For men to exist, it is absolutely necessary for this action on nature, which we call work, to be carried out.

Frédéric Bastiat
Part 2 of 8
Pamphlets

The monopoly on education having passed from Church before the French revolution to the government through the establishment of the University, it was easy to blame the former for the Gospel and the latter for their Philosophy when searching on what went wrong with the education of French elites. What Frédéric Bastiat tells us here is that the essential issue of socialism, which consists in thinking that a central government is better suited than a decentralised decisional process (the emergent order, dear to Friedrich Hayek), does not come from the gospel, neither from philosophy.

The common ground to these two education systems seen prior to the revolution and after the revolution and the monopoly that stuck them into error are the Latin studies. All the texts that are studied come from Ancient History and Frédéric Bastiat exposes them for the way they praise barbarism, namely war, slavery and the contempt for work.

Other quotes from Baccalaureate and Socialism:
Part 1 of 8 – Part 3 of 8 – Part 4 of 8 – Part 5 of 8 – Part 6 of 8 – Part 7 of 8 – Part 8 of 8