Poucas pessoas no Brasil conhecem esse jurista e economista francês.
Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) é largamente ignorado até
mesmo em seu país natal, é reconhecido como autor de prestígio
em outros países, em especial nos Estados Unidos. Deveria ser surpreendente
que um intelectual desse calibre seja ignorado na França, mas podemos
dizer que é esse o caso?
Felizmente, existe uma grande quantidade de suas obras disponíveis na
Internet em Inglês aqui
e em Inglês e Francês em bastiat.org.
Fica aqui um trecho para dar o gosto do escritor.
"My attitude toward all other persons is well illustrated by this
story from a celebrated traveler: He arrived one day in the midst of a tribe
of savages, where a child had just been born. A crowd of soothsayers, magicians,
and quacks—armed with rings, hooks, and cords—surrounded it. One
said: "This child will never smell the perfume of a peace-pipe unless I
stretch his nostrils." Another said: "He will never be able to hear
unless I draw his ear-lobes down to his shoulders." A third said: "He
will never see the sunshine unless I slant his eyes." Another said: "He
will never stand upright unless I bend his legs." A fifth said: "He
will never learn to think unless I flatten his skull."
"Stop," cried the traveler. "What God does is well done. Do not
claim to know more than He. God has given organs to this frail creature; let
them develop and grow strong by exercise, use, experience, and liberty."
God has given to men all that is necessary for them to accomplish their
destinies. He has provided a social form as well as a human form. And these
social organs of persons are so constituted that they will develop themselves
harmoniously in the clean air of liberty. Away, then, with quacks and organizers!
A way with their rings, chains, hooks, and pincers! Away with their artificial
systems! Away with the whims of governmental administrators, their socialized
projects, their centralization, their tariffs, their government schools, their
state religions, their free credit, their bank monopolies, their regulations,
their restrictions, their equalization by taxation, and their pious moralizations!
And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many
systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May
they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of
faith in God and His works." (Bastiat, Frédéric
- The Law, Translated by Dean Russell, Second Edition)
