Adam Smith, in his “Theory of Moral Sentiments”, exposed the arrogance of the “Man of the System”: the politician who believes he can manipulate citizens like chess pieces, ignoring that each human being has a “principle of movement of his own”. In Portugal, this delusion became the rule. The result is not the existence of any effective protection network, but rather a deliberate assault on autonomy, capable of transforming a resilient nation into an infantilized and vulnerable mass.
Fragility explodes into tragedy when catastrophe knocks on the door. In these moments, what saves lives is Smith’s “own movement”: it is the case of the neighbor who, in the absence of the State, clears the road for others to pass. However, we live under the yoke of an anesthetized public opinion that, instigated by system commentators, grumbles with contempt at any private initiative. Spontaneous aid is labeled “dangerous amateurism.”
As Thomas Sowell accurately described, “it is difficult to imagine a stupider or more dangerous way of making decisions than putting them in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” When the State fails — and it always fails, from the beginning of each school year to the management of every fire season — the bureaucrat is promoted while the citizen counts the absences and their deaths.
This collectivist infantilization is a murderous disaster. By confiscating families’ liquidity through true fiscal looting, the Government (usually called the State) disarms the individual. Without capital to invest in safety equipment, robust insurance or training, citizens are pushed into despair. When you try to repair the roof or clear the road without adequate means — because you trusted the authorities’ word or because you ran out of funds in the name of protection that never comes — you end up the victim of falls and fatal accidents. From this perspective, fiscal suffocation is not just economic theft; It is an attack on survival.
Sowell reminds us that “freedom is the right of ordinary people to make their own decisions.” By replacing individual prudence with ministerial supervision, the so-called State creates an “implanted population”, dependent and incapable. To insist on this course is to accept servitude as a destiny — and a destiny of fatal unhappiness. True resilience resides in the autonomy of capitalized and free citizens, not in the inefficient charity of a Leviathan who, when the storm rages, invariably reveals his feet of clay and his parasitic nature.
Leave a Reply