Not always right ...

... Mortal Remains: The wisdom and folly in Albert Jay Nock’s anti-statism. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Nock understood that man is lazy, which is not quite the same as slothful. He called this “Epstean’s Law” after a friend who’d said to him over lunch: “I tell you, if self-preservation is the first law of human conduct, exploitation is the second.” Or as Nock rephrased it: “Man tends always to satisfy his needs and desires with the least possible exertion.” And for Nock, the state is the foremost instrument of Epstean’s Law, allowing powerful men to feed off the creativity, productivity, and labor of others under the veneer of legalisms. Every state, according to Nock, was born in conquest and exploitation. In other words, the state “claims and exercises the monopoly of crime.” This is why Nock had such contempt for businessmen claiming the language of free enterprise even as they petitioned and cajoled the state into rigging the system in their favor: “The simple truth is that our businessmen do not want a government that will let business alone. They want a government they can use.”

In 1968, during my Goliard days, I gave a lecture on Nock at Rockford College. I have been a fan since my early 20s and have, right behind, a shelf with most of his books on it. This is a fair and balanced appraisal. Nock's quietism is indeed as dubious as it is tempting.