The political expression of altruism is
collectivism or statism,
which holds that
a person’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 them in any way it pleases
for the sake of whatever it deems to be its own tribal, collective good.
The human characteristic required by statism is docility,
which is the product of hopelessness and intellectual stagnation.
Thinking people cannot be ruled;
ambitious people do not stagnate.
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.
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 an individual’s life belongs to the state.
A statist is a person who
believes that some people
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
for whose benefit,
against whom,
to what extent,
for what purpose
for whose benefit,
are irrelevant questions,
to the state
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.
The term “statism” designates concentration of power in the state
at the expense of individual liberty,
It does not represent a new approach to government;
it is a continuation of the political absolutism
which has characterized most of human history.
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,
except 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 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 surrender to destruction is the only alternative,
even the lowest of beings,
even an animal
even a cornered rat
will fight.
There can be no peace within an enslaved nation.
The degree of statism in a country’s political system,
is the degree to which
it breaks up the country into rival gangs
and sets people against one another.
When individual rights are abrogated,
there is no way to determine who is entitled to what;
there is no way to determine the justice of anyone’s claims, desires, or interests.
The criterion, therefore, reverts to the tribal concept of:
one’s wishes are limited
only by the power of one’s gang.
Statism, in fact and in principle,
is nothing more than gang rule.
A socialist state is a gang
devoted to controlling the effort
of the productive citizens of its own Nation.
The first choice,
the choice of every thinking individual
and the only one that matters is:
freedom or dictatorship,
capitalism or statism.
That is the choice which
today’s statist political leaders
are determined to evade
as they attempt to put statism over by stealth,
statism of a semi-socialist, semi-fascist kind,
the 'socialist welfare state',
without letting the Nation realize
what road they are taking
to what ultimate goal.
Thinking people cannot be ruled;
ambitious people do not stagnate.
Ayn Rand ... Capitalism The Unknown Ideal
