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Anarchy - Errico Malatesta · Classic Philosophy Book Collection

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Speaker 1: Anarchy. Anarchy is a word which comes from the Greek
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Speaker 1: and signifies, strictly speaking, without government, the state of a
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Speaker 1: people without any constituted authority, that is, without government. Before
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Speaker 1: such an organization had begun to be considered possible and
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Speaker 1: desirable by a whole class of thinkers, so as to
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Speaker 1: be taken as the aim of a party, which party
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Speaker 1: has now become one of the most important factors in
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Speaker 1: modern social warfare. The word anarchy was taken universally in
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Speaker 1: the sense of disorder and confusion, and it is still
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Speaker 1: adopted in that sense by the ignorant and by adversaries
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Speaker 1: interested in distorting the truth. We shall not enter into
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Speaker 1: philological discussions, for the question is not philological, but historical.
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Speaker 1: The common meaning of the word does not misconceive its
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Speaker 1: true etymological signification, but is derived from this meaning, owing
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Speaker 1: to the prejudice that government must be a necessity of
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Speaker 1: the organization of social life, and that consequently, a society
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Speaker 1: without government must be given up to disorder and oscillate
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Speaker 1: between the unbridled dominion of some and the blind vengeance
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Speaker 1: of others. The existence of this prejudice and its influence
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Speaker 1: on the meaning which the public has given the word
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Speaker 1: is easily explained. Man, like all living beings, adapts and
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Speaker 1: habituates himself to the conditions in which he lives, and
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Speaker 1: transmits by inheritance his acquired habits. Thus, being born and
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Speaker 1: having lived in bondage, being the descendant of a long
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Speaker 1: line of slaves, man, when he began to think, believed
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Speaker 1: that slavery was an essential condition of life, and liberty
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Speaker 1: seemed to him an impossible thing. In like manner, the
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Speaker 1: workman forced for centuries, and this habituated to depend upon
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Speaker 1: the good will of his employer for work, that is,
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Speaker 1: for bread, and accustomed to see his own life at
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Speaker 1: the disposal of those who possessed the land and the capital,
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Speaker 1: has ended in believing that it is his master who
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Speaker 1: gives him to eat, and demands ingeniously how it would
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Speaker 1: be possible to live if there were no master over him.
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Speaker 1: In the same way, a man who had had his
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Speaker 1: limbs bound from his birth, but had nevertheless found out
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Speaker 1: how to hobble about, might attribute to the very hands
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Speaker 1: that bound him his ability to move, while on the contrary,
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Speaker 1: they would be diminishing and paralyzing the muscular energy of
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Speaker 1: his limbs. If then we add to the natural effect
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Speaker 1: of habit, the education given him by his masters, the parson, teacher,
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Speaker 1: et cetera, who are all interested in teaching that the
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Speaker 1: employer and the government are necessary. If also we add
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Speaker 1: the judge and the bailiff to force those who think
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Speaker 1: differently and might try to propagate their opinions, to keep silence,
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Speaker 1: we shall understand how the prejudice as to the utility
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Speaker 1: and necessity of masters and governments has become established. Suppose
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Speaker 1: a doctor brings forward a complete theory with a thousand
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Speaker 1: ably invented illustrations, to persuade that man with the bound
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Speaker 1: limb whom we were describing, that if his limb were freed,
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Speaker 1: he could not walk, could not even live. The man
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Speaker 1: would defend his bands furiously and consider any one his
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Speaker 1: enemy who tried to tear them off. Thus, since it
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Speaker 1: is believed that government is necessary, and that without government
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Speaker 1: there must be disorder and confusion, it is natural and
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Speaker 1: logical to suppose that anarchy, which signifies without government, must
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Speaker 1: also mean absence of order. Nor is this fact without
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Speaker 1: parallel in the history of words, in those epochs and
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Speaker 1: countries where people have considered government by one man monarchy necessary,
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Speaker 1: the word republic, that is, the government of many, has
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Speaker 1: been used precisely like anarchy, to imply disorder and confusion.
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Speaker 1: Traces of this signification of the word are still to
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Speaker 1: be found in the popular language of almost all countries.
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Speaker 1: When this opinion is changed and the public convinced that
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Speaker 1: government is not necessary but extremely harmful, the word anarchy,
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Speaker 1: precisely because it signifies without government, will become equal to
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Speaker 1: saying natural order, harmony of the needs and interests of all,
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Speaker 1: complete liberty, with complete solidarity. Therefore, those are wrong who
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Speaker 1: say that anarchists have chosen their name badly, because it
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Speaker 1: is erroneously understood by the masses and leads to a
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Speaker 1: false interpretation. The error does not come from the word,
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Speaker 1: but from the thing. The difficulty which anarchists meet with
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Speaker 1: in spreading their views does not depend upon a name
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Speaker 1: they have given themselves, but upon the fact that their
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Speaker 1: conceptions strike at all the inveterate prejudices that people have
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Speaker 1: about the function of government, or the state, as is called.
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Speaker 1: Before proceeding further, it will be well to explain this
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Speaker 1: last word, the state, which in our opinion, is the
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Speaker 1: real cause of much misunderstanding anarchists and we among them
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Speaker 1: have made use, and still generally make use of the
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Speaker 1: word state, meaning thereby that collection of institutions political, legislative, judicial, military, financial,
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Speaker 1: et cetera, by means of which the management of their
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Speaker 1: own affairs, the guidance of their personal conduct, and the
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Speaker 1: care of ensuring their own safety are taken from the
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Speaker 1: people and confided to certain individuals. And these, whether by
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Speaker 1: usurpation or delegation, are invested with the right to make
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Speaker 1: laws over and for all, and to constrain the public
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Speaker 1: to respect them, making use of the collective force of
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Speaker 1: the community to this end. In this case, the word
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Speaker 1: state means government, or, if you like it, is the
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Speaker 1: impersonal expression abstracted from the state of things of which
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Speaker 1: the government is the personification. Then such expressions as abolition
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Speaker 1: of the state or society without the state, agree perfectly
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Speaker 1: with the conception which anarchists wish to express, of the
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Speaker 1: destruction of every political institution based on authority, and of
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Speaker 1: the constitution of a free and equal society based upon
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Speaker 1: harmony of interests and a voluntary contribution of all to
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Speaker 1: the satisfaction of social needs. However, the word state has
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Speaker 1: many other significations, and among these some which lend themselves
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Speaker 1: to misconstruction, particularly when used among men whose sad social
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Speaker 1: position has not afforded them leisure to become accustomed to
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Speaker 1: the delicate distinctions of scientific language, or still worse, when
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Speaker 1: adopted treacherously by adversaries who are interested in confounding the
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Speaker 1: sense or do not wish to comprehend. Thus, the word
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Speaker 1: state is often used to indicate any given society or
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Speaker 1: collection of human beings united on a given territory and
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Speaker 1: constituting what is called a social unit, independently of the
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Speaker 1: way in which the members of the sad body are
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Speaker 1: grouped or of their relations existing between them. State is
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Speaker 1: used also simply as a synonym for society. Owing to
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Speaker 1: these significations, the word our adversaries believe, or rather profess
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Speaker 1: to believe, that anarchists wish to abolish every social relation
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Speaker 1: and all collective work, and to reduce man to a
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Speaker 1: condition of isolation, that is, to a state worse than savagery.
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Speaker 1: By state again, is meant only the supreme administration of
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Speaker 1: a country, the central power, distinct from provincial or communal power,
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Speaker 1: and therefore others think that anarchists wish merely for a
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Speaker 1: territorial decentralization, leaving the principle of government intact, and thus
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Speaker 1: confounding anarchy with cantonal or communal government. Finally, state signifies condition,
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Speaker 1: mode of living, the order of social life, et cetera.
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Speaker 1: And therefore we say, for example, that it is necessary
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Speaker 1: to change the economic state of the working classes, or
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Speaker 1: that the anarchical state is the only state founded on
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Speaker 1: the principles of solidarity, and other similar phrases, so that
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Speaker 1: if we say, also in another sense, that we wish
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Speaker 1: to abolish the state, we may at once appear absurd
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Speaker 1: or contradictory. For these reasons, we believe it would be
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Speaker 1: better to use the expression abolition of the state as
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Speaker 1: little as possible, and the substitute for it another clearer
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Speaker 1: and more concrete abolition of government. In any case, the
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Speaker 1: latter will be the expression used in the course of
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Speaker 1: this little work. End of Section one. We have said
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Speaker 1: that anarchy is society without government. But if the suppression
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Speaker 1: of government possible, desirable or wise, let us see what
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Speaker 1: is the government. There is a disease of the human
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Speaker 1: mind called the metaphysical tendency, causing man, after he has
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Speaker 1: by a logical process abstracted the quality from an object
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Speaker 1: to be subject to a kind of hallucination which makes
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Speaker 1: him take the abstraction for the real thing. This metaphysical tendency,
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Speaker 1: in spite of the blows of positive sens science, has
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Speaker 1: still strong root in the minds of the majority of
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Speaker 1: our contemporary fellow men. It has such an influence that
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Speaker 1: many consider government an actual entity with certain given attributes
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Speaker 1: of reason, justice, equity, independently of the people who compose
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Speaker 1: the government. For those who think in this way, government
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Speaker 1: or the state is the abstract social power, and it
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Speaker 1: represents always in the abstract, the general interest. It is
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Speaker 1: the expression of the right of all, and considered as
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Speaker 1: limited by the rights of each. This way of understanding
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Speaker 1: government is supported by those interested, to whom it is
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Speaker 1: an urgent necessity that the principle of authority should be
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Speaker 1: maintained and should always survive the faults and errors of
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Speaker 1: the persons who succeed to the exercise of power. For us,
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Speaker 1: the government is the aggregate of the governors. And the governors, kings, presidents, ministers,
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Speaker 1: members of parliament, and what not are those who have
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Speaker 1: the power to make laws, to regulate the relations between men,
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Speaker 1: and to force obedience to these laws. They are those
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Speaker 1: who decide upon and claim the taxes and force military service,
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Speaker 1: judge and punished transgressions of the laws. They subject men
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Speaker 1: to regulations, and supervise and sanction private contracts. They monopolize
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Speaker 1: certain branches of production and public services, or if they wish,
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Speaker 1: all production and public service. They promote or hinder the
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Speaker 1: exchange of goods. They make war or peace with the
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Speaker 1: governments of other countries. They concede or withhold free trade,
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Speaker 1: and many things else. In short, the governors are those
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Speaker 1: who have the power, in a greater or less degree,
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Speaker 1: to make use of the collective force of society, that is,
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Speaker 1: of the physical, intellectual, and acs gnomic force of all,
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Speaker 1: to oblige each to do this said governor's wish. And
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Speaker 1: this power constitutes, in our opinion, the very principle of government,
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Speaker 1: the principle of authority. But what reason is there for
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Speaker 1: the existence of government? Why abdicate one's own liberty, one's
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Speaker 1: own initiative in favor of other individuals? Why give them
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Speaker 1: the power to be the masters with or contrary to
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Speaker 1: the wish of each, to dispose of the forces of
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Speaker 1: all in their own way? Are the governors such very
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Speaker 1: exceptionally gifted men as to enable them, with some show
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Speaker 1: of reason, to represent the masses and act in the
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Speaker 1: interest of all men better than all men would be
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Speaker 1: able to do for themselves. Are they so infallible and
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Speaker 1: incorruptible that one can confide to them with any semblance
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Speaker 1: of prudence the fate of each and all, trusting to
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Speaker 1: their knowledge and their goodness. And even if their existed
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Speaker 1: men of infinite goodness and knowledge, even if we assume
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Speaker 1: what has never been verified in history, and what we
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Speaker 1: believe it would be impossible to verify, namely, that the
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Speaker 1: government might devolve upon the ablest and best. Would the
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Speaker 1: possession of governmental power add anything to their beneficent influence?
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Speaker 1: Would it not rather paralyze or destroy it? For those
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Speaker 1: who govern find it necessary to occupy themselves with things
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Speaker 1: which they do not understand, and above all, to waste
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Speaker 1: the greater part of their energy in keeping themselves in power,
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Speaker 1: striving to satisfy their friends, holding the discontented in check,
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Speaker 1: and mastering the rebellious. Again, be the governors good or bad,
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Speaker 1: wise or ignorant, who is it that appoints them to
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Speaker 1: their office? Do they impose themselves by right of war?
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Speaker 1: Conquest or revolution. Then what guarantees have the public that
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Speaker 1: their rulers have the general goods at heart? In this case,
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Speaker 1: it is simply a question of usurpation, And if the
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Speaker 1: subjects are discontented, nothing is left to them but to
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Speaker 1: throw off the yoke by an appeal to alms. Are
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Speaker 1: the governors chosen from a certain class or party, then
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Speaker 1: certainly the ideas and interests of that class or party
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Speaker 1: will triumph, and the wishes and interests of the others
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Speaker 1: will be sacrificed. Are they elected by universal suffrage? Now
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Speaker 1: numbers are the sole criterion, and numbers are certainly no
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Speaker 1: proof of reason, justice, or capacity. And the universal suffrage
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Speaker 1: the elected are those who know best how to take
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Speaker 1: in the masses. The minority, which may happen to be
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Speaker 1: half minus one, is sacrificed, and that without considering that
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Speaker 1: there is another thing to take into account. Experience has
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Speaker 1: shown it is impossible to hit upon an electoral system
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Speaker 1: which really ensures election by the actual majority. Many and
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Speaker 1: various are the theories by which men have sought to
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Speaker 1: justify the existence of government. All, however, are founded, confessedly
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Speaker 1: or not, on the assumption that the individuals of a
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Speaker 1: society have contrary interests, and that an external superior power
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Speaker 1: is necessary to oblige some to respect the interests of others,
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Speaker 1: by prescribing and imposing a rule of conduct according to
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Speaker 1: which the interests that strive may be harmonized as much
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Speaker 1: as possible, and according to which each obtains the maximum
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Speaker 1: of satisfaction with the minimum of sacrifice. If, say the
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Speaker 1: theorists of the authoritarian school, the interests, tendencies, and desires
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Speaker 1: of an individual are in opposition to those of another individual,
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Speaker 1: or may have all society. Who will have the right
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Speaker 1: and the power to oblige the one to respect the
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Speaker 1: interests of the others, Who will be able to prevent
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Speaker 1: the individual citizen from offending the general will? The liberty
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Speaker 1: of each, say they has for its limit the liberty
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Speaker 1: of others, But who will establish those limits and who
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Speaker 1: will cause them to be respected? The natural antagonism of
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Speaker 1: interests and passions creates the necessity for government and justifies authority.
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Speaker 1: Authority intervenes as moderator of the social strife, and defines
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Speaker 1: the limits of the rights and duties of each. This
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Speaker 1: is a theory, but the theory to be sound ought
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Speaker 1: to be based upon facts and to explain them. We
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Speaker 1: know well how in social economy, theories are too often
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Speaker 1: invented to justify facts, that is, to defend privilege and
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Speaker 1: cause it to be accepted tranquility by those who are
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Speaker 1: its victims. Let us here look at the facts themselves.
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Speaker 1: In all the course of history, as at the present epoch,
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Speaker 1: government is either the brutal, vile, and arbitrary domination of
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Speaker 1: the few over the many, or it is an instrument
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Speaker 1: ordained secure domination and privilege to those who, by a
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Speaker 1: force or cunning or inheritance, have taken to themselves all
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Speaker 1: the means of life, and first and foremost the soil,
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Speaker 1: whereby they hold the people in servitude, making them work
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Speaker 1: for their advantage. Governments oppress mankind in two ways, either
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Speaker 1: directly by brute force, that is, physical violence, or indirectly
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Speaker 1: by depriving them of the means of subsistence and thus
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Speaker 1: reducing them to helplessness at discretion. Political power originated in
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Speaker 1: the first method, economic privilege arose from the second. Governments
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Speaker 1: can also oppress man by acting on his emotional nature,
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Speaker 1: and in this way constitute religious authority. But there is
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Speaker 1: no reason for the propagation of religious superstitions, except that
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Speaker 1: they defend and consolidate political and economic privileges. In primitive society,
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Speaker 1: when the world was not so densely populated as now,
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Speaker 1: and social relations were less complicated, when any circumstance prevented
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Speaker 1: the formation of habits and customs of solidarity, or destroyed
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Speaker 1: those which already existed, and established the domination of man
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Speaker 1: over man, the two powers, the political and the economical,
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Speaker 1: were united in the same hands, and often also in
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Speaker 1: those of one single individual. Those who had by force
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Speaker 1: conquered and impoverished the others constrained them to become their
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Speaker 1: servants and perform all things for them according to their caprice.
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Speaker 1: The victors were at once proprietors, legislators, kings, judges, and executioners.
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Speaker 1: But with the increase of population, with the growth of needs,
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Speaker 1: with the complication of social relationships, the prolonged continuance of
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Speaker 1: such despotism became impossible. For their own security, the rulers,
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Speaker 1: often much against their will, were obliged to depend upon
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Speaker 1: a privileged class, that is, a certain number of co
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Speaker 1: interested individuals, and were also obliged to let each of
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Speaker 1: these individuals provide for its own sustenance. Nevertheless, they reserved
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Speaker 1: to themselves the supreme or ultimate control. In other words,
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Speaker 1: the rulers reserved to themselves their right to exploit all
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Speaker 1: at their own convenience, and so to satisfy their kingly vanity.
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Speaker 1: Thus private wealth was developed under the shadow of the
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Speaker 1: ruling power, for its protection, and often unconsciously as its accomplice.
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Speaker 1: Thus the class of proprietors arose, and they, concentrating little
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Speaker 1: by little the means of wealth in their own hands,
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Speaker 1: all the means of production, the very fountains of life, agriculture, industry,
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Speaker 1: and exchange, ended by becoming a power in themselves. This power,
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Speaker 1: by the superiority of its means of action and the
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Speaker 1: great mass of interests it embraces, always ends by more
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Speaker 1: or less openly subjugating the political power, that is, the government,
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Speaker 1: which it makes its policemen. This phenomenon has been reproduced
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Speaker 1: often in history. Every time that, by invasion or any
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Speaker 1: military enterprise, whatever physical brute force, has taken the upprehnded society,
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Speaker 1: the conquerors have shown the tendency to concentrate government and
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Speaker 1: property in their own hands. In every case, however, as
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Speaker 1: the government cannot attend to the production of wealth, and
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Speaker 1: overlook and direct everything it finds it needful to conciliate
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Speaker 1: a powerful class, and private property is again established. With
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Speaker 1: it comes a division of the two sorts of power,
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Speaker 1: that of the persons who control the collective force of society,
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Speaker 1: and that of the proprietors, upon whom these governors become
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Speaker 1: essentially dependent, because the proprietors command the sources of the
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Speaker 1: said collective fos. But never has this state of things
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Speaker 1: been so accentuated as in modern times. The development of production,
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Speaker 1: the immense extension of commerce, the extensive power that money
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Speaker 1: has acquired, and all the economic results flowing from the
21:16
Speaker 1: discovery of America, the invention of machinery, et cetera, have
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Speaker 1: secured such supremacy to the capitalist class that it is
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Speaker 1: no longer content to trust to the support of the government,
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Speaker 1: and has come to wish that the government shall emanate
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Speaker 1: from itself. A government composed of members of its own class,
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Speaker 1: continually under its control, and especially organized to defend its
21:39
Speaker 1: class against the possible revenge of the disinherited. Hence the
21:44
Speaker 1: origin of the modern parliamentary system. Today, the government is
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Speaker 1: composed of proprietors or people of their class so entirely
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Speaker 1: under their influence that the richest of them do not
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Speaker 1: find it necessary to take an active part in it themselves.
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Speaker 1: Roath Shield, for instance, does not need to be either
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Speaker 1: MP or minister. It is enough for him to keep
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Speaker 1: MPs and ministers dependent upon himself. In many countries the
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Speaker 1: proletariat participates nominally more or less in the election of
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Speaker 1: the government. This is a concession which the bourgeois, that is,
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Speaker 1: proprietory class have made, either to avail themselves of popular
22:25
Speaker 1: support in the strife against royal or aristocratic power, or
22:30
Speaker 1: to divert the attention of the people from their own
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Speaker 1: emancipation by giving them an apparent share in political power. However,
22:38
Speaker 1: whether the bourgeoisie foresaw it or not when first they
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Speaker 1: conceded to the people the right to vote, the fact
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Speaker 1: is that the right has proved in reality a mockery,
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Speaker 1: serving only to consolidate the power of the bourgeois, while
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Speaker 1: giving to the most energetic only of the proletariat the
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Speaker 1: illusory hope of arriving at power. So, also with universal suffrage,
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Speaker 1: we might say, especially with universal suffrage, the government has
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Speaker 1: remained the servant and police of the bourgeois class. How
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Speaker 1: could it be otherwise. If the government should reach the
23:14
Speaker 1: point of becoming hostile, if the hope of democracy should
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Speaker 1: ever be more than the delusion deceiving the people, the
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Speaker 1: proprietary class, menaced in its interests, would at once rebel
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Speaker 1: and would use all the force and influence which come
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Speaker 1: from the possession of wealth to reduce the government to
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Speaker 1: the simple function of acting as policemen. In all times
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Speaker 1: and in all places. Whatever may be the name that
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Speaker 1: the government takes, whatever has been its origin or its organization,
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Speaker 1: its essential function is always that of oppressing and exploiting
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Speaker 1: the masses, and of defending the oppressors and exploiters. Its principal,
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Speaker 1: characteristic and indispensable instruments are the bailiff and the tax collector,
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Speaker 1: the soldier, and the prison and to these are necessarily
24:03
Speaker 1: added the time serving priest or teacher, as the case may, be,
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Speaker 1: supported and protected by the government, to render the spirit
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Speaker 1: of the people's servile and make them docile under the yoke. Certainly,
24:16
Speaker 1: in addition to this primary business, to this essential department
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Speaker 1: of governmental action, other departments have been added. In the
24:24
Speaker 1: course of time. We even admit that never, or hardly
24:28
Speaker 1: ever has a government been able to exist in a
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Speaker 1: country that was at all civilized without adding to its
24:34
Speaker 1: oppressing and exploiting functions others useful and indispensable to social life.
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Speaker 1: But this fact makes it nonetheless true that government is
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Speaker 1: in its nature oppressive and a means of exploitation, and
24:48
Speaker 1: that its origin and position doom it to be the
24:51
Speaker 1: defense and hotbed of a dominant class, thus confirming and
24:56
Speaker 1: increasing the evils of domination. The government assumes the business
25:02
Speaker 1: of protecting, more or less vigilantly the life of citizens
25:06
Speaker 1: against direct and brutal attacks, acknowledges and legalizes a certain
25:11
Speaker 1: number of rights and primitive usages and customs without which
25:16
Speaker 1: it is impossible to live in society. It organizes and
25:20
Speaker 1: directs certain public services, as the post, preservation and construction
25:24
Speaker 1: of roads, care of the public health, benevolent institutions, workhouses,
25:30
Speaker 1: and such like. And it pleases it to opposes the
25:33
Speaker 1: protector and benefactor of the poor and weak. But it
25:36
Speaker 1: is sufficient to notice how and why it fulfills these
25:39
Speaker 1: functions to prove our point. The fact is that everything
25:44
Speaker 1: the government undertakes it is always inspired with the spirit
25:48
Speaker 1: of domination, and ordained to defend, enlarge and perpetuate the
25:53
Speaker 1: privileges of property and those classes of which government is
25:57
Speaker 1: the representative and defender. A government cannot rule for any
26:02
Speaker 1: length of time without hiding its true nature behind the
26:05
Speaker 1: pretense of general utility. It cannot respect the lives of
26:09
Speaker 1: the privilege without assuming the air of wishing to respect
26:13
Speaker 1: the lives of all. It cannot cause the privileges of
26:17
Speaker 1: some to be tolerated without appearing as the custodian the
26:20
Speaker 1: rights of everybody the law, and of course, those that
26:25
Speaker 1: have made the law, that is, the government has utilized,
26:28
Speaker 1: says Kopotkin, quote, the social sentiments of men, working into
26:33
Speaker 1: them those precepts of morality which man has accepted, together
26:37
Speaker 1: with arrangements useful to the minority the exploiters, and opposed
26:41
Speaker 1: to the interests of those who might have rebelled had
26:44
Speaker 1: it not been for this show of a moral ground
26:47
Speaker 1: end quote. A government cannot wish the destruction of the community,
26:52
Speaker 1: for then it and the dominant class could not claim
26:55
Speaker 1: their exploitation gained wealth. Nor could the government leave the
26:59
Speaker 1: community to manage its own affairs, for then the people
27:03
Speaker 1: would soon discover that it the government was necessary from
27:07
Speaker 1: no other end than to defend the proprietary class, who
27:10
Speaker 1: impoverished them, and would hasten to rid themselves of both
27:14
Speaker 1: government and proprietary class. To day, in the face of
27:19
Speaker 1: the persistent and menacing demands of the proletariat, governments show
27:23
Speaker 1: a tendency to interfere in their relations between employers and
27:27
Speaker 1: work people. Thus they tried to arrest the labor movement
27:31
Speaker 1: and to impede with delusive reforms, the attempts of the
27:34
Speaker 1: poor to take themselves that which is due to them, namely,
27:39
Speaker 1: an equal share of the good things of life which
27:41
Speaker 1: others enjoy. We must also remember that on the one hand,
27:46
Speaker 1: the bourgeois, that is, the proprietary class, make war among
27:50
Speaker 1: themselves and destroy one another continually. And on the other hand,
27:55
Speaker 1: the government, although composed of the bourgeois and acting as
27:59
Speaker 1: their servant and protector, is still like every other servant
28:02
Speaker 1: or protector, continually striving to emancipate itself and to domineer
28:07
Speaker 1: over its charge. Thus this seesaw game, This swaying between
28:12
Speaker 1: conceding and withdrawing. This seeking allies among the people against
28:17
Speaker 1: the classes and among the classes against the masses, forms
28:22
Speaker 1: the science of the governors, and blinds the ingenious and phlegmatic,
28:26
Speaker 1: who are always expecting that salvation is coming to them
28:29
Speaker 1: from on high. With all this, the government does not
28:34
Speaker 1: change its nature. If it acts as regulator or guaranteur
28:38
Speaker 1: of the rights and duties of each it perverts the
28:41
Speaker 1: sentiment of justice. It justifies wrong and punishes every act
28:46
Speaker 1: which offends or menaces the privileges of the governors and proprietors.
28:51
Speaker 1: It declares just legal the most atrocious exploitation of the miserable,
28:57
Speaker 1: which means a slow and continuous material and moral murder
29:01
Speaker 1: perpetrated by those who have on those who have not. Again,
29:05
Speaker 1: If it administrates public services, it always considers the interests
29:10
Speaker 1: of the governors and proprietors, not occupying itself with the
29:14
Speaker 1: interests of the working masses, except in so far as
29:17
Speaker 1: is necessary to make the masses willing to endure their
29:20
Speaker 1: share of taxation. If it instructs, it fetters and curtails
29:24
Speaker 1: the truth, and tends to prepare the minds and harder
29:27
Speaker 1: the young to become either implacable tyrants or docile slaves,
29:32
Speaker 1: according to the class to which they belong. In the
29:35
Speaker 1: hands of the government, everything becomes a means of exploitation.
29:39
Speaker 1: Everything serves as a police measure, useful to hold the
29:43
Speaker 1: people in check. And it must be thus. If the
29:47
Speaker 1: life of mankind consists in strife between man and man,
29:51
Speaker 1: naturally there must be conquerors and conquered. And the government,
29:56
Speaker 1: which is the prize of the strife, or is a
29:58
Speaker 1: means of securing to the victor the results of their
30:01
Speaker 1: victory and perpetuating those results, will certainly never fall to
30:06
Speaker 1: those who have lost, whether the battle be on the
30:08
Speaker 1: grounds of physical or intellectual strength, or in the field
30:11
Speaker 1: of economics. And those who have fought to conquer, that is,
30:16
Speaker 1: to secure to themselves better conditions than others can have,
30:20
Speaker 1: to conquer privilege and add dominion to power, and have
30:24
Speaker 1: attained the victory, will certainly not use it to defend
30:27
Speaker 1: the rights of the vanquished, and to place limits to
30:30
Speaker 1: their own power and to that of their friends and partisans.
30:35
Speaker 1: The government or the state, if you will, as judge
30:39
Speaker 1: moderator of social strife impartial administrator of the public interests,
30:43
Speaker 1: is a lie. It is an allusion, a utopia never
30:48
Speaker 1: realized and never realizable. If in truth, the interests of
30:52
Speaker 1: men must always be contrary to one another. If indeed
30:56
Speaker 1: the strife between mankind has made laws necessary to human society,
31:01
Speaker 1: and the liberty of the individual must be limited by
31:04
Speaker 1: the liberty of other individuals, then each one would always
31:09
Speaker 1: seek to make his interests triumph over those of others.
31:13
Speaker 1: Each would strive to enlarge his own liberty at the
31:16
Speaker 1: cost of the liberty of others. And there would be government,
31:21
Speaker 1: not simply because it was more or less useful to
31:24
Speaker 1: the totality of the members of society to have a government,
31:28
Speaker 1: but because the conquerors would wish to secure to themselves
31:31
Speaker 1: the fruits of victory. They would wish effectually to subject
31:35
Speaker 1: the vanquished and relieve themselves of the trouble of being
31:39
Speaker 1: always on the defensive, and they would appoint men specially
31:43
Speaker 1: adapted to the business to act as police. Were this
31:46
Speaker 1: indeed actually the case, then humanity would be destined to
31:50
Speaker 1: perish amidst periodical contests which in the tyranny of the
31:54
Speaker 1: dominators and the rebellion of the conquered. But fortunately, the
31:59
Speaker 1: future of the humanity is a happier one because the
32:02
Speaker 1: law which governs it is milder. This law is a
32:07
Speaker 1: law of solidarity. End of Section two. Man has two
32:14
Speaker 1: necessary fundamental characteristics, the instinct of his own preservation, without
32:20
Speaker 1: which no being could exist, and the instinct of the
32:23
Speaker 1: preservation of his species, without which no species could have
32:28
Speaker 1: been formed or have continued to exist. He is naturally
32:31
Speaker 1: driven to defend his own existence and well being and
32:35
Speaker 1: that of his offspring against every danger. In nature, living
32:39
Speaker 1: beings find two ways of securing their existence and rendering
32:43
Speaker 1: it pleasanter The one is an individual strife with the
32:46
Speaker 1: elements and with other individuals of the same or different species.
32:51
Speaker 1: The other is mutual support or cooperation, which might also
32:56
Speaker 1: be described as association for strife against all natural factors
33:00
Speaker 1: destructive to existence or to the development and well being
33:03
Speaker 1: of the associated. We do not need to investigate in
33:08
Speaker 1: these pages, and we cannot, for lack of space, what
33:11
Speaker 1: respective proportions in the evolution of the organic world these
33:15
Speaker 1: two principles of strife and cooperation take. It will suffice
33:20
Speaker 1: to note how cooperation among men, whether forced or voluntary,
33:25
Speaker 1: has become the sole means of progress, of improvement, or
33:28
Speaker 1: of securing safety, and how strife, relic of an earlier
33:33
Speaker 1: stage of existence, has become thoroughly unsuitable as a means
33:36
Speaker 1: of securing the well being of individuals, and produces instead
33:40
Speaker 1: injury to all, both the conquerors and the conquered. The
33:44
Speaker 1: accumulated and transmitted experience of successive generations has taught men
33:50
Speaker 1: that by uniting with other men, his preservation is better
33:53
Speaker 1: secured and is well being increased. Thus, out of this
33:57
Speaker 1: same strife for existence carried on again and its surrounding
34:00
Speaker 1: nature and against individuals of their own species, the social
34:05
Speaker 1: instinct has been developed among men and has completely transformed
34:08
Speaker 1: the conditions of their life. Through cooperation, man has been
34:13
Speaker 1: enabled to evolve out of animalism, has risen to great power,
34:17
Speaker 1: and elevated himself to such a degree above the other
34:20
Speaker 1: animals that metaphysical philosophers have believed it necessary to invent
34:25
Speaker 1: for him an immaterial and immortal soul. Many concurrent causes
34:31
Speaker 1: have contributed to the formation of his social instinct, that,
34:35
Speaker 1: starting from the animal basis of the instinct for the
34:38
Speaker 1: preservation of the species, has now become so extended and
34:42
Speaker 1: so intense that it constitutes the essential element of man's
34:46
Speaker 1: moral nature. Man, however, he evolved from inferior animal types,
34:52
Speaker 1: was a physically weak being, unarmed for the fight against
34:55
Speaker 1: carnivorous beasts. But he was possessed of a brain capable
34:59
Speaker 1: of great development, and a vocal organ able to express
35:03
Speaker 1: the various cerebral vibrations by means of diverse sounds, and
35:07
Speaker 1: hands adapted to give the desired form to matter. He
35:11
Speaker 1: must have very soon felt the need and advantages of
35:14
Speaker 1: association with his fellows. Indeed, it may even be said
35:19
Speaker 1: that he could only rise out of animalism when he
35:21
Speaker 1: became social and had acquired the use of language, which
35:25
Speaker 1: is at the same time a consequence and a potent
35:28
Speaker 1: factor of sociability. The relatively scanty number of the human
35:33
Speaker 1: species rendered the strife for existence between man and man
35:37
Speaker 1: even beyond the limits of association, less sharp, less continuous,
35:42
Speaker 1: and less necessary. At the same time, it must have
35:45
Speaker 1: greatly favored the development of sympathetic sentiments, and have left
35:49
Speaker 1: time for the discovery and appreciation of the utility of
35:53
Speaker 1: mutual support. In short, social life became the necessary condition
35:58
Speaker 1: of men's existence in consequence of his capacity to modify
36:01
Speaker 1: his external surroundings and adapt them to his own wants
36:05
Speaker 1: by the exercise of his primeval power in cooperation with
36:08
Speaker 1: a greater or less number of associates, his desires have
36:13
Speaker 1: multiplied with the means of satisfying them and have become needs,
36:17
Speaker 1: and division of labor has arisen from men's methodical use
36:21
Speaker 1: of nature for his own advantage. Therefore, as now evolved,
36:26
Speaker 1: man could not live apart from his fellows without falling
36:29
Speaker 1: back into a state of animalism. Through the refinement of sensibility,
36:34
Speaker 1: with the multiplication of social relationships, and through habit impressed
36:38
Speaker 1: of a species by hereditary transmission. For thousands of centuries,
36:42
Speaker 1: this need of social life, this interchange of thought and
36:45
Speaker 1: of affection between man and man, has become a mode
36:48
Speaker 1: of being necessary for our organism. It has been transformed
36:53
Speaker 1: into sympathy, friendship, and love, and subsists independently of the
36:57
Speaker 1: material advantages that association procures. So much is this the
37:02
Speaker 1: case that man will often face suffering of every kind
37:05
Speaker 1: and even death for the satisfaction of these sentiments. The
37:10
Speaker 1: fact is that a totally different character has been given
37:13
Speaker 1: to the strife for existence between man and man and
37:16
Speaker 1: between the inferior animals, by the enormous advantages that association
37:20
Speaker 1: gives to man, and by the fact that his physical
37:23
Speaker 1: powers are altogether disproportionate to his intellectual superiority over the beasts,
37:29
Speaker 1: so long as he remains isolated by his possibility of
37:32
Speaker 1: associating with an ever increasing number of individuals and entering
37:36
Speaker 1: into more and more intricate and complex relationships, until he
37:40
Speaker 1: reaches association with all humanity, and finally, perhaps more than all,
37:46
Speaker 1: by his ability to produce working in cooperation with others,
37:50
Speaker 1: more than he needs to live upon. It is evident
37:53
Speaker 1: that these causes, together with the sentiments of affection derived
37:57
Speaker 1: from them, must give quite a peculiar character to the
38:00
Speaker 1: struggle for existence among human beings. Although it is now known,
38:05
Speaker 1: and the researches of modern naturalists bring us every day
38:09
Speaker 1: new proofs that co operation has played and still plays
38:13
Speaker 1: a most important part in the development of the organic world. Nevertheless,
38:18
Speaker 1: the difference between a human struggle for existence and that
38:21
Speaker 1: of the inferior animals is enormous. It is in fact
38:25
Speaker 1: proportionate to the distance separating man from the other animals.
38:29
Speaker 1: And this is none the less true because of that
38:32
Speaker 1: Darwinian theory which the bourgeois class have ridden to death,
38:36
Speaker 1: little suspecting the extent to which mutual co operation has
38:39
Speaker 1: assisted in the development of the lower animals. The lower
38:43
Speaker 1: animals fight either individually or more often in little, permanent
38:48
Speaker 1: or transitory groups, against all nature. The other individuals of
38:51
Speaker 1: their own species, included some of the more social animals,
38:56
Speaker 1: such as ants, bees, et cetera, associate together in the
38:59
Speaker 1: same anenati or beehive, but are at war with or
39:03
Speaker 1: indifferent towards other communities of their own species. Human strive,
39:08
Speaker 1: with nature, on the contrary, tends always to broaden association
39:12
Speaker 1: among men, to unite their interests, and to develop each
39:16
Speaker 1: individual's sentiments of affection towards all others, so that, united
39:20
Speaker 1: they may conquer and dominate the dangers of external nature
39:23
Speaker 1: by and for humanity. All strife directed towards obtaining advantages
39:29
Speaker 1: independently of other men and in opposition to them, contradicts
39:33
Speaker 1: the social nature of modern man, and tends to lead
39:36
Speaker 1: it back to a more animal condition. Solidarity, that is,
39:41
Speaker 1: harmony of interests and sentiments, the sharing of each in
39:45
Speaker 1: the good of all and of all in the good
39:47
Speaker 1: of each, is the state in which alone man can
39:50
Speaker 1: be true to his own nature and attain to the
39:53
Speaker 1: highest development and happiness. It is the aim towards which
39:57
Speaker 1: human development tends. It is the one great principle, capable
40:01
Speaker 1: of reconciling all present antagonisms in society otherwise irreconcilable. It
40:07
Speaker 1: causes the liberty of each to find not its limits,
40:11
Speaker 1: but its complement, the necessary condition of its continual existence
40:15
Speaker 1: in the liberty of all. No man, says Michael bercunin quote,
40:21
Speaker 1: can recognize his own human worth, nor, in consequence, realize
40:25
Speaker 1: his full development if he does not recognize the worth
40:28
Speaker 1: of his fellow men, and, in co operation with them,
40:32
Speaker 1: realize his own development through them. No man can emancipate
40:36
Speaker 1: himself unless at the same time he emancipates those around him.
40:41
Speaker 1: My freedom is the freedom of all. For I am
40:44
Speaker 1: not really free, free not only in thought, but indeed,
40:48
Speaker 1: if my freedom and my right do not find their
40:51
Speaker 1: confirmation and sanction in the liberty and right of all men,
40:56
Speaker 1: my equals, it matters much to me what all other
40:59
Speaker 1: men men are, For, however independent I may seem, or
41:03
Speaker 1: may believe myself to be, by virtue of my social position,
41:07
Speaker 1: whether as Pope, sire, emperor, or Prime minister, I am
41:12
Speaker 1: all the while the product of those who are the
41:14
Speaker 1: least among men. If these are ignorant, miserable, or enslaved.
41:19
Speaker 1: My existence is limited by their ignorance, misery, or slavery. I,
41:25
Speaker 1: though an intelligent and enlightened man, am made stupid by
41:29
Speaker 1: their stupidity. Though brave, and enslaved by their slavery, though rich,
41:34
Speaker 1: tremble before their poverty. Though privileged, grow pale at the
41:39
Speaker 1: thought of possible justice for them, I, who wish to
41:42
Speaker 1: be free, cannot be so, because around me are men
41:46
Speaker 1: who do not yet desire freedom, and not desiring it
41:50
Speaker 1: become as opposed to me, the instruments of my oppression. Solidarity, then,
41:57
Speaker 1: is the condition in which men can attain them the
42:00
Speaker 1: highest degree of security and of well being. Therefore, egoism itself,
42:05
Speaker 1: that is, the exclusive consideration of individual interests, impels man
42:10
Speaker 1: and human society towards solidarity. Or rather egoism and altruism,
42:17
Speaker 1: consideration of the interests of others are united in this
42:21
Speaker 1: one sentiment, as the interest of the individual is one
42:24
Speaker 1: with the interests of society. However, man could not pass
42:29
Speaker 1: at once from animalism to humanity, from brutal strive between
42:34
Speaker 1: man and man, to the collective strife of all mankind
42:37
Speaker 1: united in one brotherhood of mutual aid against external nature,
42:42
Speaker 1: guided by the advantages that association and the consequent division
42:45
Speaker 1: of labour offer, Man evolved towards solidarity. But his evolution
42:51
Speaker 1: encountered an obstacle which led him and still leads him
42:54
Speaker 1: away from his aim. He discovered that he could realize
42:58
Speaker 1: the advantages of cooperation, at least up to a certain point,
43:02
Speaker 1: and for the material and primitive wants that then comprised
43:05
Speaker 1: all his needs, by making other men subject to himself
43:09
Speaker 1: instead of associating on an equality with them. Thus, the
43:13
Speaker 1: ferocious and antisocial instincts inherited from his pastial ancestry again
43:19
Speaker 1: obtained the upper hand. He forced the weaker to work
43:22
Speaker 1: for him, preferring to domineer oval rather than to associate
43:26
Speaker 1: fraternally with his fellows. Perhaps also in most cases, it
43:31
Speaker 1: was by exploiting the conquered in war that man learned
43:35
Speaker 1: for the first time the benefits of association and the
43:38
Speaker 1: help that can be obtained from mutual support. Thus it
43:43
Speaker 1: has come about that the establishment of the utility of
43:45
Speaker 1: co operation, which ought to lead to the triumph of
43:48
Speaker 1: solidarity in all human concerns, has turned to the advantage
43:53
Speaker 1: of private property and of government, in other words, to
43:56
Speaker 1: the exploitation of the labor of the many for the
43:59
Speaker 1: sake of the privileged few. There has always been association
44:04
Speaker 1: and cooperation, without which human life would be impossible, but
44:08
Speaker 1: it has been cooperation imposed and regulated by the few
44:12
Speaker 1: in their own particular interest. From this fact arises a
44:17
Speaker 1: great contradiction with which the history of mankind is filled.
44:21
Speaker 1: On the one hand, we find the tendency to associate
44:24
Speaker 1: and fraternize for the purpose of conquering and adapting the
44:27
Speaker 1: external world to human needs and for the satisfaction of
44:31
Speaker 1: the human affections, while on the other hand we see
44:34
Speaker 1: the tendency to divide into as many separate and hostile
44:38
Speaker 1: factions as there are different conditions of life. These factions
44:42
Speaker 1: are determined, for instance, by geographical and ethnological conditions, by
44:47
Speaker 1: differences in economic position, by privileges acquired by some and
44:52
Speaker 1: sought to be secured by others, or by suffering endured
44:56
Speaker 1: with the ever recurring desire to rebel. The principle of
45:00
Speaker 1: each for himself, that is, of war of all against all,
45:05
Speaker 1: has come in the course of time to complicate, lead, astray,
45:09
Speaker 1: and paralyze the war of all combined against nature. For
45:13
Speaker 1: the common advantage of the human race, which could only
45:16
Speaker 1: be completely successful by acting on the principle of all
45:20
Speaker 1: for each and each for all. Great have been the
45:23
Speaker 1: evils which humanity has suffered by this intermingling of domination
45:28
Speaker 1: and exploitation with human association. But in spite of the
45:32
Speaker 1: atrocious oppression to which the masses submit, or the misery, vice, crime,
45:38
Speaker 1: and degradation which oppression and slavery produce among the slaves
45:42
Speaker 1: and their masters, and in spite of the hatreds, the
45:45
Speaker 1: exterminating wars, and the antagonisms of artificially created interests, the
45:51
Speaker 1: social instinct has survived and even developed. Cooperation, having been
45:57
Speaker 1: always in the necessary condition for successful combat against external nature,
46:02
Speaker 1: has therefore been the permanent cause of men's coming together,
46:06
Speaker 1: and consequently of the development of their sympathetic sentiments. Even
46:11
Speaker 1: the oppression of the masses has itself caused the oppressed
46:14
Speaker 1: to fraternize among themselves. Indeed, it has been solely owing
46:19
Speaker 1: to this feeling of solidarity, more or less conscious and
46:23
Speaker 1: more or less widespread among the oppressed, that they have
46:26
Speaker 1: been able to endure the oppression, and that man has
46:29
Speaker 1: resisted the causes of death in his midst In the present,
46:34
Speaker 1: the immense development of production, the growth of human needs,
46:38
Speaker 1: which cannot be satisfied except by the united efforts of
46:41
Speaker 1: a large number of men in all countries, the extended
46:45
Speaker 1: means of communication, habits of travel, science, literature, commerce, even
46:51
Speaker 1: war itself. All these have drawn and are still drawing,
46:56
Speaker 1: humanity into a compact body, every section of which, closely
47:00
Speaker 1: knit together, can find its satisfaction and liberty only in
47:04
Speaker 1: the development and health of all other sections composing the whole.
47:10
Speaker 1: The inhabitant of Naples is as much interested in the
47:13
Speaker 1: amelioration of the hygienic condition of the peoples on the
47:17
Speaker 1: banks of the Ganges, from whence the cholera is brought
47:20
Speaker 1: to him, as in the improvement of the sewerage in
47:23
Speaker 1: his own town. The well being, liberty, or fortune of
47:27
Speaker 1: the mountaineer lost among the precipices of the Apennines does
47:31
Speaker 1: not depend alone on the state of well being or
47:33
Speaker 1: of misery in which the inhabitants of his own village live,
47:37
Speaker 1: or even on the general condition of the Italian people,
47:40
Speaker 1: but also on the condition of the workers in America
47:43
Speaker 1: or Australia, on the discovery of a Swedish scientist, on
47:47
Speaker 1: the moral and material conditions of the Chinese on war
47:50
Speaker 1: or peace in Africa. In short, it depends on all
47:54
Speaker 1: the great and small circumstances which affect the human being
47:58
Speaker 1: in any spot whatever of the world. In the present
48:02
Speaker 1: condition of society, the vast solidarity which unites all men
48:06
Speaker 1: is in a great degree unconscious, since it arises spontaneously
48:11
Speaker 1: from the friction of particular interests, while men occupy themselves
48:14
Speaker 1: little or not at all with general interests. And this
48:18
Speaker 1: is the most evident proof that solidarity is the natural
48:21
Speaker 1: law of human life, which imposes itself, so to speak,
48:25
Speaker 1: in spite of all obstacles, and even those artificially created
48:29
Speaker 1: by society as at present constituted. On the other hand,
48:34
Speaker 1: the oppressed masses, never wholly resigned to oppression and misery,
48:38
Speaker 1: who to day, more than ever show themselves ardent for justice, liberty,
48:42
Speaker 1: and well being, are beginning to understand that they cannot
48:46
Speaker 1: emancipate themselves except by uniting through solidarity with all their
48:50
Speaker 1: oppressed and exploited over the whole world. And they understand
48:55
Speaker 1: also that the indispensable condition of their emancipation is the
48:59
Speaker 1: possession of the means of production, of the soil and
49:02
Speaker 1: of the instruments of labor, and further the abolition of
49:06
Speaker 1: private property. Science and the observation of social phenomena show
49:11
Speaker 1: that this abolition would be of immense advantage in the
49:14
Speaker 1: end even to the privileged classes, if only they could
49:18
Speaker 1: bring themselves to renounce the spirit of domination and concur
49:22
Speaker 1: with all their fellow men in laboring for their common good. Now,
49:29
Speaker 1: should the oppressed masses some day refuse to work for
49:32
Speaker 1: their oppressors, Should they take possession of the soil and
49:36
Speaker 1: the instruments of labor and apply them for their own
49:39
Speaker 1: use and advantage, and that of all who work, Should
49:42
Speaker 1: they no longer submit to the domination either of brute
49:46
Speaker 1: force or economic privilege. Should the spirit of human fellowship
49:50
Speaker 1: and the sentiment of human solidarity, strengthened by common interests,
49:55
Speaker 1: grow among the people and put an end to strive
49:57
Speaker 1: between nations, then what ground would there be for the
50:02
Speaker 1: existence of a government private property. Abolished government, which is
50:07
Speaker 1: its defender, must disappear. Should it survive, it would continually
50:13
Speaker 1: tend to reconstruct, under one form or another, a privileged
50:17
Speaker 1: and oppressive class. And the abolition of government does not,
50:22
Speaker 1: nor cannot signify the doing away with human association far otherwise,
50:28
Speaker 1: for that co operation which to day is enforced and
50:31
Speaker 1: directed to the advantage of the few, would be free
50:34
Speaker 1: and voluntary, directed to the advantage of all. Therefore it
50:39
Speaker 1: would become more intense and efficacious. The social instinct and
50:44
Speaker 1: the sentiment of solidarity would develop to the highest degree,
50:48
Speaker 1: and every individual would do all in his power for
50:52
Speaker 1: the good of others, as much for the satisfaction of
50:54
Speaker 1: his own well understood interests as for the gratification of
50:58
Speaker 1: his sympathetic sentiments. By the free association of all, a
51:03
Speaker 1: social organization would arise through the spontaneous grouping of men
51:07
Speaker 1: according to their needs and sympathies, from the low to
51:10
Speaker 1: the high, from the simple to the complex, starting from
51:14
Speaker 1: the more immediate, to arrive at the more distant and
51:16
Speaker 1: general interests. This organization would have for its aim the
51:21
Speaker 1: greatest good and fullest liberty to all. It would embrace
51:25
Speaker 1: all humanity in one common brotherhood, and would be modified
51:29
Speaker 1: and improved as circumstances were modified and changed according to
51:33
Speaker 1: the teachings of experience. This society of free men, this
51:39
Speaker 1: society of friends, would be anarchy. End of Section three.
51:49
Speaker 1: We have hitherto considered government as it is, and as
51:52
Speaker 1: it necessarily must be, in a society founded upon privilege,
51:56
Speaker 1: upon the exploitation and oppression of man by man, upon
52:00
Speaker 1: antagonism of interests, and social strife, in a word, upon
52:05
Speaker 1: private property. We have seen how this state of strife,
52:09
Speaker 1: far from being a necessary condition of human life, is
52:12
Speaker 1: contrary to the interests of the individual and of the species.
52:16
Speaker 1: We have observed how cooperation solidarity of interest is the
52:21
Speaker 1: law of human progress. And we have concluded that with
52:25
Speaker 1: the abolition of private property and the cessation of all
52:28
Speaker 1: domination of man over man, there would be no reason
52:31
Speaker 1: for government to exist. Therefore it ought to be abolished.
52:36
Speaker 1: But it may be objected if the principle on which
52:39
Speaker 1: social organization is now founded were to be changed, and
52:43
Speaker 1: solidarity substituted for strife, common property for private property, the
52:48
Speaker 1: government also would change its nature. Instead of being the
52:52
Speaker 1: protector and representative of the interests of one class, it
52:56
Speaker 1: would become if there were no longer any classes representative
53:00
Speaker 1: of all society. Its mission would be to secure and
53:03
Speaker 1: regulate social cooperation in the interests of all, and to
53:07
Speaker 1: fulfill public services of general utility. It would defend society
53:12
Speaker 1: against possible attempts to re establish privilege and prevent or
53:16
Speaker 1: repress all attacks by whomsoever set on foot against the life,
53:20
Speaker 1: well being, or liberty of each. There are in society
53:25
Speaker 1: certain matters too important, requiring too much constant, regular attention
53:31
Speaker 1: for them to be left to the voluntary management of
53:33
Speaker 1: individuals without danger of everything getting into disorder. If there
53:37
Speaker 1: were no government, who would organize the supply and distribution
53:41
Speaker 1: of provisions, Who regulate matters pertaining to public hygiene, the postal, telegraph,
53:47
Speaker 1: and railway services, et cetera. Who would direct public instruction?
53:51
Speaker 1: Who undertake those great works of exploration, improvement on a
53:55
Speaker 1: large scale, scientific enterprise, et cetera, which transform the face
54:00
Speaker 1: of the earth and augment a hundredfold the power of man.
54:04
Speaker 1: Who would care for the preservation and increase of capital,
54:08
Speaker 1: that it might be transmitted to posterity, enriched and improved.
54:13
Speaker 1: Who would prevent the destruction of the forests or the
54:16
Speaker 1: irrational exploitation and therefore impoverishment of the soil. Who would
54:21
Speaker 1: there be to prevent and repress crimes, that is, antisocial acts.
54:27
Speaker 1: What of those who, disregarding the law of solidarity, would
54:30
Speaker 1: not work, Or of those who might spread infectious disease
54:34
Speaker 1: in a country by refusing to submit to the regulation
54:36
Speaker 1: of hygiene by science, or what again could be done
54:40
Speaker 1: with those who, whether insane or know might set fire
54:43
Speaker 1: to the harvest, injure children, or abuse and take advantage
54:47
Speaker 1: of the weak. To destroy private property and abolish existing
54:51
Speaker 1: government without reconstituting a government that would organize collective life
54:56
Speaker 1: and secure social solidarity would not be to aboli privilege
55:01
Speaker 1: and bring peace and prosperity upon earth. It would be
55:04
Speaker 1: to destroy every social bond, to leave humanity to fall
55:08
Speaker 1: back into barbarism, to begin again the reign of each
55:12
Speaker 1: for himself, which would establish the triumph firstly of brute
55:16
Speaker 1: force and secondly of economic privilege. Such are the objections
55:22
Speaker 1: brought forward by authoritarians, even by those who are socialists,
55:26
Speaker 1: that is, who wish to abolish private property and class
55:30
Speaker 1: government founded upon the system of private property. We reply,
55:35
Speaker 1: in the first place, it is not true that with
55:38
Speaker 1: a change of social conditions, the nature of the government
55:41
Speaker 1: and its functions would also change. Organs and functions are
55:45
Speaker 1: inseparable terms. Take from an organ its function, and either
55:49
Speaker 1: the organ will die or the function will reinstate itself.
55:53
Speaker 1: Place an army in a country where there is no
55:55
Speaker 1: reason for or fear of foreign war, and this army
55:59
Speaker 1: will provoke, or or if it do not succeed in
56:02
Speaker 1: doing that, it will disband. A police force where there
56:06
Speaker 1: are no crimes to discover and delinquents to arrest, will
56:09
Speaker 1: provoke or invent crimes, or will cease to exist. For centuries,
56:14
Speaker 1: there existed in France an institution now included in the
56:18
Speaker 1: administration of the Forests for the extermination of the wolves
56:21
Speaker 1: and other noxious beasts. No one will be surprised to
56:24
Speaker 1: learn that, just on account of this institution, wolves still
56:28
Speaker 1: exist in France, and that in rigorous seasons they do
56:32
Speaker 1: great damage. The public take little heed of the wolves,
56:35
Speaker 1: because there are the appointed officials whose duty it is
56:38
Speaker 1: to think about them. And the officials do hunt them,
56:42
Speaker 1: but in an intelligent manner, sparing their caves and allowing
56:46
Speaker 1: time for reproduction, that they may not run the risk
56:49
Speaker 1: of entirely destroying such an interesting species. The French peasants
56:54
Speaker 1: have indeed little confidence in these official wolf hunters, and
56:58
Speaker 1: regard them rather as the wolf. And of course, what
57:02
Speaker 1: would these officials do if there were no longer any
57:04
Speaker 1: wolves to exterminate? A government, that is a number of
57:09
Speaker 1: persons deputed to make the laws and entitled to use
57:12
Speaker 1: the collective forces of society to make every individual to
57:15
Speaker 1: respect these laws already constitutes a class privileged and separated
57:20
Speaker 1: from the rest of the community. Such a class, like
57:24
Speaker 1: every elected body, will seek instinctively to enlarge its powers,
57:29
Speaker 1: to place itself above the control of the people, to
57:32
Speaker 1: impose its tendencies, and to make its own interests predominate. Place.
57:37
Speaker 1: In a privileged position, the government always finds itself in
57:41
Speaker 1: antagonism to the masters of whose force it disposes. Furthermore,
57:46
Speaker 1: a government with the best intention could never satisfy everybody,
57:51
Speaker 1: even if it succeeded in satisfying some. It must therefore
57:54
Speaker 1: always be defending itself against the discontented, and for that
57:58
Speaker 1: reason must ally itself with the satisfied section of the
58:02
Speaker 1: community for necessary support. And in this manner will arise
58:06
Speaker 1: again the old story of a privileged class, which cannot
58:10
Speaker 1: help but be developed in conjunction with the government. This class,
58:14
Speaker 1: if it could not again acquire possession of the soil,
58:17
Speaker 1: would certainly monopolize the most favored spots, and would not
58:20
Speaker 1: be in the end less oppressive or less an instrument
58:24
Speaker 1: of exploitation than the capitalist class. The governors, accustomed to
58:29
Speaker 1: command would never wish to mix with the common crowd.
58:32
Speaker 1: If they could not retain the power in their own hands.
58:35
Speaker 1: They would at least secure to themselves privileged positions for
58:38
Speaker 1: the time when they would be out of office. They
58:41
Speaker 1: would use all the means they have in their power
58:43
Speaker 1: to get their own friends elected as their successors, who
58:46
Speaker 1: would in their turn be supported and protected by their predecessors.
58:50
Speaker 1: And thus the government would pass and repass into the
58:53
Speaker 1: same hands, and the democracy, that is, the government presumably
58:58
Speaker 1: of the whole people, would end as it always has done,
59:01
Speaker 1: in becoming an oligarchy, or the government of a view,
59:05
Speaker 1: the government of a class. And this all powerful, oppressive,
59:10
Speaker 1: all absorbing olarcarchy would have always in its care, that is,
59:14
Speaker 1: at its disposition, every bit of social capital, all public services,
59:19
Speaker 1: from the production and distribution of provisions to the manufacture
59:23
Speaker 1: of matches, from the control of the university to that
59:26
Speaker 1: of the music hall. But let us even suppose that
59:30
Speaker 1: the government did not necessarily constitute a privileged class, and
59:34
Speaker 1: could exist without forming around itself a new privileged class.
59:38
Speaker 1: Let us imagine that it could remain truly representative the servant,
59:43
Speaker 1: if you will, of all society. What purpose would it
59:46
Speaker 1: then serve, in what particular and in what manner would
59:50
Speaker 1: it augment? The power, intelligence, spirit of solidarity, care of
59:54
Speaker 1: the general welfare present and to come that at any
59:57
Speaker 1: given moment existed in a given society. It is always
1:00:02
Speaker 1: the old story of the man with bound limbs, who,
1:00:05
Speaker 1: having managed to live in spite of his bands, believes
1:00:08
Speaker 1: that he lives by means of them. We are accustomed
1:00:11
Speaker 1: to live under a government which makes use of all
1:00:14
Speaker 1: that energy, that intelligence, and that will which it can
1:00:18
Speaker 1: direct to its own ends, but which hinders, paralyzes, and
1:00:21
Speaker 1: suppresses those that are useless or hostile to it. And
1:00:26
Speaker 1: we imagine that all that is done in society is
1:00:28
Speaker 1: done by virtue of the government, and that without the
1:00:31
Speaker 1: government there would be neither energy, intelligence, nor good will
1:00:35
Speaker 1: in society. So it happens, as we have already said,
1:00:39
Speaker 1: that the proprietor who has possessed himself of the soil
1:00:42
Speaker 1: as it cultivated for his own particular profit, leaving the
1:00:45
Speaker 1: laborer the bearerest necessities of life for which he can
1:00:48
Speaker 1: and will continue to labor, while the enslaved laborer thinks
1:00:52
Speaker 1: that he could not live without his master, as though
1:00:55
Speaker 1: it were he who created the earth and the forces
1:00:57
Speaker 1: of nature. What can government of itself add to the
1:01:01
Speaker 1: moral and material forces which exist in a society, unless
1:01:06
Speaker 1: it be like the God of the Bible, who created
1:01:08
Speaker 1: the universe out of nothing. As nothing is created in
1:01:12
Speaker 1: the so called material world, so in this more complicated
1:01:16
Speaker 1: form of the material world, which is the social world,
1:01:20
Speaker 1: nothing can be created. And therefore governors can dispose of
1:01:24
Speaker 1: no other force than that which is already in society,
1:01:28
Speaker 1: and indeed not by any means of all of that,
1:01:32
Speaker 1: as much force is necessarily paralyzed and destroyed by governmental
1:01:36
Speaker 1: methods of action, while more again is wasted in the
1:01:40
Speaker 1: friction with rebellious elements inevitably great in such an artificial mechanism,
1:01:45
Speaker 1: whenever governors originate anything of themselves, it is as men
1:01:50
Speaker 1: and not as governors, that they do so. And of
1:01:53
Speaker 1: that amount of force, both material and moral, which does
1:01:57
Speaker 1: remain at the disposition of the government, only an infinitesimally
1:02:01
Speaker 1: small part achieves an end really useful to society. The
1:02:05
Speaker 1: remainder is either consumed in actively repressing rebellious opposition, or
1:02:10
Speaker 1: is otherwise diverted from the aim of general utility and
1:02:14
Speaker 1: turn to the profit of a few and to the
1:02:16
Speaker 1: injury of the majority of men. So much has been
1:02:20
Speaker 1: made at the part that individual initiative and social action play,
1:02:24
Speaker 1: respectively in the life and progress of human society. And
1:02:28
Speaker 1: such is the confusion of metaphysical language, that those who
1:02:32
Speaker 1: affirm that individual initiative is the source and agency of
1:02:37
Speaker 1: all action seem to be asserting something quite preposterous. In reality,
1:02:42
Speaker 1: it is a truism which becomes apparent directly we begin
1:02:46
Speaker 1: to explain the actual facts represented by these words. The
1:02:50
Speaker 1: real being is the man, the individual, society or the collectivity,
1:02:55
Speaker 1: and the state or government which professes to represent it.
1:02:59
Speaker 1: If not hollow, abstractions, can be nothing else than aggregates
1:03:03
Speaker 1: of individuals, And it is within the individual organism that
1:03:07
Speaker 1: all thoughts and all human action necessarily have their origin.
1:03:13
Speaker 1: Originally individual, they become collective thoughts and actions when shared
1:03:17
Speaker 1: in common by many individuals. Social action, then, is not
1:03:21
Speaker 1: the negation nor the complement of individual initiative, but it
1:03:26
Speaker 1: is the sum total of the initiatives, thoughts, and actions
1:03:29
Speaker 1: of all the individuals composing society, a result which other
1:03:33
Speaker 1: things equal is more or less great according as the
1:03:37
Speaker 1: individual forces tend towards the same aim or are divergent
1:03:41
Speaker 1: and opposed. If, on the other hand, as the authoritarians
1:03:45
Speaker 1: make out, by social action is meant governmental action, then
1:03:49
Speaker 1: it is again the result of individual forces, but only
1:03:53
Speaker 1: of those individuals who either form part of the government
1:03:56
Speaker 1: or by virtue of their position, are enabled to influence
1:03:59
Speaker 1: the condoms the government. Thus, in the contest of centuries
1:04:03
Speaker 1: between liberty and authority, or in other words, between social
1:04:07
Speaker 1: equality and social castes, the question and issue has not
1:04:11
Speaker 1: really been the relations between society and the individual, nor
1:04:15
Speaker 1: the increase of individual independence at the cost of social
1:04:18
Speaker 1: control or vice versa. Rather, it has had to do
1:04:23
Speaker 1: with preventing any one individual from oppressing the others, with
1:04:27
Speaker 1: giving to everyone the same rights and the same means
1:04:30
Speaker 1: of action. It has had to do with substituting the
1:04:33
Speaker 1: initiative of all, which must naturally result in the advantage
1:04:37
Speaker 1: of all, for the initiative of the few, which necessarily
1:04:41
Speaker 1: results in the suppression of all the others. It is always,
1:04:44
Speaker 1: in short, the question of putting an end to the
1:04:47
Speaker 1: domination and exploitation of man by a man. In such
1:04:51
Speaker 1: a way, that all are interested in the common welfare,
1:04:55
Speaker 1: and that the individual force of each, instead of oppressing, combating,
1:04:59
Speaker 1: or suppressing others, will find the possibility of complete development,
1:05:03
Speaker 1: and every one will seek to associate with others for
1:05:06
Speaker 1: the greater advantage of all. From what we have said,
1:05:10
Speaker 1: it follows that the existence of a government, even upon
1:05:13
Speaker 1: the hypothesis that the ideal government of authoritarian socialists where possible,
1:05:19
Speaker 1: far from producing an increase of productive force, would immensely
1:05:23
Speaker 1: diminish it, because the government would restrict initiative to the few.
1:05:28
Speaker 1: It would give these few the right to do all things,
1:05:31
Speaker 1: without being able, of course, to endow them with the
1:05:34
Speaker 1: knowledge or understanding of all things. In fact, if you
1:05:38
Speaker 1: divest legislation and all the operations of government of what
1:05:42
Speaker 1: is intended to protect the privileged and what represents the
1:05:45
Speaker 1: wishes of the privileged classes alone, nothing remains but the
1:05:49
Speaker 1: aggregate of individual governors. The state, says Hismondi quote, is
1:05:54
Speaker 1: always a conservative power that authorizes, regulates, and organizes the
1:06:00
Speaker 1: conquests of progress, and history testifies that it applies them
1:06:04
Speaker 1: to the profits of its own and the other privileged classes,
1:06:08
Speaker 1: but never does inaugurate them new ideas always originate from beneath,
1:06:13
Speaker 1: are conceived in the foundations of society, and then when divulged,
1:06:17
Speaker 1: they become opinion and grow. But they must always meet
1:06:21
Speaker 1: on their path in combat the constituted powers of tradition, custom, privilege,
1:06:27
Speaker 1: and error. In order to understand how society could exist
1:06:34
Speaker 1: without a government, it is sufficient to turn our attention
1:06:37
Speaker 1: for a short space to what actually goes on in
1:06:40
Speaker 1: our present society. We shall see that in reality, the
1:06:44
Speaker 1: most important social functions are fulfilled even nowadays, outside the
1:06:48
Speaker 1: intervention of government. Also that government only interferes to exploit
1:06:53
Speaker 1: the masses, or defend the privileged class, or lastly, the
1:06:57
Speaker 1: sanction most unnecessarily, all that has been done without its aid,
1:07:02
Speaker 1: often in spite of and in opposition to it. Men work, exchange, study, travel,
1:07:09
Speaker 1: follow as they choose the current rules of morality or hygiene.
1:07:13
Speaker 1: They profit by the progress of science and art, have
1:07:16
Speaker 1: numberless mutual interests, without ever feeling the need of any
1:07:19
Speaker 1: one to direct them how to conduct themselves in regard
1:07:22
Speaker 1: to these matters. On the contrary, it is just those
1:07:26
Speaker 1: things in which there is no governmental interference that prosper best,
1:07:30
Speaker 1: and that give rise to the least contention, being unconsciously
1:07:34
Speaker 1: adapted to the wish of all in the way found
1:07:36
Speaker 1: most useful and agreeable. Nor is government more necessary in
1:07:41
Speaker 1: the case of large undertakings, or for those public services
1:07:44
Speaker 1: which require the constant co operation of many people of
1:07:47
Speaker 1: different conditions and countries. Thousands of these undertakings are even
1:07:52
Speaker 1: now the work of voluntarily formed associations, and these are,
1:07:56
Speaker 1: by the acknowledgment of every one, the undertakings which succeed
1:07:59
Speaker 1: the best. Nor do we refer to the association of
1:08:03
Speaker 1: capitalists organized by means of exploitation, although even they show
1:08:07
Speaker 1: capabilities and powers of free association, which may extend at
1:08:12
Speaker 1: libitum until it embraces all the people of all lands
1:08:16
Speaker 1: and includes the widest and most varying interests. But we
1:08:20
Speaker 1: speak rather of those associations inspired by the love of humanity,
1:08:24
Speaker 1: or by the passion for knowledge, or even simply whether
1:08:27
Speaker 1: the desire for amusement and love of applause, as these
1:08:30
Speaker 1: better represent such grouping as will exist in a society
1:08:33
Speaker 1: where private property and internal strive between man being abolished,
1:08:37
Speaker 1: each will find his interests synonymous with the interests of
1:08:40
Speaker 1: everyone else, and his greatest satisfaction in doing good and
1:08:44
Speaker 1: pleasing others. Scientific societies and congresses, international Lifeboat and Red
1:08:49
Speaker 1: Cross associations, et cetera. Laborers unions, peace societies, volunteers who
1:08:55
Speaker 1: hasten to the rescue at times of great public calamity
1:08:59
Speaker 1: are all examples among thousands of that power of the
1:09:02
Speaker 1: spirit of association, which always shows itself when a need
1:09:06
Speaker 1: arises or an enthusiasm takes hold, and the means do
1:09:10
Speaker 1: not fail. That voluntary associations do not cover the world
1:09:14
Speaker 1: and do not embrace every branch of material and moral
1:09:17
Speaker 1: activity is the fold of the obstacles placed in their
1:09:20
Speaker 1: way by governments, of the antagonisms created by the possession
1:09:24
Speaker 1: of private property, and of the impotence and degradation to
1:09:28
Speaker 1: which the monopolizing of wealth on the part of the
1:09:30
Speaker 1: view reduces the majority of mankind. The government takes charge,
1:09:36
Speaker 1: for instance, of the postal and telegraphic services, but in
1:09:39
Speaker 1: what way does it really assist them. When the people
1:09:42
Speaker 1: are in such a condition as to be able to
1:09:44
Speaker 1: enjoy and feel the need of such services, they will
1:09:47
Speaker 1: think about organizing them, and the man with the necessary
1:09:50
Speaker 1: technical knowledge will not require a certificate from the government
1:09:53
Speaker 1: to enable him to set to work. The more general
1:09:56
Speaker 1: and urgent the need, the more volunteers will offer to
1:09:59
Speaker 1: set satisfy it would the people have the ability necessary
1:10:03
Speaker 1: to provide and distribute provisions. Oh, never fear, they will
1:10:07
Speaker 1: not die of hunger waiting for a government to pass
1:10:10
Speaker 1: laws on the subject. Wherever a government exists, it must
1:10:14
Speaker 1: wait until the people have first organized everything, and then
1:10:18
Speaker 1: come with its laws to sanction and exploit that which
1:10:20
Speaker 1: has been already done. It is evident that private interest
1:10:24
Speaker 1: is the great motive for all activity. That being so,
1:10:28
Speaker 1: when the interest of every one becomes the interest of each,
1:10:31
Speaker 1: and it necessarily will become so as soon as private
1:10:33
Speaker 1: property is abolished, then all will be active. And if
1:10:37
Speaker 1: now they work in the interest of the few, so
1:10:40
Speaker 1: much the more, and so much the better will they
1:10:42
Speaker 1: work to satisfy the interests of all. It is hard
1:10:46
Speaker 1: to understand how anyone can believe that public services, indispensable
1:10:50
Speaker 1: to social life can be better secured by order of
1:10:53
Speaker 1: a government than through the workers themselves, who, by their
1:10:56
Speaker 1: own choice or by agreement made with others, carry them
1:10:59
Speaker 1: out under the immediate control of all interested. Certainly, in
1:11:04
Speaker 1: every collective undertaking on a large skill, there is need
1:11:07
Speaker 1: for division of labor, for technical direction, administration, et cetera.
1:11:12
Speaker 1: But the authoritarians are merely playing with words when they
1:11:16
Speaker 1: deduce a reason for the existence of government from the
1:11:19
Speaker 1: very real necessity for organization of labor. The government, we
1:11:23
Speaker 1: must repeat, is the aggregate of the individuals who have
1:11:26
Speaker 1: had given them or have taken the right or the
1:11:29
Speaker 1: means to make laws and force the people to obey them.
1:11:32
Speaker 1: The administrators, engineers, et cetera, on the other hand, are
1:11:35
Speaker 1: men who receive or assume the charge of doing a
1:11:38
Speaker 1: certain work and who do it. Government signifies delegation of power,
1:11:43
Speaker 1: that is, abdication of the initiative and sovereignty of every
1:11:46
Speaker 1: one into the hands of the view. Administration signifies delegation
1:11:51
Speaker 1: of work, that is a charge given and accepted the
1:11:55
Speaker 1: free exchange of services found on free agreement. A government
1:12:00
Speaker 1: is a privileged person because he has the right to
1:12:02
Speaker 1: command others and to avail himself of the force of
1:12:05
Speaker 1: others to make his own ideas and desires triumph. An
1:12:09
Speaker 1: administrator or technical director is a worker like others. In
1:12:13
Speaker 1: a society, of course, where all have equal opportunities of development,
1:12:17
Speaker 1: and all are or can be at the same time
1:12:20
Speaker 1: intellectual and manual workers, when there are no other differences
1:12:24
Speaker 1: between man than those derived from diversity of talents, and
1:12:28
Speaker 1: all work and all social functions give an equal right
1:12:31
Speaker 1: to the enjoyment of social advantages. The functions of government
1:12:35
Speaker 1: are in short, not to be confounded with administrative functions,
1:12:39
Speaker 1: as they are essentially different. That they are today so
1:12:43
Speaker 1: often confused is entirely on account of the existence of
1:12:46
Speaker 1: economic and political privilege. But letters hasten to pass on
1:12:51
Speaker 1: to those functions for which government is thought indispensable by
1:12:55
Speaker 1: all who are not anarchists. These are the internal and
1:12:59
Speaker 1: exer defense of society, that is, war, police and justice,
1:13:05
Speaker 1: government being abolished, and social wealth at the disposal of
1:13:08
Speaker 1: every one, all antagonism between various nations would soon cease,
1:13:13
Speaker 1: and there would consequently be no more cause for war. Moreover,
1:13:18
Speaker 1: in the present state of the world, in any country
1:13:20
Speaker 1: where the spirit of rebellion is growing, even if it
1:13:23
Speaker 1: do not find an echo throughout the land, it will
1:13:25
Speaker 1: be certain of so much sympathy that the government will
1:13:28
Speaker 1: not dare to send all its troops to a foreign
1:13:30
Speaker 1: war for fear the revolution should break out at home.
1:13:34
Speaker 1: But even supposing that the rulers of countries not yet emancipated,
1:13:39
Speaker 1: would wish and could attempt to reduce a free people
1:13:42
Speaker 1: to servitude? Would these require a government to enable them
1:13:45
Speaker 1: to defend themselves. To make war, we need men who
1:13:49
Speaker 1: with the necessary geographical and technical knowledge, and above all,
1:13:53
Speaker 1: people willing to fight. A government has no means of
1:13:57
Speaker 1: augmenting the ability of the former or the willingness or
1:14:00
Speaker 1: courage of the latter. And the experience of history teaches
1:14:03
Speaker 1: that a people really desires of defending their own country
1:14:07
Speaker 1: are invincible. In Italy, every one knows how throne tremble
1:14:11
Speaker 1: and regular armies of hired soldiers vanish before troops of volunteers,
1:14:16
Speaker 1: that is, armies anarchically formed. And as to the police
1:14:21
Speaker 1: and justice, many imagine that if it were not for
1:14:24
Speaker 1: the police and the judges, everybody would be free to kill, violate,
1:14:28
Speaker 1: or injure others. As the humor took him, that anarchists,
1:14:32
Speaker 1: if they are true to their principles, would like to
1:14:35
Speaker 1: see this strange kind of liberty respected, liberty that violates
1:14:39
Speaker 1: or destroys the life and freedom of others unrestrained. Such
1:14:43
Speaker 1: people believe that we, having overthrown the government and private property,
1:14:48
Speaker 1: shall then tranquility allow the re establishment of both, out
1:14:51
Speaker 1: of respect for the liberty of those who may feel
1:14:53
Speaker 1: the need of having a government and private property as
1:14:57
Speaker 1: strange mode, indeed, of construing our ideas in truth, one
1:15:01
Speaker 1: may better answer such notions with a shrug of the
1:15:04
Speaker 1: shoulders than by taking the trouble to confute them. The
1:15:07
Speaker 1: liberty we wish for for ourselves and others is not
1:15:10
Speaker 1: an absolute abstract, but the physical liberty, which in practice
1:15:14
Speaker 1: can only amount to the oppression of the weak. But
1:15:17
Speaker 1: we wish for a tangible liberty, the possible liberty, which
1:15:20
Speaker 1: is the conscious communion of interests, that is, voluntary solidarity.
1:15:25
Speaker 1: We proclaim the maxim do as you will, and in
1:15:29
Speaker 1: this our program is almost entirely contained, because, as may
1:15:33
Speaker 1: be easily understood, we hold that in his society, without
1:15:36
Speaker 1: government or property, each one will wish that which he should.
1:15:42
Speaker 1: But if, in consequence of a false education received in
1:15:45
Speaker 1: the present society, or of physical disease, or whatever other cause,
1:15:50
Speaker 1: an individual should wish to injure others, you may be
1:15:53
Speaker 1: sure we should adopt all the means in our power
1:15:55
Speaker 1: to prevent him. As we know that a man's character
1:15:59
Speaker 1: is the consequence of his physical organism and of the
1:16:01
Speaker 1: cosmic and social influences surrounding him. We certainly shall not
1:16:05
Speaker 1: confound the sacred right of self defense with the absurdly
1:16:08
Speaker 1: assumed right to punish. Also, we shall not regard the delinquent,
1:16:14
Speaker 1: that is, the man who commits antisocial acts, as the
1:16:17
Speaker 1: rebel he seems in the eyes of the judges nowadays.
1:16:20
Speaker 1: We shall regard him as a sick brother in need
1:16:23
Speaker 1: of cure. We therefore shall not act towards him in
1:16:26
Speaker 1: the spirit of hatred when repressing him, but shall confine
1:16:29
Speaker 1: ourselves solely to self protection. We shall not seek to
1:16:33
Speaker 1: revenge ourselves, but rather to rescue the unfortunate one by
1:16:37
Speaker 1: every means that science suggests. In theory. Anarchists may go
1:16:41
Speaker 1: astray like others, losing sight of the reality under a
1:16:45
Speaker 1: semblance of logic. But it is quite certain that the
1:16:48
Speaker 1: emancipated people will not let their dearly bought liberty and
1:16:52
Speaker 1: welfare be attacked with impunity. If the necessity arose, they
1:16:57
Speaker 1: would provide for their own defense against the antisocial tendencies
1:17:00
Speaker 1: of certain amongst them. But how do those whose business
1:17:04
Speaker 1: it now is to make the laws protect society or
1:17:07
Speaker 1: those others who live by seeking for and inventing new
1:17:10
Speaker 1: infringements of law. Even now, when the masters of the
1:17:14
Speaker 1: people really disapprove of anything and think it injurious, they
1:17:18
Speaker 1: always find a way to prevent it, very much more
1:17:20
Speaker 1: effectually that all the professional legislators, constables or judges during insurrections.
1:17:26
Speaker 1: The people, though very mistakenly, have enforced the respect for
1:17:30
Speaker 1: private property, and they have secured this respect far better
1:17:33
Speaker 1: than an army of policemen could have done. Customs always
1:17:38
Speaker 1: follow the needs and sentiments of the majority, and they
1:17:41
Speaker 1: are always the more respected the less they are subject
1:17:44
Speaker 1: to the sanction of law. This is because everyone sees
1:17:48
Speaker 1: and comprehends their utility, and because the interested parties, not
1:17:51
Speaker 1: deluding themselves to the idea that government will protect them,
1:17:55
Speaker 1: are themselves concerned in seeing the custom respected. The economical
1:17:59
Speaker 1: use of water is of very great importance to a
1:18:02
Speaker 1: caravan crossing the deserts of Africa. Under these circumstances, water
1:18:07
Speaker 1: is a sacred thing, and no sane man dreams of
1:18:10
Speaker 1: wasting it. Conspirators are obliged to act secretly, so secrecy
1:18:15
Speaker 1: is preserved among them, and obloquy rests on whosoever violates it.
1:18:21
Speaker 1: Gambling debts are not guaranteed by law, but among gamblers
1:18:24
Speaker 1: it is considered dishonorable not to pay them, and the
1:18:27
Speaker 1: delinquit feels himself dishonored by not fulfilling his obligations. Is
1:18:33
Speaker 1: it on account of the police that more people are
1:18:35
Speaker 1: not murdered? The greater part of the Italian people never
1:18:39
Speaker 1: see the police except at long intervals. Millions of men
1:18:43
Speaker 1: go over the mountains and through the country far from
1:18:46
Speaker 1: the protecting eye of authority, where they might be attacked
1:18:49
Speaker 1: without the slightest fear of their assailants being traced. But
1:18:52
Speaker 1: they run no greater risk than those who live in
1:18:55
Speaker 1: the best guarded spots. Statistics show that the number of
1:18:59
Speaker 1: crimes run in proportion to the increase of repressive measures,
1:19:03
Speaker 1: while they vary rapidly with the fluctuations of economic conditions
1:19:06
Speaker 1: and with the state of public opinion. Preventive laws, however,
1:19:11
Speaker 1: only concern unusual exceptional acts. Every Day life goes on
1:19:16
Speaker 1: beyond the limits of the criminal code and is regulated
1:19:19
Speaker 1: almost unconsciously by the tacit and voluntary assent of all,
1:19:23
Speaker 1: by means of a number of usages and customs. Much
1:19:26
Speaker 1: more important to social life than the dictates of law,
1:19:30
Speaker 1: and they are also much better observed, although completely divested
1:19:33
Speaker 1: of any sanction beyond the natural odium which falls upon
1:19:37
Speaker 1: those who violate them, and such injury as this odium
1:19:40
Speaker 1: brings with it when disputes arise, would not voluntarily accepted
1:19:46
Speaker 1: arbitration or the pressure of public opinion be far more
1:19:50
Speaker 1: likely to bring about a just settlement of the difficulties
1:19:53
Speaker 1: in question than an irresponsible magistrate who has the right
1:19:57
Speaker 1: to pass judgment upon everybody and everything, and who is
1:20:00
Speaker 1: necessarily incompetent and therefore unjust. As every form of government
1:20:06
Speaker 1: only serves to protect the privileged classes, so do police
1:20:10
Speaker 1: and judges only aim at repressing those crimes often not
1:20:14
Speaker 1: considered criminal by the masses, which offend only the privileges
1:20:18
Speaker 1: of the rulers or property owners. For the real defense
1:20:21
Speaker 1: of society, the defense of the welfare and liberty of all,
1:20:25
Speaker 1: there can be nothing more pernicious than the formation of
1:20:28
Speaker 1: this class of functionaries, who exist on the pretense of
1:20:31
Speaker 1: defending all, and therefore habitually regard every man as game
1:20:36
Speaker 1: to be hunted down, often striking at the command of
1:20:39
Speaker 1: a superior officer, without themselves even knowing why, like hired
1:20:44
Speaker 1: assassins and mercenaries. End of Section four. All that you
1:20:51
Speaker 1: have said may be true, say some anarchy may be
1:20:54
Speaker 1: a perfect form of social life. But we have no
1:20:58
Speaker 1: desire to take a leap in the dark. Therefore, tell
1:21:02
Speaker 1: us how your society will be organized. Then follows a
1:21:05
Speaker 1: long string of questions, which would be very interesting if
1:21:09
Speaker 1: it were our business to study the problems that might
1:21:11
Speaker 1: arise in an emancipated society, but of which it is
1:21:16
Speaker 1: useless and absurd to imagine that we could now offer
1:21:19
Speaker 1: a definite solution. According to what method will children be taught?
1:21:24
Speaker 1: How will production and distribution be organized? Will there still
1:21:28
Speaker 1: be large cities, or will people spread equally over all
1:21:31
Speaker 1: the surface of the earth. Will all the inhabitants of
1:21:34
Speaker 1: Siberia winter at nice? Will every one dine on partridges
1:21:38
Speaker 1: and drink champagne? Who will be the miners and sailors?
1:21:42
Speaker 1: Who will clear the drains? Will the sick be nursed
1:21:45
Speaker 1: at home or in hospitals? Who will arrange the railway timetable?
1:21:49
Speaker 1: What will happen if the engine driver falls ill while
1:21:51
Speaker 1: the train is on its way? And so on without end,
1:21:54
Speaker 1: As though we could prophesy all the knowledge and experience
1:21:57
Speaker 1: of the future time, or could, in the name of anarchy,
1:22:00
Speaker 1: prescribe for the coming man what time we should go
1:22:03
Speaker 1: to bed, and on what days he should cut his nails. Indeed,
1:22:07
Speaker 1: if our readers expect from us an answer to these questions,
1:22:10
Speaker 1: or even to those among them really serious and important,
1:22:14
Speaker 1: which cannot be anything more than our own private opinion
1:22:17
Speaker 1: at this present hour, we must have succeeded badly in
1:22:20
Speaker 1: our endeavor to explain what anarchy is. We are no
1:22:24
Speaker 1: more profits than other men. And should we pretend to
1:22:27
Speaker 1: give an official solution to all the problems that will
1:22:30
Speaker 1: arise in the life of the future society, we should
1:22:33
Speaker 1: have indeed a curious idea of the abolition of government.
1:22:37
Speaker 1: We should then be describing a government dictating, like the clergy,
1:22:42
Speaker 1: a universal code for the present and all future time.
1:22:46
Speaker 1: Seeing that we have neither police nor prisons to enforce
1:22:49
Speaker 1: our doctrine, humanity might laugh with impunity at us and
1:22:53
Speaker 1: our pretensions. Nevertheless, we consider seriously all the problems of
1:22:57
Speaker 1: social life which now suggest themselves on a count of
1:23:00
Speaker 1: their scientific interest, And because, hoping to see anarchy realized,
1:23:04
Speaker 1: we wish to help towards the organization of the new society.
1:23:07
Speaker 1: We have therefore our own ideas on these subjects, ideas
1:23:11
Speaker 1: which are to our minds likely to be permanent or
1:23:14
Speaker 1: transitory according to their respective cases and its space permit.
1:23:18
Speaker 1: We might add somewhat more on these points. But the
1:23:22
Speaker 1: fact that we today think in a certain way on
1:23:24
Speaker 1: a given question is no proof that such will be
1:23:26
Speaker 1: the mode of procedure in the future. Who can foresee
1:23:30
Speaker 1: the activities which may develop in humanity when it is
1:23:32
Speaker 1: emancipated from misery and oppression, when all have the means
1:23:36
Speaker 1: of instruction and self development, when the strife between man
1:23:40
Speaker 1: with the hatred and rancored breeds will be no longer
1:23:43
Speaker 1: a necessary condition of existence. Who can foresee the progress
1:23:46
Speaker 1: of science, that new sources of production, means of communication,
1:23:50
Speaker 1: et cetera. The one essential is that a society be
1:23:54
Speaker 1: constituted in which the exploitation and domination of man by
1:23:58
Speaker 1: man are impossible. That the society, in other words, be
1:24:02
Speaker 1: such that the means of existence and development of labor
1:24:05
Speaker 1: be free and open to every one, and all be
1:24:07
Speaker 1: able to co operate according to their wishes and their
1:24:10
Speaker 1: knowledge in the organization of social life. Under such conditions,
1:24:14
Speaker 1: everything will necessarily be performed in compliance with the needs
1:24:18
Speaker 1: of all, according to the knowledge and possibilities of the moment,
1:24:21
Speaker 1: and everything will improve with the increase of knowledge and power.
1:24:25
Speaker 1: In fact, a program which would touch the basis of
1:24:28
Speaker 1: the new social constitution could not do more, after all,
1:24:31
Speaker 1: than indicate a method. And method, more than anything else,
1:24:35
Speaker 1: defines parties and determines their importance in history. Method apart.
1:24:40
Speaker 1: Every one says he wishes for the good of mankind,
1:24:43
Speaker 1: and many do truly wish for it. As parties disappear,
1:24:47
Speaker 1: every organized action directed to a definite end disappears. Likewise,
1:24:52
Speaker 1: it is therefore necessary to consider anarchy as above all
1:24:56
Speaker 1: a method. There are two methods by which that different
1:25:00
Speaker 1: parties not anarchistic expect or say they expect to bring
1:25:04
Speaker 1: about the greatest good of each and all. These are
1:25:08
Speaker 1: the authoritarian or state socialist and the individualist methods. The
1:25:13
Speaker 1: former entrusts the direction of social life to a few,
1:25:17
Speaker 1: and it would result in the exploitation and oppression of
1:25:20
Speaker 1: the masses by that view. The second party trusts to
1:25:24
Speaker 1: the free initiative of individuals and proclaims, if not the
1:25:27
Speaker 1: abolition the reduction of government. However, as it respects private
1:25:32
Speaker 1: property and is founded on the principle of each for
1:25:35
Speaker 1: himself and therefore on competition, its liberty is only the
1:25:40
Speaker 1: liberty of the strong, the license of those who have
1:25:43
Speaker 1: to oppress and exploit the weak, who have nothing. Far
1:25:47
Speaker 1: from producing harmony, it would tend always to augment the
1:25:50
Speaker 1: distance between the rich and the poor, and end also
1:25:53
Speaker 1: through exploitation and domination in authority. This second method, individualism is,
1:26:00
Speaker 1: in theory a kind of anarchy without socialism. It is
1:26:04
Speaker 1: therefore no better than a lie, because liberty is not
1:26:07
Speaker 1: possible without equality, and true anarchy cannot be without solidarity
1:26:12
Speaker 1: without socialism. The criticism which individualists pass on government is
1:26:17
Speaker 1: merely the wish to deprive it of certain functions, to
1:26:20
Speaker 1: virtually hand them over to the capitalist. But it cannot
1:26:24
Speaker 1: attack those repressive functions which form the essence of government,
1:26:28
Speaker 1: for without an armed force, the proprietary system could not
1:26:31
Speaker 1: be upheld. Nay, even more, under individualism, the repressive power
1:26:36
Speaker 1: of government must always increase in proportion to the increase
1:26:40
Speaker 1: by means of free competition. Of the want of equality
1:26:43
Speaker 1: and harmony, anarchists present a new method, the free initiative
1:26:49
Speaker 1: of all and free agreement. Then, after the revolutionary abolition
1:26:54
Speaker 1: of private property, every one will have equal power to
1:26:57
Speaker 1: dispose of social wealth. This method, not admitting the re
1:27:01
Speaker 1: establishment of private property, must lead, by means of free association,
1:27:06
Speaker 1: to the complete triumph of the principles of solidarity. Thus
1:27:10
Speaker 1: we see that all the problems put forward to combat
1:27:13
Speaker 1: the anarchistic idea are on the contrary arguments in favor
1:27:17
Speaker 1: of anarchy, because it alone indicates the way in which,
1:27:21
Speaker 1: by experience, those solutions which correspond to the dicta of
1:27:25
Speaker 1: science and to the needs and wishes of all, can
1:27:28
Speaker 1: best be found. How will children be educated? We do
1:27:32
Speaker 1: not know what. Then, the parents, teachers, and all who
1:27:36
Speaker 1: are interested in the progress of the rising generation will meet, discuss,
1:27:41
Speaker 1: agree and differ, and then divide according to their various opinions,
1:27:45
Speaker 1: putting into practice the methods which they respectively hold to
1:27:48
Speaker 1: be best. That method, which, when tried, produces the best results,
1:27:52
Speaker 1: will triumph in the end. And so for all the
1:27:55
Speaker 1: problems that may arise. According to what we have so
1:27:59
Speaker 1: far said, it is evident that anarchy, as the anarchists
1:28:02
Speaker 1: conceive it, and as alone it can be comprehended, is
1:28:05
Speaker 1: based on socialism. Furthermore, were it not for that school
1:28:09
Speaker 1: of socialists who artificially divide the natural unity of the
1:28:13
Speaker 1: social question considering only some detached points, and were it
1:28:17
Speaker 1: not also for the equivocations with which they strive to
1:28:21
Speaker 1: hinder the social revolution, we might say right away that
1:28:25
Speaker 1: anarchy is synonymous with socialism, because both signify the abolition
1:28:30
Speaker 1: of exploitation and of the domination of man over man,
1:28:33
Speaker 1: whether maintained by the force of arms or by the
1:28:35
Speaker 1: mobilization of the means of life. Anarchy, like socialism, has
1:28:40
Speaker 1: for its basis and necessary point of departure, equality of conditions.
1:28:45
Speaker 1: Its aim is solidarity, and its method liberty. It is
1:28:50
Speaker 1: not perfection, nor is it the absolute ideal, which, like
1:28:54
Speaker 1: the horizon, always recedes as we advance towards it. But
1:28:58
Speaker 1: it is the open road to all progress and to
1:29:01
Speaker 1: all improvement made in the interest of all humanity. There
1:29:06
Speaker 1: are authoritarians who grant that anarchy is the mode of
1:29:10
Speaker 1: social life which alone opens the way to the attainment
1:29:13
Speaker 1: of the highest possible good for mankind, because it alone
1:29:17
Speaker 1: can put an end to every class interested in keeping
1:29:20
Speaker 1: the masses oppressed and miserable. They also grant that anarchy
1:29:24
Speaker 1: is possible because it does nothing more than release humanity
1:29:28
Speaker 1: from an obstacle government against which it has always had
1:29:31
Speaker 1: to fight its painful way to its progress. Nevertheless, these authoritarians,
1:29:37
Speaker 1: re enforced by many warm lovers of liberty and justice
1:29:40
Speaker 1: in theory, retire unto our last entrenchments, because they are
1:29:44
Speaker 1: afraid of liberty and cannot be persuaded that mankind could
1:29:48
Speaker 1: live and prosper without teachers and pastors. Still hard pressed
1:29:53
Speaker 1: by the truth, they pitifully demand to have the reign
1:29:56
Speaker 1: of liberty put off for a while, indeed, for as
1:29:59
Speaker 1: long as possible, such as a substance of the arguments
1:30:03
Speaker 1: that meet us at this stage. A society without a government,
1:30:07
Speaker 1: which would act by free, voluntary cooperation, trusting entirely to
1:30:12
Speaker 1: the spontaneous action of those interested, and founded altogether on
1:30:16
Speaker 1: solidarity and sympathy, is, certainly, they say, a very beautiful ideal,
1:30:21
Speaker 1: but like all ideals, it is a castle in the air.
1:30:25
Speaker 1: We find ourselves placed in a human society which has
1:30:28
Speaker 1: always been divided into oppressors and oppressed, And if the
1:30:31
Speaker 1: former are full of the spirit of domination and have
1:30:34
Speaker 1: all the vices of tyrants, the latter are corrupted by servility,
1:30:38
Speaker 1: and have those still worse vices which are the result
1:30:41
Speaker 1: of enslavement. The sentiment of solidarity is far from being
1:30:46
Speaker 1: dominant in man at the present day. And if it
1:30:48
Speaker 1: is true that different classes of men are becoming more
1:30:51
Speaker 1: and more unanimous among themselves, it is nonetheless true that
1:30:55
Speaker 1: that which is most conspicuous and impresses itself most on
1:30:59
Speaker 1: human care character to day is the struggle for existence.
1:31:03
Speaker 1: It is a fact that each fights daily against everyone else,
1:31:07
Speaker 1: and competition presses upon all workmen and masters, causing every
1:31:11
Speaker 1: man to become a wolf towards every other man. How
1:31:15
Speaker 1: can these men, educated in a society based upon antagonism
1:31:20
Speaker 1: between individuals as well as classes, be transformed in a
1:31:23
Speaker 1: moment and become capable of living in a society in
1:31:27
Speaker 1: which each shall do as he likes and as he should,
1:31:30
Speaker 1: without external coercion, caring for the good of others simply
1:31:34
Speaker 1: by the impulse of their own nature. And with what
1:31:38
Speaker 1: heart or what common sense can he trust to a
1:31:41
Speaker 1: revolution on the part of an ignorant, turbulent mass, weakened
1:31:45
Speaker 1: by misery, stupefied by priestcraft, who are to day blindly
1:31:50
Speaker 1: sandronary and tomorrow, will let themselves be humbuged by any
1:31:54
Speaker 1: knave who dares to call themselves their master. Would it
1:31:57
Speaker 1: not be more prudent to advance greatly towards the anarchistic ideal,
1:32:02
Speaker 1: passing through republican, democratic, and socialistic stages. Will not an
1:32:07
Speaker 1: educative government composed of the best man be necessary to
1:32:12
Speaker 1: prepare the advancing generations for their future destiny. These objections
1:32:17
Speaker 1: also ought not to appear valid if we have succeeded
1:32:21
Speaker 1: in making our readers understand what we have already said,
1:32:24
Speaker 1: and in convincing them of it. But in any case,
1:32:28
Speaker 1: even at the risk of a repetition, it may be
1:32:30
Speaker 1: as well to answer them. We find ourselves continually met
1:32:35
Speaker 1: by the false notion that government is in itself a
1:32:38
Speaker 1: new force sprung up. One knows not whence which of
1:32:42
Speaker 1: itself adds something to the sum of the force and
1:32:45
Speaker 1: capability of those whom it is composed of and of
1:32:48
Speaker 1: those who obeyed. While on the contrary, all that is
1:32:52
Speaker 1: done is done by individual men, the government as a
1:32:55
Speaker 1: government adds nothing save the tendency to monopolize for the
1:33:00
Speaker 1: advantage of certain parties or classes, and to repress all
1:33:03
Speaker 1: initiative from beyond its own circle. To abolish authority or
1:33:09
Speaker 1: government does not mean to destroy the individual or collective
1:33:13
Speaker 1: forces which are at work in society, nor the influence
1:33:17
Speaker 1: men exert over one another. That will be to reduce
1:33:21
Speaker 1: humanity to an aggregate of inert and separate atoms, an
1:33:25
Speaker 1: impossibility which, if it could be performed, would be the
1:33:29
Speaker 1: destruction of any society, the death blow to mankind. To
1:33:34
Speaker 1: abolish authority means to abolish the monopoly of force and
1:33:38
Speaker 1: of influence. It means to abolish that state of things
1:33:42
Speaker 1: by which social force, that is, the collective force of
1:33:45
Speaker 1: all in a society, is made the instrument of the thought,
1:33:49
Speaker 1: will and interests of a small number of individuals. These,
1:33:53
Speaker 1: by means of the collective force, suppressed the liberty of
1:33:56
Speaker 1: every one else to the advantage of their own ideas.
1:34:00
Speaker 1: In other words, it means to destroy a mode of
1:34:03
Speaker 1: organization by means of which the future is exploited between
1:34:07
Speaker 1: one revolution and another to the profit of those who
1:34:10
Speaker 1: have been the victors of the moment. Mihail Barcunnen, in
1:34:15
Speaker 1: an article published in eighteen seventy two, asserts that the
1:34:19
Speaker 1: great means of action of the International with the propagating
1:34:22
Speaker 1: of their ideas and the organization of the spontaneous action
1:34:26
Speaker 1: of its members in regard to the masses. He then adds,
1:34:31
Speaker 1: to whoever might pretend that action so organized would be
1:34:35
Speaker 1: an outrage on the liberty of the masses, or an
1:34:38
Speaker 1: attempt to create a new authoritative power, we would reply
1:34:42
Speaker 1: that he is a sophist and a fool. So much
1:34:45
Speaker 1: the worse for those who ignore the natural social law
1:34:48
Speaker 1: of human solidarity to the extent of imagining that an
1:34:51
Speaker 1: absolute mutual independence of individuals and of masses is a
1:34:55
Speaker 1: possible or even desirable thing to desire, it would be
1:35:00
Speaker 1: to wish for the destruction of society. For all, social
1:35:03
Speaker 1: life is nothing else than this mutual and incessant interdependence
1:35:09
Speaker 1: among individuals and masses. All individuals, even the most gifted
1:35:14
Speaker 1: and strongest, indeed most of all the most gifted and strongest,
1:35:18
Speaker 1: are at every moment of their lives at the same
1:35:21
Speaker 1: time producers and products. Equal liberty for every individual is
1:35:26
Speaker 1: only the resultant, continually reproduced of this mass of material, intellectual,
1:35:31
Speaker 1: and moral influence exercised on him by all the individuals
1:35:34
Speaker 1: around him belonging to the society in which he was
1:35:37
Speaker 1: born has developed and dies. To wish to escape this
1:35:41
Speaker 1: influence in the name of a transcendental liberty, divine, absolutely egoistic,
1:35:46
Speaker 1: and sufficient to itself, is the tendency to annihilation. To
1:35:51
Speaker 1: refrain from influencing others would mean to refrain from all
1:35:54
Speaker 1: social action, indeed, to abstain from all expression of one's
1:35:58
Speaker 1: thoughts and sentiments, and simply to become non existent this
1:36:03
Speaker 1: independence so much extolled by idealists and metaphysicians. Individual liberty
1:36:08
Speaker 1: conceived in this sense would amount to self annihilation in nature,
1:36:14
Speaker 1: as in human society, which is also a part of
1:36:17
Speaker 1: this same nature. All that exists lives only by complying
1:36:21
Speaker 1: with the supreme conditions of interaction, which is more or
1:36:25
Speaker 1: less positive and potent with regard to the lives of
1:36:27
Speaker 1: other beings, according to the nature of the individual. And
1:36:31
Speaker 1: when we vindicate the liberty of the masses, we do
1:36:34
Speaker 1: not pretend to abolish anything of the natural influences that
1:36:38
Speaker 1: individuals or groups of individuals exert upon one another. What
1:36:42
Speaker 1: we wish for is the abolition of artificial influences, which
1:36:46
Speaker 1: are privileged, legal and official end. Certainly, in the present
1:36:53
Speaker 1: state of mankind, oppressed by misery, stupefied by superstition, and
1:36:57
Speaker 1: sunk in degradation. The human life lot depends upon a
1:37:01
Speaker 1: relatively small number of individuals. Of course, all men will
1:37:05
Speaker 1: not be able to rise in a moment to the
1:37:07
Speaker 1: height of perceiving their duty or even the enjoyment of
1:37:11
Speaker 1: so regulating their own action that others also will derive
1:37:15
Speaker 1: the greatest possible benefit from it. But because nowadays the
1:37:19
Speaker 1: thoughtful and guiding forces at work in society are few,
1:37:23
Speaker 1: that is no reason for paralyzing them still more, and
1:37:26
Speaker 1: for the subjection of many individuals to the direction of
1:37:29
Speaker 1: a few. It is no reason for constituting society in
1:37:33
Speaker 1: such a manner that the most active forces, the highest capacities, are,
1:37:38
Speaker 1: in the end found outside the government and almost deprived
1:37:41
Speaker 1: of influence on social life. All this now happens owing
1:37:46
Speaker 1: to the inertia that secured positions foster to heredity, to protectionism,
1:37:53
Speaker 1: to party spirit, and all the mechanisms of government. For
1:37:57
Speaker 1: those in government office, taken out of their former social position,
1:38:01
Speaker 1: primarily concerned in retaining power, lose all power to act
1:38:05
Speaker 1: spontaneously and become only an obstacle to the free action
1:38:09
Speaker 1: of others. With the abolition of this negative potency constituting government,
1:38:14
Speaker 1: society will become that which it can be with the
1:38:17
Speaker 1: given forces and capabilities. At the moment. If there are
1:38:21
Speaker 1: educated men desires of spreading education, they will organize the
1:38:25
Speaker 1: schools and will be constrained to make the use and
1:38:28
Speaker 1: enjoyment to be derived from education felt. And if there
1:38:32
Speaker 1: are no such men, or only a few of them,
1:38:35
Speaker 1: a government cannot create them. All it can do, as
1:38:38
Speaker 1: in fact it does nowadays, is to take these few
1:38:41
Speaker 1: away from practical, fruitful work in the sphere of education
1:38:45
Speaker 1: and put them to direct from above what has to
1:38:48
Speaker 1: be imposed by the help of a police system. So
1:38:52
Speaker 1: they make out of intelligent and impassionate teachers mere politicians
1:38:57
Speaker 1: who become useless parasites entirely of absorbed in imposing their
1:39:01
Speaker 1: own hobbies and in maintaining themselves in power. If there
1:39:05
Speaker 1: are doctors and teachers of hygiene, they will organize themselves
1:39:09
Speaker 1: for the service of health. And if there are none,
1:39:12
Speaker 1: a government cannot create them. All that can do is
1:39:16
Speaker 1: to discredit them in the eyes of the people, who
1:39:18
Speaker 1: are inclined to entertain suspicions sometimes only too well founded,
1:39:23
Speaker 1: with regard to everything which is imposed upon them. If
1:39:26
Speaker 1: there are engineers and mechanics, they will organize the railways,
1:39:30
Speaker 1: et cetera. And if there are none, a government cannot
1:39:33
Speaker 1: create them. The revolution, by abolishing government and private property,
1:39:39
Speaker 1: will not create force which does not exist, but it
1:39:42
Speaker 1: will leave a free field for the exercise of all
1:39:45
Speaker 1: available force and of all existent capacity. While it will
1:39:49
Speaker 1: destroy every class interested in keeping the masses degraded, it
1:39:53
Speaker 1: will act in such a way that everyone will be
1:39:56
Speaker 1: free to work and make his influence felt in proportion
1:39:59
Speaker 1: to its own capacity, and in conformity with its sentiments
1:40:03
Speaker 1: and interests. And it is only thus that the elevation
1:40:06
Speaker 1: at the masses is possible. For it is only with
1:40:09
Speaker 1: liberty that one can learn to be free, as it
1:40:13
Speaker 1: is only by working that one can learn to work.
1:40:17
Speaker 1: A government, even had it no other advantages, must always
1:40:21
Speaker 1: have that of habituating the government the subjection, and must
1:40:25
Speaker 1: also tend to become more oppressive and more necessary in
1:40:29
Speaker 1: proportion as its subjects are more obedient than docile. But
1:40:34
Speaker 1: suppose government with the direction of affairs by the best people,
1:40:38
Speaker 1: who are the best, and how shall we recognize their superiority?
1:40:43
Speaker 1: The majority are generally attached to old prejudices, and have
1:40:46
Speaker 1: ideas and instincts already outgrown by the more favored minority.
1:40:51
Speaker 1: But not the various minorities, who all believe themselves in
1:40:55
Speaker 1: the right. As no doubt many of them are in
1:40:57
Speaker 1: part which shall be chosen to rule, and by whom
1:41:01
Speaker 1: and by what criterion, seeing that the future alone can
1:41:05
Speaker 1: prove which among them is the most superior. If you
1:41:09
Speaker 1: choose a hundred partisans of dictatorship, you will discover that
1:41:12
Speaker 1: each one of the hundred believes himself capable of being,
1:41:16
Speaker 1: if not sole dictator, at least of assisting very materially
1:41:20
Speaker 1: in the dictatorial government. The dictators would be those who,
1:41:24
Speaker 1: by one means or another, succeeded in imposing themselves on society,
1:41:29
Speaker 1: and in course of time, all their energy would inevitably
1:41:32
Speaker 1: be employed in defending themselves against the attacks of their adversaries,
1:41:37
Speaker 1: totally oblivious of their desire, if ever, they had had
1:41:40
Speaker 1: it to be merely an educative power. Should government be,
1:41:44
Speaker 1: on the other hand, elected by universal suffrage, and so
1:41:48
Speaker 1: be the emanation more or less sincere of the wish
1:41:51
Speaker 1: of the majority. But if you consider these worthy electors
1:41:55
Speaker 1: as incapable of providing for their own interests. How can
1:42:00
Speaker 1: they ever be capable of themselves choosing directors to guide
1:42:03
Speaker 1: them wisely? How to solve this problem of social alchemy?
1:42:08
Speaker 1: To elect a government of geniuses by the votes of
1:42:11
Speaker 1: a mass of fools, And what will be the lot
1:42:14
Speaker 1: of the minority who are the most intelligent, most active,
1:42:18
Speaker 1: and most advanced in society? To solve the social problem
1:42:23
Speaker 1: to the advantage of all. There is only one way
1:42:27
Speaker 1: to expel the government by revolutionary means, to expropriate the
1:42:31
Speaker 1: holders of social wealth, putting everything at the disposition of all,
1:42:35
Speaker 1: and to leave all existing force, capacity, and good will
1:42:39
Speaker 1: among men free to provide for the needs of all.
1:42:43
Speaker 1: We fight for anarchy and for socialism because we believe
1:42:46
Speaker 1: that anarchy and socialism ought to be brought into operation
1:42:50
Speaker 1: as soon as possible, Which means that the revolution must
1:42:54
Speaker 1: drive away the government, abolish private property, and intrust all
1:42:59
Speaker 1: public service, which will then embrace all social life to
1:43:03
Speaker 1: the spontaneous, free, unofficial, and unauthorized operation of all those interested,
1:43:09
Speaker 1: at all those willing volunteers. There will certainly be difficulties
1:43:14
Speaker 1: and inconveniences, but the people will be resolute, and they
1:43:19
Speaker 1: alone can solve all difficulties anarchically, that is, by direct
1:43:23
Speaker 1: action of those interested and by free agreement. We cannot
1:43:28
Speaker 1: say whether anarchy and socialism will triumph after the next
1:43:31
Speaker 1: revolutionary attempt. But this is certain that if any of
1:43:37
Speaker 1: the so called transition programs triumph, it will be because
1:43:41
Speaker 1: we have been temporarily beaten, and never because we have
1:43:45
Speaker 1: thought it wise to leave in existence any one part
1:43:49
Speaker 1: of that evil system under which humanity groans. Whatever happens,
1:43:55
Speaker 1: we shall have some influence on events by our numbers,
1:43:58
Speaker 1: our energy, are intelligence, and our steadfastness. Also, even if
1:44:03
Speaker 1: we are now conquered, our work will not have been
1:44:06
Speaker 1: in vain. For the more decided we shall have been
1:44:09
Speaker 1: in aiming at the realization of all our demands, the
1:44:13
Speaker 1: less there will be of government and of private property
1:44:15
Speaker 1: in the new society, and we shall have done a
1:44:18
Speaker 1: great work. For human progress is measured by the degree
1:44:22
Speaker 1: in which government and private property are administered. If to
1:44:26
Speaker 1: day we fall without lowering our colors, our cause is
1:44:30
Speaker 1: certain of victory tomorrow. End of Section five End of
1:44:37
Speaker 1: Anarchy by Erco Mala Testa