A seemingly respectable politician is often referred to as a “statesmen” and held in high regard by both their peers and the public at large. Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, and Lincoln were Statesmen with a capital S. In my view, statesmen are some of the worst type of statists. Why? Because they engender respectability and trust in a thoroughly and fundamentally rotten form of governance. The state was founded and is maintained on the basis of violent conquest. Respectable men and women don’t support, aid, and abet the state, rather, they seek to bring about its abolition. Would we praise “slavemen” who sought to bring order and civility to the slave trade? Or would we recognize them for the well-kempt reprobates that they truly are? Slavery was a crime. The state is a crime. Statesmen do not deserve to be held in high regard. They deserve our scorn. And that’s today’s two cents.
On Statesmen
