The political expression of altruism is collectivism or
statism, which holds
that man’s life and work belong to the state—to society, to the group, the
gang, the race, the nation—and that the state may dispose of him in any way it
pleases for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, collective
good.
A statist system—whether of a communist, fascist, Nazi, socialist or “welfare”
type—is based on the . . . government’s unlimited power, which means: on the
rule of brute force. The differences among statist systems are only a matter
of time and degree; the principle is the same. Under statism, the government
is not a policeman, but a legalized criminal that holds the power to use
physical force in any manner and for any purpose it pleases against legally
disarmed, defenseless victims.
Nothing can ever justify so monstrously evil a theory. Nothing can justify the
horror, the brutality, the plunder, the destruction, the starvation, the
slave-labor camps, the torture chambers, the wholesale slaughter of statist
dictatorships.
Government control of a country’s economy—any kind or degree of such control,
by any group, for any purpose whatsoever—rests on the basic principle of
statism, the principle that man’s life belongs to the state.
A statist is a man who believes that some men have the right to force, coerce,
enslave, rob, and murder others. To be put into practice, this belief has to
be implemented by the political doctrine that the government—the state—has
the right to
initiate the use of physical force against its citizens. How
often force is to be used, against whom, to what extent, for what purpose and
for whose benefit, are irrelevant questions. The basic principle and the
ultimate results of all statist doctrines are the same: dictatorship and
destruction. The rest is only a matter of time.
If the term “statism” designates concentration of power in the state at the
expense of individual liberty, then Nazism in politics was a form of statism.
In principle, it did not represent a new approach to government; it was a
continuation of the political absolutism—the absolute monarchies, the
oligarchies, the theocracies, the random tyrannies—which has characterized
most of human history. In degree, however, the total state does differ from its predecessors: it
represents statism pressed to its limits, in theory and in practice, devouring
the last remnants of the individual.
The ideological root of statism (or collectivism) is the
tribal premise of
primordial savages who, unable to conceive of individual rights, believed that
the tribe is a supreme, omnipotent ruler, that it owns the lives of its members
and may sacrifice them whenever it pleases to whatever it deems to be its own
“good.” Unable to conceive of any social principles, save the rule of brute
force, they believed that the tribe’s wishes are limited only by its physical
power and that other tribes are its natural prey, to be conquered, looted,
enslaved, or annihilated. The history of all primitive peoples is a succession
of tribal wars and intertribal slaughter. That this savage ideology now rules
nations armed with nuclear weapons, should give pause to anyone concerned with
mankind’s survival.
Statism is a system of institutionalized violence and perpetual civil war. It
leaves men no choice but to fight to seize political power—to rob or be
robbed, to kill or be killed. When brute force is the only criterion of social
conduct, and unresisting surrender to destruction is the only alternative, even
the lowest of men, even an animal—even a cornered rat—will fight. There can
be no peace within an enslaved nation.
Statism—in fact and in principle—is nothing more than gang rule. A
dictatorship is a gang devoted to looting the effort of the productive citizens
of its own country. When a statist ruler exhausts his own country’s economy,
he attacks his neighbors. It is his only means of postponing internal collapse
and prolonging his rule. A country that violates the rights of its own
citizens, will not respect the rights of its neighbors. Those who do not
recognize individual rights, will not recognize the rights of nations: a nation
is only a number of individuals.
Statism
needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a
free country survives by production.
Observe that the major wars of history were started by the more controlled
economies of the time against the freer ones. For instance, World War I was
started by monarchist Germany and Czarist Russia, who dragged in their freer
allies. World War II was started by the alliance of Nazi Germany with Soviet
Russia and their joint attack on Poland.
Observe that in World War II, both Germany and Russia seized and dismantled
entire factories in conquered countries, to ship them home—while the freest of
the mixed economies, the semi-capitalistic United States, sent billions worth
of lend-lease equipment, including entire factories, to its allies.
Germany and Russia needed war; the United States did not and gained nothing.
(In fact, the United States lost, economically, even though it won the war: it
was left with an enormous national debt, augmented by the grotesquely futile
policy of supporting former allies and enemies to this day.) Yet it is
capitalism that today’s peace-lovers oppose and statism that they advocate—in
the name of peace.
The human characteristic required by statism is
docility, which is the
product of hopelessness and intellectual stagnation. Thinking men cannot be
ruled; ambitious men do not stagnate.
he first choice—and the only one that matters—is: freedom or dictatorship,
capitalism or
statism.
That is the choice which today’s political leaders are determined to evade.
The “liberals” are trying to put statism over by stealth—statism of a
semi-socialist, semi-fascist kind—without letting the country realize what
road they are taking to what ultimate goal. And while such a policy is
reprehensible, there is something more reprehensible still: the policy of the
“conservatives,” who are trying to defend
freedom by stealth.
he statists’ epistemological method consists of endless debates about single,
concrete, out-of-context, range-of-the-moment issues, never allowing them to be
integrated into a sum, never referring to basic principles or ultimate
consequences—and thus inducing a state of intellectual disintegration in their
followers. The purpose of that verbal fog is to conceal the evasion of two
fundamentals: (a) that production and prosperity are the product of men’s
intelligence, and (b) that government power is the power of coercion by
physical force.
Once these two facts are acknowledged, the conclusion to be drawn is
inevitable: that intelligence does not work under coercion, that man’s mind
will not function at the point of a gun.
Acknowledgements:
Leonard Peikoff and Ayn Rand. For an excellent explanation statism
defined in a few brief quotes. Hopefully it will inspire many to
research the truth about the subtle designs of those who wish only to
dictate our lives and rob us of the fruits of our labors. Wish I could thank them
in person for stating these truths so much better than I.
