"To be GOVERNED is to be kept in sight, inspected, spied upon, directed,
law-driven, numbered, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled,
estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither
the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so. . . To be GOVERNED
is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered,
enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed,
authorized, admonished, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is,
under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general
interest, to be placed under contribution, trained, ransomed, exploited,
monopolized, extorted, squeezed, mystified, robbed; then, at the
slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed,
fined, despised, harassed, tracked, abused, clubbed, disarmed, choked,
imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold,
betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, outraged, dishonored.
That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality."
--Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
(1809-1865) French mutualist political philosopher
Source: The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century, 1851
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