The late, great essayist Joe Sobran once coined the sardonic idea of what I’ve come to call Sobran’s Law, which, if I may paraphrase it, states: “The U.S. Constitution poses no threat to our current system of government.” (The New York Times wrongly worries otherwise.) Sobran observed that “The U.S. Constitution serves the same function […]
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The late, great essayist Joe Sobran once coined the sardonic idea of what I’ve come to call Sobran’s Law, which, if I may paraphrase it, states: “The U.S. Constitution poses no threat to our current system of government.” (The New York Times wrongly worries otherwise.) Sobran observed that “The U.S. Constitution serves the same function as the British royal family: it offers a comforting symbol of tradition and continuity, thereby masking a radical change in the actual system of power.” Whenever someone posits that the U.S. Constitution is a “living document,” they invariably mean it’s a dead letter.
The same goes for America’s economic system. I propose an Eddlem corollary to Sobran’s Law: “The free market poses no threat to our current economic system.”
