“The Law”
by money muscle and math
If you suggest a doubt as to the morality of these institutions, it is boldly said that “You are a dangerous innovator, a utopian, a theorist, a subversive; you would shatter the foundation upon which society rests.”
Some will point toward government and exclaim that we have clearly left the state of nature. We have not.
While I don’t agree with everything Bastiat had to say in “The Law”, reading it has influenced me in one significant way, and it is not the way he had intended. I no longer see people as moral beings. We have never left the state of nature, we have merely shaped nature. Instead of directly using violence to take from others, modern man votes to take from others those things he desires but cannot create for himself. The outcome is the same.
When you strip morals from your interpretation of other people’s behavior the world suddenly makes far more sense. Far too many people make the mistake of assuming the person they are talking to is telling the truth. When evaluating whether someone is telling the truth, evaluating their motives and possible outcomes will lead to an accurate assessment far more often than trying to judge the person’s character.
Sketch game trees to understand the world.
The Last Neanderthal 