Our Enemy, the State
Albert Jay Nock
[1935 / Part 1 of 7]
In Memoriam, Edmund
Cadwalader Evans
A sound economist, one of the few who understand
the nature of the state |
Be it or be it not true that Man is shapen in iniquity and
conceived in sin, it is unquestionably true that Government is
begotten of aggression, and by aggression. [Herbert Spencer, 1850]
This is the gravest danger that today threatens civilization:
State intervention, the absorption of all spontaneous social effort
by the State; that is to say, of spontaneous historical action,
which in the long-run sustains, nourishes and impels human
destinies. [Jose Ortega y Gasset, 1922]
It [the State] has taken on a vast mass of new duties and
responsibilities; it has spread out its powers until they penetrate
to every act of the citizen, however secret; it has begun to throw
around its operations the high dignity and impeccability of a State
religion; its agents become a separate and superior caste, with
authority to bind and loose, and their thumbs in every pot. But it
still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all
well-disposed, industrious and decent men. [Henry L. Mencken, 1926]
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
When OUR ENEMY THE STATE appeared in 1935, its literary merit
rather than its philosophic content attracted attention to it. The
times were not ripe for an acceptance of its predictions, still less
for the argument on which these predictions were based. Faith in
traditional frontier individualism had not yet been shaken by the
course of events. Against this faith the argument that the same
economic forces which in all times and in all nations drive toward
the ascendancy of political power at the expense of social power
were in operation here made little headway. That is, the feeling
that "it cannot happen here" was too difficult a hurdle
for the book to overcome.
By the time the first edition had run out, the development of
public affairs gave the argument of the book ample testimony. In
less than a decade it was evident to many Americans that their
country is not immune from the philosophy which had captured
European thinking. The times were proving Mr. Nock's thesis, and by
irresistable word-of-mouth advertising a demand for the book began
to manifest itself just when it was no longer available. And the
plates had been put to war purposes.
In 1943 he had a second edition in mind. I talked with him
several times about it, urging him to elaborate on the economic
ideas, since these, it seemed to me, were inadequately developed for
the reader with a limited knowledge of political economy. He agreed
that this ought to be done, but in a separate book, or in a second
part of his book, and suggested that I try my hand at it. Nothing
came of the matter because of the war. He died on August 19, 1945.
This volume is an exact duplication of the first edition. He
intended to make some slight changes, principally, as he told me, in
the substitution of current illustrations for those which might
carry less weight with the younger reader. As for the sequel
stressing economics, this will have to be done. At any rate, OUR
ENEMY THE STATE needs no support.
Frank Chodorov
New York City, 28 May, 1946
Part
2