Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

ductive work."(14)
It is through a combination of all of these devices
that the state is able to make itself appear both
benef icial and legi t imate and thus to secure popular
support, ranging from enthusiasm to simple resignation.
A way in which the state is able to obtain acquiescence
by comb i n in g the use of such methods as appea I s to patriotism
and the threat of coercion is well illuStrated
b y the ant i - s tat i s t Randol ph B0 urn e • Men are t 0 I d, he
writes, that
they will enter the military establishment of
their own volition, as their splendid sacrifice
for their country's welfare, and that if
they do not enter they will be hunted down
and punished with the most horrid of penalties;
and under a most indescribable confus
i' 0 n 0 f d e m0 c rat i cpr ide and per sona I f ear
they submit to the destruction of their livelihood
if not their lives, in a way that
would formerly have seemed to them so obnoxious
as to be incredible.(15)
A final word should be mentioned concerning the
crucial role compulsory public education has in inducing
acceptance of the state ideology. The state gets
the child at a young and impressionable age. The child
is then taught to be patriotic, love his country, and
revere his ancestors. Anarchism is either equated with
chaos or disregarded altogether. Hence, the child is
indoctrinated into the habit of thinking in terms of
the state. He becomes a prisoner of his educational
environment, incapable of thinking in terms beyond the
statist paradigm. Particular government A or particular
government B may be bad, but government itself is
never questioned. It is through such educational indoctr
ination that the individual becomes so susceptible
to the statist ideology he encounters later in life.
3. THE GROWTH OF THE STATE
The fact that the state originated in violence and
exploitation does not, in itself, go very far in explaining
how and why the state grows, and grows not
just in size but in the power it exercises over its
subjects. An answer was hinted at earlier.
Oppenheimer's world view was that there were two exclus
i v e mea ns, the e conom i cand the pol i ticaI, for 0 b t a i n ­
i n g the same 0 b j e c t : rna t e ria 1 sat i s fa c t ion. Sin c e the
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