Intro by Walter Williams
Foreword by Sheldon Richman (Nov 1995)
In 4th printing of 2nd edition (2004, 2nd pr 2000, 3rd pr 2001), Richard Ebeling provides the Intro and Sheldon Richman the Afterword.
- Life is a Gift from God (life, liberty,, property God-given, precede all legislation)
- What is Law? (the collective organizatiion of individual right to lawful defense)
- A Just and Enduring Govt
- The Complete Perversion of the Law (lawwful plunder, caused by greed, false charity)
- A Fatal Tendency of Mankind (living at others' expense i.e. plunder)
- Property and Plunder
- Victims of Lawful Plunder (all rush to control govt, to stop or share plunder)
- The Results of Legal Plunder (law/morallity conflict, people must choose, weakens both)
- The Fate of Non-Conformists (seen as suubversives, importance of politics exaggerated)
- Who Shall Judge? (Rousseau's mistaken [[classical] push for universal sufferage)
- The Reason Why Voting is Restricted (beecause their votes affect us all)
- The Answer is to Restrict the Law (thenn most wouldn't care who gets to vote)
- The Fatal Idea of Legal Plunder (again,, causes all to seek political power, spoils)
- Perverted Law Causes Conflict (US puresst, except for slavery, tariffs)
- Slavery and Tariffs Are Plunder
- Two Kinds of Plunder (illegal [uncontrooversial] v. legal [i.e. socialism])
- The Law Defends Plunder
- How to Identify Legal Plunder (propertyy violated)
- Legal Plunder Has Many Names (tariffs, protectionism, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs/profits, minimum wages, welfare rights, free credit ... p18)
- Socialism Is Legal Plunder
- The Choice Before Us (few P many [previious status quo], all P all [democrat/leftist solution], none P anyone [correct])
- The Proper Function of the Law (organizzed justice i.e. preventing plunder)
- The Seductive Lure of Socialism (beyondd justice [free] to philanthropy [not free])
- Enforced Fraternity Destroys Liberty (tthe attempt to go beyond L to F destroys L)
- Plunder Violates Ownership (not attackiing peoples' intentions, but the idea itself)
- 3 Systems of Plunder (protectionism, soocialism, communism; 3 growth stages same plant)
- Law Is Force (this is why law shouldn'tt organize labor, education, religion ...)
- Law Is a Negative Concept (its for prevventing injustice, NOT effecting justice; latter makes people docile, passive, inactive, lose personality, liberty, property)
- The Political Approach (politicians natturally want to alleviate suffering, thereby attempting to remedy the evil [inequality] by increasing/perpetuating the very thing that caused the evil in the first place; legal plunder)
- The Law and Charity (forced charity is plunder)
- The Law and Education (forced E is plunnder)
- The Law and Morals (forced M [e.g. fratternity, unity, organization, association] is plunder; because we ask so little from the law - only justice - the socialists thereby assume that we reject f, u, o, a ... brand us individualist ... but we only reject FORCED f, u, o, a ... not the natural unity of mankind under Providence)
- A Confusion of Terms (fail to distinguiish society, govt; civil v. political society)
- The Influence of Socialist Writers (seee themselves as potter, masses as clay)
- The Socialists Want to Play God (the frruit of classical education p32)
- The Socialists Despise Mankind (see theem as a problem to be solved, conventional classical thought says that behind passive society there's a concealed power called law or legislator which moves, controls, benefits, improves mankind p33)
- A Defense of Compulsory Labor (bad ideaa, defended by socialists like Bossuet)
- A Defense of Paternal Govt (")
- The Idea of Passive Mankind (Fenelon, nnurtured by classical studies, admiration of antiquity)
- Socialists Ignore Reason and Facts (praaise top-down control, power)
- Socialists Want to Regiment People (molld people, disallow pleasures, force discipline)
- A Famous Name [Montesquieu] and an Evill Idea [forcible redistributionism]
- A Frightful Idea (people as clay for ellite potters)
- The Leader of the Democrats (Rousseau, bought into potter/clay idea, only added potter is 'the will of the people' i.e. of the elites in practice)
- Socialists Want Forced Conformity (seekk to 'transform human nature' by force)
- Legislators Desire to Mold Mankind (musst not permit old customs, 'purify' purge)
- Legislators Told How to Manage Men (theey talk like people are objects, like crops)
- A Temporary Dictatorship (need to shockk people into obedience, classical idea)
- Socialists Want Equality of Wealth (millitaristic, authoritarian Sparta is their ideal)
- The Error of Socialist Writers (study oof antiquity is study of tyranny, force, fraud)
- What Is Liberty? (self-determination, tthwarted by fatal conceit, esp. in France)
- Philanthropic Tyranny ('for their own ggood' or 'for the common good')
- The Socialists Want Dictatorship (passiive citizens, domineering govt, super-leader, Robespierre: establish virtue via terror !?)
- Dictatorial Arrogance (esp. of Robespieerre)
- The Indirect Approach to Despotism (usee of law and govt to do their dirty work of despotism; see Mably, Raynal, Rousseau, Fenelon, Bossuet, Montesquieu, the proceedings of the [revolutionary] Convention, Louis Blanc)
- Napoleon Wanted Passive Mankind (he saww governing as forcing good things to happen !?)
- The Vicious Circle of Socialism (stealiing from some to give others wht they 'deserve')
- The Doctrine of the Democrats (inert maasses, omnipotent law, infallible legislators, the voters are never wrong, but once they elect ldrs, they're dirt ?!)
- The Socialist Concept of Liberty (ind. liberty => competition => evil)
- Socialists Fear All Liberties (to them,, 'liberty' = them in control)
- The Superman Idea (planners think they know best, not corrupt like others)
- The Socialists Reject Free Choice (let them plan away, but not coerce)
- The Cause of French Revolutions (peoplee looking to govt for solutions)
- The Enormous Power of Govt (people expeect much, govt delivers little => revolution, i.e. rev. comes from people expecting too much from govt, inevitable failure)
- Politics and Economics (need a science of economics, then of politics, law = justice)
- Proper Legislative Functions (life, libberty, property precede law)
- Law and Charity Are Not the Same (law iis justice - simple, clear, precise, bounded, objective, every eye can see it, every mind grasp it, for justice is measurable, immutable, unchangeable. If law exceeds this, into religious, fraternal, equalizing, philanthropic, industrial, literary, artistic ... areas, it enters uncharted territory, vague, uncertain, subjective => struggle of all v. all, since these other areas do NOT have precise limits)
- The High Road to Communism (equalizing => battlefield for fantasies/greed of all)
- The Basis for Stable Govt (limiting itss scope to suppressing injustice, then people wouldn't even think of blaming govt for inevitable human sufferings, not w/in its scope)
- Justice Means Equal Rights (critics claaim it will lead to atheism, individualism, heartlessness, but this assumes that govt/law IS mankind, that there is no civil soc.)
- The Path to Dignity and Progress (indivvidual liberty, seems obvious)
- Proof of an Idea (look around; most freee are also most moral, peaceful, happy)
- The Desire to Rule over Others (too manny do-gooders, just leave people alone!)
- Let Us Now Try Liberty (away w/all the systems, liberty ack's faith in God & His works)
In Pat Buchanan's State of Emergency (see br-wtrww), He blames this [immigration] crisis on "Political Correctness (PC), political cowardice [GOP], political opportunism [Dems], a sense of [white] guilt, and twin ideologies [nazism, liberalism]" (69). Dem vote-hunting favors maximal immigration, assuming most newcomers will vote Dem. Also, he has a section on "The Economism Cult" (term coined by scholar John Attarian in his 2001 book Economism and the National Prospect). This is "a neo-marxist ideology rooted in the belief that economics rules [or should rule] the world ... most important human activity ... most conducive to human happiness ... what politics is or should be about (74) ... overrules claims of citizenship, culture, country [patriotism] ... multinational companies ... church of GDP ... empty materialism ... morally corrupting ... economism's roots may be traced to an Enlightenment that 'made atheism, denial of the soul and free will, and impiety intellectually respectable' [quoting Attarian] and to 19C liberals David Ricardo, James and John Stuart Mill, Richard Cobden and Frederic Bastiat ... these men of books [i.e. not realists, he implies] looked to an ideal world where all European empires had vanished, unimpeded trade and travel, no borders, nations dissolve ... [Kant's] 'perpetual peace'" (77). A skeptical Palmerston countered that they were utopians, man is a fighting animal and democracies are far more quarrelsome than monarchies [Buchanan agrees]. He's basically calling Bastiat and the others unrealistic utopians! I agree that we'll probably never reach their visionary goals but I still value the ideal to think about and shoot for.
In the late 20C, the GOP rejected 'economic patriots' Lincoln, TR, Coolidge, Robert Taft (who saw free trade as utopian, unAmerican) and embraced the free trade ideology [i.e. economism]. But the Hidden Motive (section heading) was the West's guilty conscience. In Europe, for centuries of imperial rule (and warfare), in America, for injustices against natives, blacks. Our ancestors were proud of Western culture, civilization of "English Speaking Peoples" i.e. Kipling, Andrew Jackson, Lincoln, TR, but now its seen as racist, white supremicist. George Orwell first saw self-loathing in the British Left (1930s-40s?). By the 1960s the virus had crossed over to America. Liberals pretend race, creed, culture don't matter (i.e. no discrimination allowed), but few truly believe this ... creed, culture, ethnicity DO matter immensely ... not everything, but not nothing either ... some cultures have flourished, others faded, some great, some not ... but this multi-culti myth (pretense) has resulted in torn down empires (e.g. British), torn apart nations (USA), and has led to disaster in Iraq as Kurds, Shia, Sunni clash over ethnicity, culture, history, creed (90). What Changed America? (heading): Revulsion against the Nazis (see Brimlow: Hitler's posthumous revenge on America). Immigration Act of 1965 opened the flood gates. Then came decolonization of Asia, Africa, French Rev-like enthusiasm ('to be alive glorious, to be young very heaven'), escape from 'old world of wicked empires' (89). Later came the Civil Rights Movement, James Burnham's The Suicide of the West (i.e. via liberalism). In 1751 Ben Franklin worried that German immigration to PA would overwhelm English culture there, and (temporary) restrictions were enacted during 7-yrs war. Restrictions were again put up after the massive Irish immigration wave of 1845-9 (potato famine), and later after the 1890-1920 wave from S/E Europe. So temporary 'breathers' are well established in precedent. Each gave America time to absorb, acculturate the new wave. Then in 1965 the flood gates were opened and have remained open ever since.
