The Fate of Non-Conformists

by Frédéric Bastiat

　　If you suggest a doubt as to the morality of these institutions,it is boldly said that "You are a dangerous innovator, a utopian, atheorist, a subversive; you would shatter the foundation upon whichsociety rests."

　　If you lecture upon morality or upon political science, there willbe found official organizations petitioning the government in thisvein of thought: "That science no longer be taught exclusively fromthe point of view of free trade (of liberty, of property, and ofjustice) as has been the case until now, but also, in the future,science is to be especially taught from the viewpoint of the facts andlaws that regulate French industry (facts and laws which are contraryto liberty, to property, and to justice). That, in government-endowedteaching positions, the professor rigorously refrain from endangeringin the slightest degree the respect due to the laws now in force."*

　　 *General Council of Manufacturers, Agriculture, andCommerce, May 6, 1850.

　　Thus, if there exists a law which sanctions slavery or monopoly,oppression or robbery, in any form whatever, it must not even bementioned. For how can it be mentioned without damaging the respectwhich it inspires? Still further, morality and political economy mustbe taught from the point of view of this law; from the suppositionthat it must be a just law merely because it is a law.

　　Another effect of this tragic perversion of the law is that itgives an exaggerated importance to political passions and conflicts,and to politics in general.

　　I could prove this assertion in a thousand ways. But, by way ofillustration, I shall limit myself to a subject that has latelyoccupied the minds of everyone: universal suffrage.