Socialists Want to Regiment People

by Frédéric Bastiat

　　Fenelon's idyll on Crete is even more alluring. Mentor is made tosay:

　　 "All that you see in this wonderful island results from thelaws of Minos. The education which he ordained for the children makestheir bodies strong and robust. From the very beginning, one accustomsthe children to a life of frugality and labor, because one assumesthat all pleasures of the senses weaken both body and mind. Thus oneallows them no pleasure except that of becoming invincible by virtue,and of acquiring glory.... Here one punishes three vices that gounpunished among other people: ingratitude, hypocrisy, and greed.There is no need to punish persons for pomp and dissipation, for theyare unknown in Crete.... No costly furniture, no magnificentclothing, no delicious feasts, no gilded palaces are permitted."

　　Thus does Mentor prepare his student to mold and to manipulate --doubtless with the best of intentions -- the people of Ithaca. And toconvince the student of the wisdom of these ideas, Mentor recites tohim the example of Salentum.

　　It is from this sort of philosophy that we receive our firstpolitical ideas! We are taught to treat persons much as an instructorin agriculture teaches farmers to prepare and tend the soil.