The illusion of modern politics is that logic bends to intention.  The statist believes that because his motives are “for the greater good,” the rules of reasoning can be suspended.  He thinks his cause sanctifies contradiction.  Logic doesn’t yield to compassion or power.  There is only one logic, and it applies to all men equally.

The politician who calls for “social justice” while denying property rights contradicts himself.  He wants cause without effect, wealth without creation, equality without freedom.  He claims to fight for fairness yet demands coercion to achieve it.  Logic doesn’t allow this.  To destroy freedom in the name of justice is to admit that justice is no longer the goal.

This isn’t new.  Every collectivist system has relied on the same illusion—that truth can be rewritten to fit desire.  When reason conflicts with their aims, they call reason oppressive.  When facts expose their errors, they invent “another logic.” The same device is used by those who divide men into groups and claim each operates by a different logic.  Whether through class, culture, or ideology, they deny the universality of reason itself.  Once logic is fragmented, anything can be justified within its own “context.”

Once logic becomes relative, power fills the vacuum.  Reason no longer decides truth—authority does.  Those who disagree are no longer opponents but heretics.  The modern censor doesn’t need arguments, he only needs outrage.  The accusation replaces the explanation.  The label ends the debate.  When logic fails them, they fall back on feeling, and when feeling fails, they fall back on force.

There aren’t multiple logics—there’s one.  There are only those who obey it and those who flee from it.  Statism survives only by replacing logic with emotion, persuasion with decree.  Once that shift occurs, everything is justified.  Theft becomes taxation, violence becomes order, and lies become progress.  What can’t be defended by reason must be imposed by law.

The truth doesn’t bend for ideology.  It stands outside politics.  If men shared logic, not slogans, they’d see that the same principles that protect property protect liberty itself.  The only equality that matters is equality before logic.  Everything else—be it class, race, or ideology—is just hierarchy disguised as virtue.

Reference

Ludwig von Mises; Human Action