Frédéric Bastiat and the State-breakers
Brilliant.
Consistent.
Principled.
As a true liberal or libertarian of today’s stripes, Frédéric Bastiat warred against the state in 19th France wherein there were few allies for him to find.
He was to liberty what Jimmy Hendrix was to American rock-and-roll; a virtuoso who died way too young.
Still, he lives on though his masterpieces. The Law and “The Petition of the Candlemakers” are my favorites because they so starkly and at times, even humorously detail the malevolence and incompetence of government.
When he wasn’t employed at reigning in Goliath, he railed against socialism in the National Assembly in the morning to then contravene the army as it sought to kill socialists at night during the famous June Days, 1848.
A hero. And, one rightfully featured in the Tuttle Twins series.
P.S. One more huge, important and admirable quality: He was no Ben Shapiro slaying dim-witted cuck lefitist freshman in the California university system: No, Bastiat sought out the most gifted and erudite socialist of his time–Pierre-Joseph Proudhon–for debates.
Spoiler alert–Bastiat slew.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bastiat_Tomb.JPG
His epitaph in San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome reads:
Ici repose / Frédéric Bastiat / représentant du peuple à l’Assemblée nationale / correspondant de l’Institut de France / né à Bayonne en 1801 / mort à Rome le 24 décembre 1850 / L’Assemblée nationale regrette en lui un représentant / aussi éclairé que consciencieux / l’économie politique un interprète éminent / de ses plus pures doctrines et de l’harmonie de ses lois / et sa famille ne se console d’une séparation si douloureuse / que par le souvenir de sa mort chrétienne / in pace.
Here lies / Frédéric Bastiat / Representative of the People in the National Assembly / Correspondent of the French Institute / born in Bayonne in 1801 / died in Rome, December 24, 1850 / The National Assembly has not had a more / enlightened and conscientious representative / whose interpretation of political economy was so eminent / more so whose teachings were so in harmony with His laws / and his family only consoles itself from this so painful a separation / with the acknowledgement of his Christian death / Rest in peace.