social system。
For then; it adds a new article to the primitive pact; for which
article there is not the same unanimous and assured assent that
existed for the pact。 We are all willing to be secured against
violence and fraud; outside of this; and on almost any other point;
there are divergent wills。 I have my own religion; my own opinions;
my habits; my customs; my peculiar views of life and way of regarding
the universe; now; this is just what constitutes my personality; what
honor and conscience forbid me to alienate; and which the State has
promised me to protect。 Consequently; when; through its additional
article; it attempts to regulate these in a certain way; if that way
is not my way; it fails to fulfill its primordial engagement and;
instead of protecting me; it oppresses me。 Even if it should have the
support of a majority; even if all voters; less one; should agree to
entrusting it with this supererogatory function; were there only one
dissenter; he would be wronged; and in two ways。 …
First of all; and in any event; the State; to fulfill its new tasks;
exacts from him an extra amount of subsidy and service; for; every
supplementary work brings along with it supplementary expenses; the
budget is overburdened when the State takes upon itself the procuring
of work for laborers or employment for artists; the maintenance of any
particular industrial or commercial enterprise; the giving of alms;
and the furnishing of education。 To an expenditure of money add an
expenditure of lives; should it enter upon a war of generosity or of
propaganda。 Now; to all these expenditures that it does not approve
of; the minority contributes as well as the majority which does
approve of them; so much the worse for the conscript and the tax…payer
if they belong to the dissatisfied group。 Like it or not; the
collector puts his hand in the tax…payer's pocket; and the sergeant
lays his hand on the conscript's collar。 …
In the second place; and in many circumstances; not only does the
State unjustly take more than its due; but it uses the money it has
extorted from me to apply unjustly new constraints against me。 Such
is the case;
* when it imposes on me its theology or philosophy;
* when it prescribes for me; or interdicts; a cult;
* when it assumes to regulate my ways and habits;
* when it assumes to limit my labor or expenditure;
* when it assumes to direct the education of my children;
* when it assumes to fix the prices of my wares or the rate of my
wages。
For then; to enforce its commands and prohibitions; it enacts light or
serious penalties against the recalcitrant; all the way from political
or civil incapacity to fines; imprisonment; exile and the guillotine。
In other words; the money I do not owe it; and of which it robs me;
pays for the persecution which it inflicts upon me; I am reduced to
paying out of my own purse the wages of my inquisitors; my jailer and
my executioner。 A more glaring oppression could not be imagined! …
Let us watch out for the encroachments of the State and not allow it
to become anything more than a watch…dog。 Whilst the teeth and nails
of other guests in the household have been losing their sharpness; its
fangs have become formidable; it is now colossal and it alone still
keeps up the practice of fighting。 Let us supply it with nourishment
against wolves; but never let it touch peaceable folks around the
table。 Appetite grows by eating; it would soon become a wolf itself;
and the most ravenous wolf inside the fold。 The important thing is to
keep a chain around its neck and confine it within its own enclosure。
IV。
The state is tempted to encroach。 … Precedents and reasons for its
pretensions。
Let us go around the fold; which is an extensive one; and; through its
extensions; reach into almost every nook of private life。 … Each
private domain; indeed; physical or moral; offers temptations for its
neighbors to trespass on it; and; to keep this intact; demands the
superior intervention of a third party。 To acquire; to possess; to
sell; to give; to bequeath; to contract between husband and wife;
father; mother or child; between master or domestic; employer or
employee; each act and each situation; involves rights limited by
contiguous and adverse rights; and it is the State which sets up the
boundary between them。 Not that it creates this boundary; but; that
this may be recognized; it draws the line and therefore enacts civil
laws which it applies through its courts and gendarmes in such a way
as to secure to each individual what belongs to him。 The State
stands; accordingly; as regulator and controller; not alone of private
possessions; but also of the family and of domestic life; its
authority is thus legitimately introduced into that reserved circle in
which the individual will has entrenched itself; and; as is the habit
of all great powers; once the circle is invaded; its tendency is to
occupy it fully and entirely。 … To this end; it invokes a new
principle。 Constituted as a moral personality; the same as a church;
university; or charitable or scientific body; is not the State bound;
like every corporate body that is to last for ages; to extend its
vision far and near and prefer to private interests; which are only
life…interests; the common interest (l'intérêt commun) which is
eternal? Is not this the superior end to which all others should be
subordinated; and must this interest; which is supreme over all; be
sacrificed to two troublesome instincts which are often unreasonable
and sometimes dangerous; to conscience; which overflows in mystic
madness; and to honor; which may lead to strife even to murderous
duels? … Certainly not; and first of all when; in its grandest works;
the State; as legislator; regulates marriages; inheritances; and
testaments; then it is not respect for the will of individuals which
solely guides it; it does not content itself with obliging everybody
to pay his debts; including even those which are tacit; involuntary
and innate; it takes into account the public interest; it calculates
remote probabilities; future contingencies; all results singly and
collectively。 Manifestly; in allowing or forbidding divorce; in
extending or restricting what a man may dispose of by testament; in
favoring or interdicting substitutions; it is chiefly in view of some
political; economical or social advantage; either to refine or
consolidate the union of the sexes; to implant in the family habits of
discipline or sentiments of affection; to excite in children an
initiatory spirit; or one of concord; to prepare for the nation a
staff of natural chieftains; or an army of small proprietors; and
always authorized by the universal assent。 Moreover; and always with
this universal assent; it does other things outside the task
originally assigned to it; and nobody finds that it usurps when;
* it coins money;
* it regulates weights and measures;
* it establishes quarantines;
* on condition of an indemnity; it expropriates private property for
public utility;
* it builds lighthouses; harbors; dikes; canals; roads;
* it defrays the cost of scientific expeditions;
* it founds museums and public libraries;
* at times; toleration is shown for its support of universities;
schools; churches; and theaters;
and; to justify fresh drafts on private purses for such objects; no
reason is assigned for it but the common interest。 (l'intérêt commun)
… Why should it not; in like manner; take upon itself every enterprise
for the benefit of all? Why should it hesitate in commanding the
execution of every work advantageous to the community; and why abstain
from forbidding every harmful work? Now please note that in human
society every act or omission; even the most concealed or private; is
either a loss or a gain to society。 So if I neglect to take care of
my property or of my health; of my intellect or of my soul; I
undermine or weaken in my person a member of the community which can
only be rich; healthy and strong through the wealth; health and
strength of his fellow members; so that; from this point of view; my
private actions are all public benefits or public injuries。 Why then;
from this point of view; should the State scruple about prescribing
some of these to me and forbidding others? Why; in order to better
exercise this right; and better fulfill this obligation; should it not
constitute itself the universal contractor for labor; and the
universal distributor of productions? Why should it not become the
sole agriculturist; manufacturer and merchant; the unique proprietor
and administrator of all France? … Precisely because this would be
opposed to the common weal (l'intérêt de tous; the interest of
everyone)'15'。 Here the second principle; that advanced against
individual independence; operates inversely; and; instead of being an
adversary; it becomes a champion。 Far from setting the State free; it
puts another chain around its neck; and thus strengthens the fence
within which modern conscience and modern honor have confined the
public guardian。
V。
Direct common interest。 … This consists in the absence of constraint。
… Two reasons in favor of freedom of action。 … Character; in general;
of the individual man。 … Modern complication。
In what; indeed; does the common weal (l'intérêt de tous; the interest
of everyone) consist? … In the interest of each person; while that
which interests each person is the things of which the possession is
agreeable and deprivation painful。 The whole world would in vain
gainsay this point; every sensation is personal。 My suffering and my
enjoyments are not to be contested any more than my inclination for
objects which procure me the one; and my dislike of objects which
procure me the other。 There is; therefore; no arbitrary definition of
each one's particular inte
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