The Genius of Federalist 10
Next to a Monte Cristo No. 2 and the album In Rainbows, by Radiohead, there few pleasures in life more satisfying than a leisurely perusal of The Federalist Papers. Universally held as America's great contribution to political thought (along with the great oratory of Abraham Lincoln), these essays were written in support of the proposed 1787 Constitution, and constitute the greatest commentary on republican government ever written. Their pertinence in American constitutional law cannot be overstated, and their value as political dogma for our republican government is still beyond measure.
There are those who deny this. These people are, in short, stupid. You can't cure stupid...but you can point at it, acknowledge its stupidness to the world and write eloquent refutations of said stupidity.
Hey ho, let's go....Remedial American Government In Basic...my commentary in italics
Federalist 10 by Publius (Jas. Madison)
Published November 22, 1787
AMONG the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice. He will not fail, therefore, to set a due value on any plan which, without violating the principles to which he is attached, provides a proper cure for it. The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished; as they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations.
[What this means-Faction is, according to Publius, the MOST serious danger to popular government. Indeed, it is the cause prime cause for the failure of more popular governments than you can shake a stick at. What is faction? Patience, grasshopper.]
The valuable improvements made by the American constitutions on the popular models, both ancient and modern, cannot certainly be too much admired; but it would be an unwarrantable partiality, to contend that they have as effectually obviated the danger on this side, as was wished and expected. Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.
[What this means-Even safeguards throughout history have proved ineffectual at protecting the citizenry from an overzealous majority.]
However anxiously we may wish that these complaints had no foundation, the evidence, of known facts will not permit us to deny that they are in some degree true.
[We can stick out heads in the sands, but the problem WILL persist.]
It will be found, indeed, on a candid review of our situation, that some of the distresses under which we labor have been erroneously charged on the operation of our governments; but it will be found, at the same time, that other causes will not alone account for many of our heaviest misfortunes; and, particularly, for that prevailing and increasing distrust of public engagements, and alarm for private rights, which are echoed from one end of the continent to the other. These must be chiefly, if not wholly, effects of the unsteadiness and injustice with which a factious spirit has tainted our public administrations.
[What This Means-We are, it would seem, mistaken on certain “assertions” concerning the operation of government found to be exaggerations, while others are understated.]
Whatever do you mean by “FACTION,” Mr. Publius?
By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.
[What This Means- A group of people of any size whose interests are opposed to rights of others, or the interests of everybody else.]
This next part is important: PAY ATTENTION!!!
There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other, by controlling its effects.
[Two, count ‘em-one, two ways to cure faction...1) remove it’s causes 2) control its effects
There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence;
[What this means-This is the method chosen by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky when they pondered the political nature of the Soviet government.]
the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.
[What this means-Make everybody want and like the same thing. Things that Marx ya go, “huh?”]
It could never be more truly said than of the first remedy, that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency.
[What this means-Bad idea #1...without liberty, man is less than a man]
The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.
[What this means-Bad Idea #2-As long as man is fallible and selfish, his wants will differ from the wants of others.]
The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties.
[What this means-The differences in men, or their protection, is the FIRST object of government. These innate human differences create different divisions and parties]
LISTEN UP, SOCIALISTS/MARXISTS/DEMOCRATS
The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.
[What this means-DIFFERENT ECONOMIC CLASSES CANNOT BE OVERCOME, NO MATTER HOW MUCH OF BILL GATES’S BILLIONS YOU DISTRIBUTE, LIKE SOME DEMENTED ROBIN HOOD, TO THE MASSES. THAT DOG JUST WON’T HUNT.]
Please note the publication date of this essay was in November, 1787. The publication of Marx’s Economic Manuscripts of 1844 was in, well, 1844. Marx tried to establish something that Publius said couldn’t be done 57 years after the fact.
A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good.
[What this means-For just about any imaginable reason, people will find reason to disagree with other people.]
So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts.
[What this means-And they’re willing to fight, too.]
But the most common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society. Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination. A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a moneyed interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views. The regulation of these various and interfering interests forms the principal task of modern legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of the government.
[What this means-Property, the mother of all flies-in-the-ointment, makes people go bat-shit crazy.]
No comments:
Post a Comment