{"id":1405,"date":"2011-07-12T19:04:12","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T00:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/?p=1405"},"modified":"2011-07-12T20:32:59","modified_gmt":"2011-07-13T01:32:59","slug":"the-so-called-social-contract-is-a-sham-to-control-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=1405","title":{"rendered":"The so-called &#8216;social contract&#8217; is a sham to control you"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Social-Contract.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1416\" title=\"Social Contract\" src=\"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Social-Contract.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"417\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Social-Contract.jpg 250w, https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Social-Contract-179x300.jpg 179w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>I never agreed to be ruled by a state, yet philosophers and political scientists confidently speak of &#8220;the social contract&#8221; as though it&#8217;s something we voluntarily enter into. It&#8217;s a coercive fraud.<\/p>\n<p>If a car dealer unilaterally parked a vehicle in your driveway and demanded that you started making payments for it &#8212; payments that he determined on a car that he chose for you &#8212; there&#8217;s little question that you would refuse.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By what right do you make this choice for me?&#8221; you would ask. &#8220;What gives you the right to set the price and the terms? And why do you think I&#8217;m obligated to an arrangement I never agreed to?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s exactly what states do, though. The idea of us all having a &#8220;social contract&#8221; with one another is supposed to make it legitimate and legal. It&#8217;s a justification that serves to keep you from demanding to be left alone.<\/p>\n<p>I said something a couple of days ago about this so-called contract and I was planning to write something about it this week. But I just came across an article by Robert Higgs at the Independent Institute&#8217;s website that does a great job of showing what a sham this so-called contract is, so I&#8217;m going to ask that you read that instead. Would <em>you<\/em> sign this thing voluntarily?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.independent.org\/2010\/06\/01\/consent-of-the-governed\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Consent of the Governed?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I never agreed to be ruled by a state, yet philosophers and political scientists confidently speak of &#8220;the social contract&#8221; as though it&#8217;s something we voluntarily enter into. It&#8217;s a coercive fraud. If a car dealer unilaterally parked a vehicle in your driveway and demanded that you started making payments for it &#8212; payments that <a href=\"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=1405\" class=\"more-link\">Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-mF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1415,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions\/1415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}