It Is Unfortunately None Too Well Understood

Perhaps The Prevalence Of Pedantry May Be Largely Accounted For By The Common Error Of Thinking That, Because Useful Knowledge Should Be Remembered, Any Kind Of Knowledge That Is At All Worth Learning Should Be Remembered Too.

We Have Two Distinct Types Of Political Organization To Take Into Account; And Clearly, Too, When Their Origins Are Considered, It Is Impossible To Make Out That The One Is A Mere Perversion Of The Other. Therefore When We Include Both Types Under A General Term Like Government, We Get Into Logical Difficulties; Difficulties Of Which Most Writers On The Subject Have Been More Or Less Vaguely Aware, But Which, Until Within The Last Half-century, None Of Them Has Tried To Resolve.

According To My Observations, Mankind Are Among The Most Easily Tamable And Domesticable Of All Creatures In The Animal World. They Are Readily Reducible To Submission, So Readily Conditionable (to Coin A Word) As To Exhibit An Almost Incredibly Enduring Patience Under Restraint And Oppression Of The Most Flagrant Character. So Far Are They From Displaying Any Overweening Love Of Freedom That They Show A Singular Contentment With A Condition Of Servitorship, Often Showing A Curious Canine Pride In It, And Again Often Simply Unaware That They Are Existing In That Condition.

The Practical Reason For Freedom Is That Freedom Seems To Be The Only Condition Under Which Any Kind Of Substantial Moral Fiber Can Be Developed - We Have Tried Law, Compulsion And Authoritarianism Of Various Kinds, And The Result Is Nothing To Be Proud Of.

The Competition Of Social Power With State Power Is Always Disadvantaged, Since The State Can Arrange The Terms Of Competition To Suit Itself, Even To The Point Of Outlawing Any Exercise Of Social Power Whatever In The Premises; In Other Words, Giving Itself A Monopoly.