are told that he practically agrees, if only the number of others who agree
is greater than the number of those who dissent. And thus we are introduced
to the novel principle that A's consent to a thing is not determined by
what A says, but by what B may happen to say!
It is for those who quote Blackstone to choose between this absurdity and
the doctrine above set forth. Either his maxim implies the right to ignore
the State, or it is sheer nonsense.
s. 6. There is a strange heterogeneity in our political faiths. Systems
that have had their day, and are beginning here and there to let the
daylight through, are patched with modern notions utterly unlike in quality
and colour; and men gravely display these systems, wear them, and walk
about in them, quite unconscious of their grotesqueness. This transition
state of ours, partaking as it does equally of the past and the future,
breeds hybrid theories exhibiting the oddest union of bygone despotism and
coming freedom. Here are types of the old organisation curiously disguised
by germs of the new--peculiarities showing adaptation to a preceding state
modified by rudiments that prophesy of something to come--making altogether
so chaotic a mixture of relationships that there is no saying to what class
these births of the age should be referred.
As ideas must of necessity bear the stamp of the time, it is useless to
lament the contentment with which these incongruous beliefs are held.
Otherwise it would seem unfortunate that men do not pursue to the end the
trains of reasoning which have led to these partial modifications. In the
present case, for example, consistency would force them to admit that, on
other points besides the one just noticed, they hold opinions and use
arguments in which the right to ignore the State is involved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account