We are all willing to be secured against
violence and fraud; outside of this, and on almost any other point,
there are divergent wills. I have my own religion, my own opinions,
my habits, my customs, my peculiar views of life and way of regarding
the universe; now, this is just what constitutes my personality, what
honor and conscience forbid me to alienate, and which the State has
promised me to protect. Consequently, when, through its additional
article, it attempts to regulate these in a certain way, if that way
is not my way, it fails to fulfill its primordial engagement and,
instead of protecting me, it oppresses me. Even if it should have the
support of a majority, even if all voters, less one, should agree to
entrusting it with this supererogatory function, were there only one
dissenter, he would be wronged, and in two ways. -
First of all, and in any event, the State, to fulfill its new tasks,
exacts from him an extra amount of subsidy and service; for, every
supplementary work brings along with it supplementary expenses; the
budget is overburdened when the State takes upon itself the procuring
of work for laborers or employment for artists, the maintenance of any
particular industrial or commercial enterprise, the giving of alms,
and the furnishing of education.
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