On the record
It does not recognize him at all as a human being, having any rights whatever of his own, but only as an instrument, a weapon, or a machine, to be used in killing other men.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “It does not recognize him at all as a human being, having any rights whatever of his own, but only as an instrument, a…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner claims that the government reduces individuals to mere instruments for violence.
Share
More from Lysander Spooner
And the right is practically established only when and because the government, no longer exists to call it in question.
They are every day committing errors, which would be crimes, but for their ignorance of the law.
If the authority be vested in the government, the governmnt is absolute, and the people have no liberties except such as the government sees fit to indulge them with.
Therefore all their laws, as they call them,--that is, all the laws of their own making,--have no color of authority or obligation.