The Right to Ignore the State E-Book

Herbert Spencer

• Herausgeber: The New Freedom Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 21

Beschreibung

Herbert Spencer was an incredible prophet and a magnificent defender of laissez-faire. Among his numerous works is The Man Versus The State, first published in 1884.That book launched one of the most spirited attacks on statism ever written. Heridiculed the idea that government intervention of any kind "will work as it is intendedto work, which it never does." He drew on his tremendous knowledge of history,citing one dramatic case after another of price controls, usury laws, slum clearancelaws, and myriad other laws which, touted as compassionate policies, intensifiedhuman misery. Below is one of his essays that explores the principles of self-government, which Henry David Thoreau defended in his seminal essay, CivilDisobedience

Leseprobe

Freedom Pamphlet.

THE RIGHT TO IGNORE THE STATE.

BY

HERBERT SPENCER.

(Reprinted from "Social Statics," 1850 Edition.)

The New Freedom Press

ISBN: 9783964540010

[It is only fair to the memory of Mr. Herbert Spencer that we should warn the reader of the following chapter from the original edition of Mr. Spencer's "Social Statics," written in 1850, that it was omitted by the author from the revised edition, published in 1892. We may legitimately infer that this omission indicates a change of view. But to repudiate is not to answer, and Mr. Spencer never answered his arguments for the right to ignore the State. It is the belief of the Anarchists that these arguments are unanswerable.]

The Right to Ignore the State.

1.

As a corollary to the proposition that all institutions must be subordinated to the law of equal freedom, we cannot choose but admit the right of the citizen to adopt a condition of voluntary outlawry. If every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man, then he is free to drop connection with the State,—to relinquish its protection and to refuse paying towards its support. It is self-evident that in so behaving he in no way trenches upon the liberty of others; for his position is a passive one, and, whilst passive, he cannot become an aggressor. It is equally self-evident that he cannot be compelled to continue one of a political corporation without a breach of the moral law, seeing that citizenship involves payment of taxes; and the taking away of a man's property against his will is an infringement of his rights. Government being simply an agent employed in common by a number of individuals to secure to them certain advantages, the very nature of the connection implies that it is for each to say whether he will employ such an agent or not. If any one of them determines to ignore this mutual-safety confederation, nothing can be said, except that he loses all claim to its good offices, and exposes himself to the danger of maltreatment,—a thing he is quite at liberty to do if he likes. He cannot be coerced into political combination without a breach of the law of equal freedom; he can withdraw from it without committing any such breach; and he has therefore a right so to withdraw.

2.