John Locke was the father of capitalism, and stressed the justice of individual capital accumulation. The quote here is an argument continued, in defense of the common man having an influence on government (and thus the laws it imposes). We must all remember that Locke was debating the radical notion at the time that monarchy was unjust and unrepresentative. His claim to self-rule, captured in his "Any single man must judge for himself" quote was insistence that we judge the wisdom of our leaders, not the pilots flying our planes (wha...?). John Locke wrote a political thesis that argued for the dignity of the individual in relation to those he 'allowed' to rule over him.