Now, we need to know if the self-interest, permanent and well-understood, of a man, of a class or of a nation is radically in opposition to the interest of another man, another class or another nation.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 328 to 343 (in French)
Undated

In this essay, Frédéric Bastiat starts by quoting Louis Blanc who assessed that society had evolved from the principle of Authority (embodied in the person of the Pope) towards the principle of Individualism (introduced by Luther) to the principle of Fraternity (represented by Robespierre). We can find here the same train of thought that Karl Marx will develop in seeing communism as the correction of past imperfections and the ultimate outcome for humanity.

Eventually, this text attempts to understand the differences between the liberals whose philosophy sets the individual as a starting point and the constructivists who, recognising the imperfection of individuals, attempt to make them evolve according to a model idealised by the said constructivists while ignoring that they are themselves imperfect individuals. What is revealed by today’s quote is the fundamental difference between the liberals and the constructivists. The former believe that there exists an harmony between men despite the force of individualism while the latter are convinced that personal interests are systematically conflicting and must therefore be contained. The issue is that, for to the latter, the individual (apart from themselves) need fade in the background, which is catastrophic, as has been demonstrated by all the collectivist experiments of the 20th century.