Just like “democracy,” the phrase rule of law is a carefully engineered euphemism. To the masses, it is sold as order, fairness, and justice; a seemingly iron clad promise that no man, however rich or powerful, stands above the law of the land. It is the story that keeps society docile, believing that the system itself is the guardian of equality. It soothes, it reassures, it pacifies. This belief grants the illusion that the social order is guided by impartial principles rather than raw power.
To the powers that be, on the other hand, rule of law means something else entirely. It means they are the law. The statutes are written in their language, the courts bend to their interests, and enforcement always seems to land hardest on the weak, never the strong. For them, law is not a neutral force but a weapon, sharpened to protect privilege and punish dissent. Regulations, statutes, and procedures become tools of containment, cloaked in legitimacy but serving domination. Justice, in their hands, is selective, conditional, and transactional. What the people call “law” the powerful simply wield as an extension of themselves.
Frédéric Bastiat, in The Law, foresaw this inevitable corruption: once law is twisted from protecting life, liberty, and property, it mutates into the engine of legalized plunder. The law itself becomes the instrument of injustice.
Do not mistake this for a call to lawlessness. Natural order does not require the state’s manufactured chaos disguised as order. True law emerges from human cooperation that is organic, spontaneous, rooted in mutual respect for life and property; but the state murdered that possibility. It claimed monopoly over justice itself, then prohibited all competition. Now you’re trapped in a single, corrupted framework with no exit.
When every transaction requires the state’s permission, when compliance is embedded in every license, every permit, every “service” you’re forced to fund, you don’t have law. You have a protection racket with a flag. They call it “choice”: choose your bank (monitored), your school (accredited), your business (regulated), your property (taxed until it’s theirs), but try opting out. Try rejecting their “services.” Try living by natural rights alone; the right to your body, your labour, your honestly acquired property. Watch how quickly their illusion of law becomes naked force. The mask slips. The gun appears. This is not law. This is dominion wearing law’s clothing.
So the next time you hear the talking heads on the telly or politicos frothing at the mouth as they chant that “no one is above the law,” laugh your lungs out. Take that slogan for what it is; a joke, a smokescreen. What it really means is that you are not allowed to defy, dissent, or disobey their decrees, no matter what the letter of the law says. Should you dare to push the envelope, careful there; for it is you, not they, who may end up behind bars. Or worse…
Take a good look around you. How many crimes are committed by the powerful and connected every single day, only to be memory holed into the abyss of silence? Did any of the bankers who were responsible for the 2008 financial crisis face prison? No. They got bailouts and multi-million dollar bonuses. Are the architects of the Covid-19 plandemic behind bars? No. They walk free with medals, book deals, and presidential pardons. The former were “too big to fail,” and the latter “too important to jail.” Meanwhile, ordinary citizens were crushed under foreclosures, lockdowns, and mandates, all under the banner of “law.”
Turns out lady justice isn’t blind after all.
As Cicero warned, “the more corrupt the state, the more the laws.” Today, the laws multiply like weeds, not to protect you, but to bind you. We live not under the rule of law. We live under the rule of rulers, who manipulate law to sanctify their control. Law as shield, law as sword. Law as promise, law as cage. To believe otherwise is to mistake chains for safety and obedience for justice. The only question left is whether we will continue bowing to illusions, or whether we will dare to rip off the mask, reject the euphemisms, and reclaim the one truth the state cannot counterfeit, liberty.