In order for the state to function, the mass of the people has to believe in its legitimacy. To that end, the state employs a class of professional apologists and controls the means of propaganda, often through dominance of the education system. The task of the State apologist is “…to convince the public that what the State does is not… crime on a gigantic scale, but something necessary and vital that must be supported and obeyed.” In return for their services, the apologists are rewarded with power and status and allowed to share in the booty obtained from the masses.
– Gerard Casey, Ph.D., Libertarian Anarchy: Against the State (2012, Continuum International Publishing Group), p. 27.
Dr. Patrick Newman, a Fellow of the Mises Institute, is assistant professor of economics at Florida Southern College and a Fellow of its Center for Free Enterprise.
Book discussed: Cronyism: Liberty versus Power in Early America, 1607–1849
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