Contributed by: filbert Saturday, January 23 2010 @ 07:50 AM CST
. . . much more consistency is shown by the more numerous reformers who, ever since the beginning of the socialist movement, have attached the “metaphysical” idea of individual rights and insisted that in a rationally ordered world there will be no individual rights but only individual duties. This, indeed, had become the much more common attitude of our so-called “progressives,” and few things are more certain to expose one to the reproach of being a reactionary than if one protests against a measure on the grounds that it is a violation of the rights of the individual.
Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.