Tag: behavior

From Proudhon:

Être GOUVERNÉ, c’est être gardé à vue, inspecté, espionné, dirigé, légiféré, réglementé, parqué, endoctriné, prêché, contrôlé, estimé, apprécié, censuré, commandé, par des êtres qui n’ont ni le titre, ni la science, ni la vertu… Être GOUVERNÉ, c’est être, à chaque opération, à chaque transaction, à chaque mouvement, noté, enregistré, recensé, tarifé, timbré, toisé, coté, cotisé, patenté, licencié, autorisé, apostillé, admonesté, empêché, réformé, redressé, corrigé. C’est, sous prétexte d’utilité publique, et au nom de l’intérêt général, être mis à contribution, exercé, rançonné, exploité, monopolisé, concussionné, pressuré, mystifié, volé ; puis, à la moindre résistance, au premier mot de plainte, réprimé, amendé, vilipendé, vexé, traqué, houspillé, assommé, désarmé, garrotté, emprisonné, fusillé, mitraillé, jugé, condamné, déporté, sacrifié, vendu, trahi et, pour comble, joué, berné, outragé, déshonoré. Voilà le gouvernement, voilà sa justice, voilà sa morale !

Proudhon’s eloquence is one of those that convince a monk to buy a rifle. The meticulousness in stating the obvious can only admit laughter as a response. What to say? How to refute it? Proudhon, who was no ordinary man, had eyes to see the tyrannical exploitation that became social normality, had eyes to see the vexatious state of submission in which the ordinary citizen was allowed to live. And then? Persists the myth, now set in stone, that it is imperative that everyone agrees to be sheep and that a few be wolves. This is the only way “society” can function. One millimeter outside of this is chaos and disorder: everyone loses and, therefore, the best thing is to silently accept the need for some to command and others to obey.

Although censorship is an unspeakable cruelty, and although it is very effective in the short and medium term, for some reason it does not seem strong enough to last. So it should be noted that there are limits even to the fullest censorship. Censorship cannot, for example, hide itself completely: there will always be at least one pair of eyes capable of identifying it. And that pair of eyes, even if gagged and punished, will have something with it that censorship cannot corrupt. In this, censorship is also treacherous to the censor, who, however astute and methodical he may be, can never hide his crime, which will be fatally exposed over time, since its effects are too evident. Thus we have that the censor, however delightful the momentary benefits may be to him, will have to face the fact that they are momentary, and eternal the reputation of a scoundrel that he has irrevocably attached to his name.

It is curious, to say the least, that laws are widely respected, when they are made by the same figures that, every four years, we see smiling on billboards, in electoral advertisements, and that, sporadically, we see in the police news handcuffed and arrested for leading scandals. In other words: the laws, conceived in the midst of the same mud responsible for sending some unfortunate ones to jail, are and must be respected as if they were a moral imperative. Undoubtedly, there is something comical in all this, and the obscenity with which the flock is enslaved and remains passive is laughable, when this pornography called law should more sensibly inspire a perennial state of revolt and insubordination.