.500
and retains certain crucial command posts of the economy and society.

592
00:57:37.500 --> 00:57:42.900
Among these command posts are a monopoly of violence, monopoly of the ultimate judicial

593
00:57:42.900 --> 00:57:50.160
power, the channels of communication and transportation, such as post office, roads, air routes and

594
00:57:50.160 --> 00:57:55.800
irrigated water, in order to mold the opinions of its future citizens.

595
00:57:55.800 --> 00:58:01.980
In the modern economy, money is the critical command post.

596
00:58:01.980 --> 00:58:07.340
If the 17th through the 19th centuries were in many countries of the West, times of accelerating

597
00:58:07.340 --> 00:58:12.340
Social Power and a Corollary Increase in Freedom, Peace, and Material Welfare.

598
00:58:12.340 --> 00:58:19.100
The 20th century has been primarily an age in which state power has been catching up,

599
00:58:19.100 --> 00:58:24.900
with a consequent reversion to slavery, war, and destruction.

600
00:58:24.900 --> 00:58:30.460
This parasitic process of catching up has been almost openly proclaimed by Karl Marx,

601
00:58:30.460 --> 00:58:36.840
who conceded that socialism must be established through seizure of capital previously accumulated

602
00:58:36.840 --> 00:58:40.080
Under Capitalism.

603
00:58:40.080 --> 00:58:45.720
In this century the human race faces, once again, the virulent reign of the state, of

604
00:58:45.720 --> 00:58:50.960
the state now armed with the fruits of man's creative powers, confiscated and perverted

605
00:58:50.960 --> 00:58:53.480
to its own aims.

606
00:58:53.480 --> 00:58:58.520
The last few centuries were times when men tried to place constitutional and other limits

607
00:58:58.520 --> 00:59:06.080
on the state, only to find that such limits, as with all other attempts, have failed.

608
00:59:06.080 --> 00:59:10.320
Of all the numerous forms that governments have taken over the centuries, of all the

609
00:59:10.320 --> 00:59:15.680
concepts and institutions that have been tried, none has succeeded in keeping the state in

610
00:59:15.680 --> 00:59:17.440
check.

611
00:59:17.440 --> 00:59:23.360
The problem of the state is evidently as far from solution as ever.

612
00:59:23.360 --> 00:59:28.760
Perhaps new paths of inquiry must be explored if the successful final solution of the state

613
00:59:28.760 --> 00:59:41.280
Question, is ever to be attained.

614
00:59:41.280 --> 00:59:46.560
The Ludwig von Mises Institute hopes you have enjoyed this audiobook.

615
00:59:46.560 --> 00:59:52.520
For a world of free market literature, media and discussion, visit Mises.org.

616
00:59:58.760 --> 01:00:08.760
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