This is his famous declaration:
“Another famous quote was his “dialogue with a Philistine” in What is Property?:
“Why, how can you ask such a question? You are a republican.”
“A republican! Yes; but that word specifies nothing. Res publica; that is, the public thing. Now, whoever is interested in public affairs – no matter under what form of government – may call himself a republican. Even kings are republicans.”
“Well! You are a democrat?”
“No.”
“What! “you would have a monarchy?”
“No.”
” A Constitutionalist?”
“God forbid.”
“Then you are an aristocrat?”
“Not at all!”
“You want a mixed form of government?”
“Even less.”
“Then what are you?”
“I am an anarchist.”
“Oh! I understand you; you speak satirically. This is a hit at the government.”
“By no means. I have just given you my serious and well-considered profession of faith. Although a firm friend of order, I am (in the full force of the term) an anarchist. Listen to me.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Joseph_Proudhon
This is the first time that anyone declared themselves a serious political anarchist.
The irony is that the same guy who said the above is also a traditionalist moralist Christian patriarch.
Here are quotes that will make any anarcha-feminist cry scoundrel:
“Between man and woman may exist love, passion, the bond of habit, whatever you like; there is not true society. Man and woman are not companions. The difference of sex gives rise between them to a separation of the same nature as that which the difference of race places between animals. Thus, far from applauding what is now called the emancipation of woman, I should be much more inclined, were it necessary to go to this extremity, to put woman in seclusion.”
“This signifies that woman, by nature and by destination, is neither associate, nor citizen, nor public functionary.”
Read more at: http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/book-sum/hericour.html
Shawn Wilbur says some of Proudhon is still untranslated here: http://libertarian-labyrinth.blogspot.com/2006/11/jenny-dhericourt-contra-proudhon.html
I am studying French in college right now. I’ve not been the best student, because of my depression, but I am pulling myself together in pursuit of beauty again. It’ll be cool to read Proudhon in the original French.
]]>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution#History
One relevant passage is this:
In the 19th century, legalized prostitution became a public controversy as France and then the United Kingdom passed the Contagious Diseases Acts, legislation mandating pelvic examinations for suspected prostitutes. This legislation applied not only to the United Kingdom and France, but also to their overseas colonies… A similar situation did in fact exist in the Russian Empire; prostitutes operating out of government-sanctioned brothels were given yellow internal passports signifying their status and were subjected to weekly physical exams.
]]>There tend to be fewer prostitutes than clients – regardless of the habits of individual johns or janes – so it’s easier to test all the prostitutes than all their clients.
However, it may be more effective to test clients. e.g. prostitutes could charge more for clients who have older STD test records, or refuse service entirely.
You can probably imagine more detailed systems including watermarked test records, prostitutes stamping records before sex (so other prostitutes know if their client has had professional encounters since his/her last test). Then unscrupulous clients might pay extra for prostitutes to leave the stamps unchecked, and another part might do the same to see which prostitutes take the extra money and …
Of course, this doesn’t address the risks of noncommercial sex.
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