Hard Nocks

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
--The Who

Albert Nock was a social commentator of the early 20th century who abhorred collectivism and distrusted government. I recently completed his 1935 essay Our Enemy, The State. The book is available online and can be read in a few hours. Be sure to absorb the end notes as you go--they add considerable context.

Nock makes a number of salient points that I want to note here for purposes of future reference.
-->There is a difference between government and the State. Government focuses solely on securing an individual's natural rights (life, capacity, property) and goes no further. The State presumes that individuals have no rights except those granted by the State, and holds itself above justice whenever it is advantageous to do so. The State's scope far exceeds the scope of government.

-->When the State takes over social welfare programs, it creates an aura of monopoly. As such, individuals become less disposed to help the poor on their own. After all, the State has it covered, right? (this is the first reference to this idea that I have found--one that's been on my mind for a while)

-->Individuals give up their liberty when they identify with the State. i.e., If the State is doing wrong, then I'm doing wrong. Because I don't want to do wrong, then the State can't be wrong.

-->There are two methods for satisfying needs and desires: 1) production and exchange of wealth (economic means) 2) uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others (political means). The political means tends to be preferred because it requires less exertion.

-->Every essential element long afterward found in the American State can be traced to the chartered corporations and mother countries that bankrolled early American settlements. In other words, our political system is more consistent with, than different from, the systems we purportedly 'ran away from' when founding this country.

-->Historical review suggests that the US is grounded in the 'merchant state' rather than in government grounded in natural rights and popular sovereignty.

-->Building on the work of Beard (1913), through an economic lens the Constitution can be viewed as a triumph of the minority speculators/merchants/creditors over the majority farmers/artisans/debtors.

-->Free markets cannot co-exist with the State. (nice claim which when you think about it seem painfully obvious)

References

Beard, C.A. 1913. An economic interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. New York: The Free Press.

Nock, A.J. 1935. Our enemy, the State. New York: William Morrow & Company.