After taking into account that Bastiat's book "The Law" was written some 160+ years ago in response to events surrounding the French Revolution, not only does one reflect on how 'history repeats itself', but how it sometimes has an uncanny accuracy towards replication! For example, this critique reads like it was written yesterday...
A Just and Enduring Government
If a nation were founded on this basis, it seems to me that order would prevail among the people, in thought as well as in deed. It seems to me that such a nation would have the most simple, easy to accept, economical, limited, non-oppressive, just, and enduring government imaginable — whatever its political form might be.
Under such an administration, everyone would understand that he possessed all the privileges as well as all the responsibilities of his existence. No one would have any argument with government, provided that his person was respected, his labor was free, and the fruits of his labor were protected against all unjust attack. When successful, we would not have to thank the state for our success. And, conversely, when unsuccessful, we would no more think of blaming the state for our misfortune than would the farmers blame the state because of hail or frost. The state would be felt only by the invaluable blessings of safety provided by this concept of government.
It can be further stated that, thanks to the non-intervention of the state in private affairs, our wants and their satisfactions would develop themselves in a logical manner. We would not see poor families seeking literary instruction before they have bread. We would not see cities populated at the expense of rural districts, nor rural districts at the expense of cities. We would not see the great displacements of capital, labor, and population that are caused by legislative decisions.
The sources of our existence are made uncertain and precarious by these state-created displacements. And, furthermore, these acts burden the government with increased responsibilities.
The Complete Perversion of the Law
But, unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its proper functions. And when it has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense. ...
I reflect on Bastiat's words for this reason: Mere days after the reading of the Constitution in the House chamber, an unrelated tragedy occurs in AZ and the opportunistic disregard the text they've just read (Brady's graphics/language ban; Clyburn's fairness doctrine; McCarthy's gun ban), along with their Media cheering. The Left will use any 'crisis' they need to abandon gov't's proper role and pervert the law. And you can be sure that there are more than a few willingly duped RINOs ready to join in!
My hope is that more Americans can move past the non-stop media spin, and pay more attention to addressing the Left's opportunistic moves to inact restrictive new laws. This should absolutely be a focal point of contention towards the real problems that face our Nation, not straw man arguments and other distractive fallacies.
Source: The Law (Loi)
