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03 - Anarchy - Errico Malatesta · The Philosophy Insights Collection

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Man has two necessary fundamental characteristics, the instinct of his own preservation, without
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which no being could exist, and the instinct of the preservation of his species,
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without which no species could have been formed or have continued to exist.
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He is naturally driven to defend his own existence and well being and that of
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his offspring against every danger. In nature, living beings find two ways of
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securing their existence and rendering it pleasanter The one is an individual's strife with the
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elements and with other individuals of the same or different species. The other is
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mutual support or co operation, which might also be described as association for strife
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against all natural factors destructive to existence or to the development and well being of
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the associated. We do not need to investigate in these pages, and we
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cannot, for lack of space, what respective proportions in the evolution of the
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organic world these two principles of strife and cooperation take. It will suffice to
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note how co operation among men, whether forced or voluntary, has become the
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sole means of progress, of improvement, or of securing safety, and how
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strife, relic of an earlier stage of existence, has become thoroughly unsuitable as
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a means of securing the well being of individuals, and produces instead injury to
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all, both the conquerors and the conquered. The accumulated and transmitted experience of
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successive generations has taught men that by uniting with other men, his preservation is
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better secured and is well being increased. Thus, out of this same strife
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for existence carried on against surrounding nature and against individuals of their own species,
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the social instinct has been developed among men and has completely transformed the conditions of
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their life. Through cooperation, man been enabled to evolve out of animalism,
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has risen to great power, and elevated himself to such a degree above the
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other animals that metaphysical philosophers have believed it necessary to invent for him an immaterial
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and immortal soul. Many concurrent causes have contributed to the formation of his social
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instinct, that, starting from the animal basis of the instinct for the preservation
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of the species, has now become so extended and so intense that it constitutes
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the essential element of man's moral nature. Man, however, he evolved from
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inferior animal types, was a physically weak being, unarmed for the fight against
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carnivorous beasts. But he was possessed of a brain capable of great development,
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and a vocal organ able to express the various cerebral vibrations by means of diverse
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sounds, and hands adapted to give the desired form to matter. He must
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have very soon felt the need and advantages of association with his fellows. Indeed,
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it may even be said that he could only rise out of animalism when
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he became social and had acquired the use of language, which is at the
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same time a consequence and a potent factor of sociability. The relatively scanty number
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of the human species rendered the strife for existence between man and man even beyond
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the limits of association, less sharp, less continuous, and less necessary.
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At the same time, it must have greatly favored the development of sympathetic sentiments,
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and have left time for the discovery and appreciation of the utility of mutual
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support. In short, social life became the necessary condition of men's existence,
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in consequence of his capacity to modify his external surroundings and adapt them to his
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own wants by the exercise of his primeval power in cooperation with a greater or
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less number of associates, his desires have multiplied with the means of satisfying them
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and have become needs, and division of labor has arisen from men's methodical use
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of nature for his own advantage. Therefore, as now evolved, man could
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not live apart from his fellows without falling back into a state of animalism.
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Through the refinement of sensibility, with the multiplication of social relationships, and through
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habit impressed of a species by hereditary transmission. For thousands of centuries, this
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need of social life, this interchange of thought and of affection between man and
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man, has become a mode of being necessary for our organism. It has
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been transformed into sympathy, friendship, and love, and subsists independently of the
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material advantages that association procures. So much is this the case that man will
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often face suffering of every kind and even death for the satisfaction of these sentiments.
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The fact is that a totally different character had been given to the strife
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for existence between man and man and between the inferior animals, by the enormous
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advantages that association gives to man, and by the fact that his physical powers
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are altogether disproportionate to his intellectual superiority over the beasts, so long as he
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remains isolated by his possibility of associating with an ever increasing number of individuals and
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entering into more and more intricate and complex relationships, until he reaches association with
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all humanity, and finally, perhaps more than all, by his ability to
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produce working in cooperation with others, more than he needs to live upon.
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It is evident that these causes, together with the sentiments of affection derived from
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them, must give quite a peculiar character to the struggle for existence among human
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beings. Although it is now known, and the researches of modern naturalists bring
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us every day new proofs that cooperation has played and still a most important part
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in the development of the organic world. Nevertheless, the difference between a human
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struggle for existence and that of the inferior animals is enormous. It is in
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fact, proportionate to the distance separating man from the other animals. And this
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is nonetheless true because of that Darwinian theory which the bourgeois class have ridden to
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death, little suspecting the extent to which mutual cooperation has assisted in the development
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of the lower animals. The lower animals fight either individually or more often in
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little, permanent or transitory groups, against all nature. The other individuals of
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their own species, included some of the more social animals, such as ants,
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bees, et cetera, associate together in the same ant, hill or
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beehive, but are at war with or indifferent towards other communities of their own
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species. Humans strive, with nature, on the contrary, tends always to
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broaden association among them, to unite their interests, and to develop each individual's
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sentiments of affection towards all others, so that, united they may conquer and
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dominate the dangers of external nature by and for humanity. All strife directed towards
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obtaining advantages independently of other men and in opposition to them, contradicts the social
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nature of modern man, and tends to lead it back to a more animal
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condition. Solidarity, that is, harmony of interests and sentiments, the sharing
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of each in the good of all and of all in the good of each,
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is the state in which alone man can be true to his own nature
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and attain to the highest development and happiness. It is the aim towards which
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human development tends. It is the one great principle capable of reconciling all present
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antagonisms in society otherwise irreconcilable. It causes the liberty of each to find not
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its limits, but its complement, the necessary condition of its continual existence.
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In the liberty of all, No man, says Michael Bacunin, quote,
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can recognize his own human worth, nor, in consequence, realize his full
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development if he does not recognize the worth of his fellow men, and,
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in co operation with them, realize his own development through them. No man
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can emancipate himself unless at the same time he emancipates those around him. My
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freedom is the freedom of all. For I am not really free, free
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not only in thought, but indeed, if my freedom and my right do
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not find their confirmation and sanction in the liberty and right of all men,
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my equals It matters much to me what all other men are, For,
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however independent I may seem, or may believe myself to be, by virtue
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of my social position, whether as Pope, sire, Emperor, or prime
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minister, I am all the while the product of those who are the least
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among men. If these are ignorant, miserable, or enslaved, my existence
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is limited by their ignorance, misery, or slavery. I, though in
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intelligent and enlightened man, am made stupid by their stupidity. Though brave and
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enslaved by their slavery, though rich, tremble before their poverty. Though privileged,
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grow pale at the thought of possible justice for them, I, who
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wish to be free, cannot be so, because around me are men who
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do not yet desire freedom, and not desiring it become as opposed to me
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the instruments of my oppression. And Solidarity, then, is the condition in
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which men can attain the highest degree of security and of well being. Therefore,
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egoism itself, that is, the exclusive consideration of individual interests, impels
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man and human society towards so solidarity, or rather egoism and altruism, consideration
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of the interests of others, are united in this one sentiment, as the
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interest of the individual is one with the interests of society. However, man
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could not pass at once from animalism to humanity, from brutal strive between man
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and man, to the collective strife of all mankind united in one brotherhood of
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mutual aid against external nature, guided by the advantages that association and the consequent
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division of labor offer, man evolved towards solidarity, But his evolution encountered an
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obstacle which led him and still leads him away from his aim. He discovered
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that he could realize the advantages of co operation, at least up to a
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certain point, and for the material and primitive wants that then comprised all his
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needs, by making other men subject to himself instead of associating on an equality
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with them. Thus, the ferocious and antisocial instincts inherited from his pastial ancestry
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again obtained the upper hand. He forced the weaker to work for him,
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preferring to domineer oval rather than to associate fraternally with his fellows. Perhaps also
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in most cases, it was by exploiting the conquered in war that man learned
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for the first time the benefits of association and the help that can be obtained
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from mutual support. Thus it has come about that the establishment of the utility
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of co operation, which ought to lead to the triumph of solidarity in all
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human concerns, has turned to the advantage of private property and of government,
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in other words, to the exploitation of the labor of the many. For
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the sake of the privileged few. There has always been association and co operation,
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without which human life would be impossible, but it has been co operation
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imposed and regulated by the few in their own particular interest. From this fact
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arises a great contradiction with which the history of mankind is filled. On the
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one hand, we find the tendency to associate and fraternize for the purpose of
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conquering and adapting the external world to human needs and for the satisfaction of the
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human affections, while on the other hand we see the tendency to divide into
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as many separate and hostile factions as there are different conditions of life. These
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factions are determined, for instance, by geographical and ethnological conditions, by differences
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in economic position, by privileges acquired by some and sought to be secured by
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others, or by suffering endured with the ever recurring desire to rebel. The
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principle of each for himself, that is, of war of all against all,
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has come in the course of time to complicate, lead, astray,
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and paralyze the war of all combined against nature for the common advantage of the
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human race, which could only be completely successful by acting on the principle of
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all for each and each for all. Great have been the evils which humanity
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has suffered by this intermingling of domination and exploitation with human association. But in
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spite of the atrocious oppression to which the masses submit, or the misery,
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vice, crime, and degradation which oppression and slavery produce among the slaves and
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their masters, and in spite of the hatreds, the exterminating wars, and
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the antagonisms of artificially created interests, the social instinct has survived and even developed.
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Cooperation, having been always in the necessary condition for successful combat against external
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nature, has therefore been the permanent cause of men's coming together, and consequently
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of the development of their sympathetic sentiments. Even the oppression of the masses as
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itself cause the oppressed to fraternize among themselves. Indeed, it has been solely
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owing to this feeling of solidarity, more or less conscious and more or less
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widespread among the oppressed, that they have been able to endure the oppression,
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and that man has resisted the causes of death in his midst. In the
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present, the immense development of production, the growth of human needs, which
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cannot be satisfied except by the united efforts of a large number of men in
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all countries. The extended means of communication, habits of travel, science,
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literature, commerce, even war itself. All these have drawn and are still
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drawing, humanity into a compact body, every section of which, closely knit
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together, can find its satisfaction and liberty only in the development and health of
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all other sections composing the whole. The inhabitant of Naples is as much interest
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in the amelioration of the hygienic condition of the peoples on the banks of the
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Ganges, from whence the cholera is brought to him, as in the improvement
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of the sewerage in his own town. The well being, liberty, or
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fortune of the mountaineer lost among the precipices of the Apennines does not depend alone
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on the state of well being or of misery in which the inhabitants of his
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own village live, or even on the general condition of the Italian people,
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but also on the condition of the workers in America or Australia, on the
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discovery of a Swedish scientist, on the moral and material conditions of the Chinese,
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on war or peace in Africa. In short, it depends on all
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the great and small circumstances which affect the human being in any spot whatever of
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the world. In the present condition of society, the vast solidarity which unites
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all men is in a great degree unconscious, since it arises spontaneously from the
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friction of particular interests, while men occupy themselves little or not at all with
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general interests. And this is the most evident proof that solidarity is the natural
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law of human life, which imposes itself, so to speak, in spite
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of all obstacles, and even those artificially created by society as at present constituted.
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On the other hand, the oppressed masses, never wholly resigned to oppression
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and misery, who to day, more than ever show themselves ardent for justice,
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liberty, and well being, are beginning to understand that they cannot emancipate
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themselves except by uniting through solidarity, with all their oppressed and exploited over the
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whole world. And they understand also that the indispensable condition of their emancipation is
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the possession of the means of production, of the soil and of the instruments
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of labor. And further, the abolition of private property. Science and the
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observation of social phenomena show that this abolition would be of immense advantage in the
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end, even to the privileged classes, if only they could bring themselves to
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renounce the spirit of domination and concur with all their fellow men in laboring for
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the common good. Now, should the oppressed masses some day refuse to work
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for their oppressors, Should they take possession of the soil and the instruments of
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labor and apply them for their own use and advantage, and that of all
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who work. Should they no longer submit to the domination either of brute force
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or economic privilege. Should the spirit of human fellowship and the sentiment of human
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solidarity, strengthened by common interests, grow among the people and put an end
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to strive between nations, then what ground would there be for the existence of
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a government private property Abolished government, which is its defender, must disappear.
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Should it survive, it would continuely tend to reconstruct, under one form or
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another, a privileged and oppressive class. And the abolition of government does not,
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nor cannot signify the doing away with human association. Far otherwise, for
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that co operation which today is enforced and directed to the advantage of the few,
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would be free and voluntary, directed to the advantage of all. Therefore,
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it would become more intense and efficacious. The social instinct and the sentiment
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of solidarity would develop to the highest degree, and every individual would do all
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in his power for the good of others, as much for the satisfaction of
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his own well understood interests as for the gratification of a sympathetic sentiments. By
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the free association of all, a social organization would arise through the spontaneous grouping
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of men according to their needs and sympathies, from the low to the high,
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from the simple to the complex, starting from the more immediate to arrive
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at the more distant and general interests. This organization would have for its aim
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the greatest good and fullest liberty to all. It would embrace all humanity in
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one common brotherhood, and would be modified and improved as circumstances were modified and
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changed according to the teachings of experience. This society of free men, this
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society of friends, would be anarchy. End of Section three