Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Choose Today!

“It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. All the power it has is what society gives it, plus what it confiscates from time to time on one pretext or another; there is no other source from which State power can be drawn. Therefore, every assumption of State power, whether by gift or seizure, leaves society with so much less power; there is never, nor can be, any strengthening of State power without a corresponding and roughly equivalent depletion of social power.” Albert Jay Nock* wrote these words in his classic critique Our Enemy, The State.

Imagine two water glasses. One is labeled “Individual” and the other is labeled “State.” All of the water is in the Individual glass. As the water is poured from the Individual glass to the State glass, there is less water in the Individual glass. The water represents your power to control yourself and your activities.

Our society continues to turn our lives and our fortunes over to the State. As we let the Statists take more of our money and more of our power, we have less and less individual freedom.

We are the poorer for it. We are poorer in resources. We are poorer in spirit. Our possibilities are poorer.
You can transfer some of the power from the State to the Individual. As Voltaire wrote, “man is free the moment he chooses to be.” Choose today.

*Albert Jay Nock (1870 – 1945) is widely regarded as one of the finest writers and critics in American Letters. His books are available from “The Nockian Society,” 42 Leathers Road, Fort Mitchell, Kentucky 41017.

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