The Superman Idea

by Frédéric Bastiat

　　The claims of these organizers of humanity raise another questionwhich I have often asked them and which, so far as I know, they havenever answered: If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad thatit is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that thetendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislatorsand their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do theybelieve that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest ofmankind? The organizers maintain that society, when left undirected,rushes headlong to its inevitable destruction because the instincts ofthe people are so perverse. The legislators claim to stop thissuicidal course and to give it a saner direction. Apparently, then,the legislators and the organizers have received from Heaven anintelligence and virtue that place them beyond and above mankind; ifso, let them show their titles to this superiority.

　　They would be the shepherds over us, their sheep. Certainly suchan arrangement presupposes that they are naturally superior to therest of us. And certainly we are fully justified in demanding fromthe legislators and organizers proof of this natural superiority.