{"id":847,"date":"2025-06-20T13:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T19:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?p=847"},"modified":"2025-06-22T14:15:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T20:15:45","slug":"fig-leaves-in-service-of-tyranny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?p=847","title":{"rendered":"Fig Leaves in Service of Tyranny"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Rousseau&#8217;s <em>Social Contract<\/em>, part 3<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<iframe id=\"odysee-iframe\" style=\"width:100%; aspect-ratio:16 \/ 9;\" src=\"https:\/\/odysee.com\/%24\/embed\/%40MarginalNonHermit%3A3%2Frousseau-pt-3%3A3?r=8gvoByECHNgc2BfQ5o91oxf89bpi1Ui4\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This week, we are finishing up Book 1 of Rousseau&#8217;s Social Contract. Three more chapters, and unfortunately Rousseau repeats and confirms the unlimited power of the State in his framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Full show notes <a href=\"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/part-3.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">He does get at one important issue: the ethereal nature of natural rights. Even the most self-consistent framework of moral rules is vulnerable to a person who simply refuses to give it any weight. However, Rousseau&#8217;s solution seems to be to subsume the individual into a permanent totalitarian nightmare. Personally, I think I&#8217;d rather risk running into someone who denies morality every once in a while than live permanently under the thumb of some mystical &#8220;general will.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">In these three chapters, we find a couple more major contradictions (how can a State be bad if it is the source of all moral judgment?), some rather distressing subterfuge (Rousseau putting off arguments until after he can propagandize more), and constant assumptions that the best possible version of his system will be the one that ends up being implemented, while totally ignoring the bad incentives and dangerous lack of limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This video is available on <a href=\"https:\/\/odysee.com\/@MarginalNonHermit:3\/rousseau-pt-3:3\">Odysee<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/EIiURfeuLBE\">YouTube<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitchute.com\/video\/A8154HbbsJHk\/\">BitChute<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Return to the table of contents for this critique <a href=\"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?page_id=769\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">References:<br>Murray N. Rothbard, &#8220;The Ethics of Liberty&#8221;<br><a href=\"https:\/\/mises.org\/library\/book\/ethics-liberty\">https:\/\/mises.org\/library\/book\/ethics-liberty<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Rothbard, &#8220;Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature&#8221;<br><a href=\"https:\/\/mises.org\/mises-daily\/egalitarianism-revolt-against-nature-0\">https:\/\/mises.org\/mises-daily\/egalitarianism-revolt-against-nature-0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Locke&#8217;s Second Treatise, Chapters 1 &amp; 2 (my coverage); the State of Nature<br><a href=\"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?p=663\">https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?p=663<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Locke Chapters 3 &amp; 4; The State of War and Slavery<br><a href=\"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?p=666\">https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?p=666<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Locke Ch. 11: Of the Extent of the Legislative Power<br><a href=\"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?p=678\">https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?p=678<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">My Critique of Kropotkin&#8217;s &#8220;The Conquest of Bread&#8221;<br><a href=\"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?page_id=767\">https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/?page_id=767<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Intro quote by Thorsten Polleit:<br><a href=\"https:\/\/mises.org\/online-book\/global-currency-plot\/15-illusion-democracy-iron-law-oligarchy\">https:\/\/mises.org\/online-book\/global-currency-plot\/15-illusion-democracy-iron-law-oligarchy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Intro music by MFCC, courtesy Pixabay:<br><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/mfcc-28627740\/\">https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/mfcc-28627740\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rousseau&#8217;s Social Contract, part 3 This week, we are finishing up Book 1 of Rousseau&#8217;s Social Contract. Three more chapters, and unfortunately Rousseau repeats and confirms the unlimited power of the State in his framework. Full show notes here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,4,2],"tags":[246,86,269,60,19,85,236,72,270,199,202],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-political","category-video-link","tag-critique","tag-freedom","tag-jean-jacques-rousseau","tag-libertarian","tag-liberty","tag-philosophy","tag-political-philosophy","tag-politics","tag-social-contract","tag-study-guide","tag-voluntaryism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marginalnonhermit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/thumb-2.png?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marginalnonhermit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}