Latest / Logic Library / 02 - Anarchy - Errico Malatesta

Transcript

02 - Anarchy - Errico Malatesta · Logic Library

0:00
We have said that anarchy is society without government. But if the suppression of
0:06
government possible, desirable or wise, let us see what is the government.
0:14
There is a disease of the human mind called the metaphysical tendency, causing man,
0:20
after he has by a logical process abstracted the quality from an object,
0:24
to be subject to a kind of hallucination which makes him take the abstraction for
0:30
the real thing. This metaphysical tendency, in spite of the blows of positive
0:36
science, has still strong root in the minds of the majority of our contemporary
0:40
fellow men. It has such an influence that many consider government an actual entity
0:47
with certain given attributes of reason, justice, equity, independently of the people
0:54
who compose the government. For those who think in this way, government or
0:59
the state is the abstract social power, and it represents always in the abstract,
1:04
the general interest. It is the expression of the right of all,
1:10
and considered as limited by the rights of each. This way of understanding government
1:15
is supported by those interested, to whom it is an urgent necessity that the
1:19
principle of authority should be maintained and should always survive the faults and errors of
1:26
the persons who succeed to the exercise of power. For us, the government
1:30
is the aggregate of the governors. And the governors, kings, presidents,
1:37
ministers, members of parliament, and what not are those who have the power
1:42
to make laws, to regulate the relations between men, and to force obedience
1:46
to these laws. They are those who decide upon and claim the taxes and
1:52
force military service, judge and punished transgressions of the laws. They subject men
1:59
to regulations, and supervise and sanction private contracts. They monopolize certain branches of
2:05
production and public services, or if they wish all production and public service.
2:12
They promote or hinder the exchange of goods. They make war or peace with
2:16
the governments of other countries. They concede or withhold free trade, and many
2:23
things else. In short, the governors are those who have the power,
2:28
in a greater or less degree, to make use of the collective force of
2:31
society, that is, of the physical, intellectual, and economic force of
2:36
all, to oblige each to do this said governor's wish. And this power
2:43
constitutes, in our opinion, the very principle of government, the principle of
2:47
authority. But what reason is there for the existence of government. Why abdicate
2:54
one's own liberty, one's own initiative in favor of other individuals? Why give
3:00
them the power to be the masters with or contrary to the wish of each,
3:06
to dispose of the forces of all in their own way? Are the
3:09
governors such very exceptionally gifted men as to enable them, with some show of
3:15
reason, to represent the masses and act in the interest of all men better
3:21
than all men would be able to do for themselves. Are they so infallible
3:25
and incorruptible that one can confide to them with any semblance of prudence the fate
3:31
of each and all, trusting to their knowledge and their goodness. And even
3:38
if their existed men of infinite goodness and knowledge, even if we assume what
3:43
has never been verified in history, and what we believe it would be impossible
3:47
to verify, namely, that the government might devolve upon the ablest and best.
3:53
Would the possession of governmental power add anything to their beneficent influence? Would
3:59
it not rather paralyze or destroy it? For those who govern find it necessary
4:03
to occupy themselves with things which they do not understand, and above all,
4:09
to waste the greater part of their energy in keeping themselves in power, striving
4:13
to satisfy their friends, holding the discontented in check, and mastering the rebellious.
4:18
Again, be the governors good or bad, wise or ignorant? Who
4:24
is it that appoints them to their office? Do they impose themselves by right
4:29
of war, conquest, or revolution? Then what guarantees have the public that
4:33
their rulers have the general good at heart? In this case it is simply
4:39
a question of usurpation. And if the subjects are discontented, nothing is left
4:44
to them but to throw off the yoke by an appeal to alms. Are
4:47
the governors chosen from a certain class or party, then certainly the ideas and
4:54
interests of that class or party will triumph, and the wishes and interests of
4:59
the others will sacrificed. Are they elected by universal suffrage? Now, numbers
5:05
are the sole criterion, and numbers are certainly no proof of reason, justice,
5:12
or capacity. And the universal suffrage the elected are those who know best
5:16
how to take in the masses. The minority, which may happen to be
5:21
half minus one, is sacrificed, and that without considering that there is another
5:28
thing to take into account. Experience has shown it is impossible to hit upon
5:33
an electoral system which really ensures election by the actual majority. Many and various
5:41
are the theories by which men have sought to justify the existence of government.
5:46
All, however, are founded, confessedly or not, on the assumption that
5:50
the individuals of a society have contrary interests, and that an external superior power
5:56
is necessary to oblige some to respect the interests of others, by prescribing and
6:01
imposing a rule of conduct according to which the interests that strive may be harmonized
6:06
as much as possible, and according to which each obtains the maximum of satisfaction
6:13
with the minimum of sacrifice. If, say the theorists of the authoritarian school,
6:19
the interests, tendencies, and desires of an individual are in opposition to
6:25
those of another individual, or may have all society. Who will have the
6:30
right and the power to oblige the one to respect the interests of the others,
6:34
Who will be able to prevent the individual citizen from offending the general will?
6:41
The liberty of each, say they has for its limit the liberty of
6:45
others. But who will establish those limits and who will cause them to be
6:48
respected? The natural antagonism of interests and passions, creates the necessity for government
6:56
and justifies authority. Authority intervenes as moderator of the social strife and defines the
7:02
limits of the rights and duties of each. This is a theory, but
7:08
the theory to be sound ought to be based upon facts and to explain them.
7:13
We know well how in social economy, theories are too often invented to
7:17
justify facts, that is, to defend privilege and cause it to be accepted
7:23
tranquility by those who are its victims. Let us here look at the facts
7:28
themselves. In all the course of history, as at the present epoch,
7:32
government is either the brutal, violent, arbitrary domination of the few over the
7:38
many, or it is an instrument ordained secure domination and privilege to those who,
7:44
by force or cunning or inheritance, have taken to themselves all the means
7:49
of life, and first and foremost the soil, whereby they hold the people
7:55
in servitude, making them work for their advantage. Government oppress mankind in two
8:01
ways, either directly by brute force, that is, physical violence, or
8:07
indirectly by depriving them of the means of subsistence and thus reducing them to helplessness
8:13
at discretion. Political power originated in the first method. Economic privilege arose from
8:18
the second. Governments can also oppress man by acting on his emotional nature,
8:24
and in this way constitute religious authority. But there is no reason for the
8:30
propagation of religious superstitions except that they defend and consolidate political and economic privileges.
8:37
In primitive society, when the world was not so densely populated as now,
8:43
and social relations were less complicated, when any circumstance prevented the formation of habits
8:48
and customs of solidarity, or destroyed those which already existed, and established the
8:54
domination of man over man, the two powers, the political and the economical,
8:58
were united in the same hands, and often also in those of one
9:03
single individual. Those who had by force conquered and impoverished the others constrained them
9:09
to become their servants and perform all things for them according to their caprice.
9:15
The victors were at once proprietors, legislators, kings, judges, and executioners.
9:22
But with the increase of population, with the growth of needs, with
9:26
the complication of social relationships, the prolonged continuance of such despotism became impossible for
9:33
their own security. The rulers, often much against their will, were obliged
9:37
to depend upon a privileged class, that is, a certain number of co
9:43
interested individuals, and were also obliged to let each of these individuals provide for
9:48
his own sustenance. Nevertheless, they reserved to themselves the supreme or ultimate control.
9:54
In other words, the rulers reserved to themselves their right to expect lloyd
10:00
all at their own convenience, and so to satisfy their kingly vanity. Thus,
10:05
private wealth was developed under the shadow of the ruling power, for its
10:11
protection, and often unconsciously, as its accomplice. Thus the class of proprietors
10:16
arose, and they, concentrating little by little the means of wealth in their
10:22
own hands, all the means of production, the very fountains of life,
10:26
agriculture, industry, and exchange, ended by becoming a power in themselves.
10:33
This power, by the superiority of its means of action and the great mass
10:37
of interests it embraces, always ends by more or less openly subjugating the political
10:43
power, that is, the government which it makes its policemen. This phenomenon
10:48
has been reproduced often in history. Every time that by invasion or any military
10:54
enterprise, whatever physical brute force, has taken the upper hand in society,
11:00
the conquerors have shown the tendency to concentrate government and property in their own hands.
11:07
In every case, however, as the government cannot attend to the production
11:11
of wealth and overlook and direct everything, it finds it needful to conciliate a
11:16
powerful class, and private property is again established. With it comes a division
11:22
of the two sorts of power, that of the persons who control the collective
11:26
force of society, and that of the proprietors, upon whom these governors become
11:31
essentially dependent, because the proprietors command the sources of the said collective force.
11:37
But never has this state of things been so accentuated as in modern times.
11:43
The development of production, the immense extension of commerce, the extensive power that
11:48
money has acquired, and all the economic results flowing from the discovery of America,
11:54
the invention of machinery, et cetera, have secured such supremacy to the
11:58
capitalist class that it is no longer content to trust to the support of the
12:01
government, and has come to wish that the government shall emanate from itself.
12:07
A government composed of members of its own class, continually under its control,
12:13
and especially organized to defend its class against the possible revenge of the disinherited.
12:18
Hence the origin of the modern parliamentary system. Today, the government is composed
12:24
of proprietors or people of their class, so entirely under their influence that the
12:31
richest of them do not find it necessary to take an active part in it
12:35
themselves. Roath Shield, for instance, does not need to be either MP
12:39
or minister. It is enough for him to keep MPs and ministers dependent upon
12:45
himself. In many countries the proletariat participates nominally more or less in the election
12:52
of the government. This is a concession which the bourgeois, that is,
12:56
proprietary class have made, either to avail themselves of popular support in the strife
13:01
against royal or aristocratic power, or to divert the attention of the people from
13:07
their own emancipation by giving them an apparent share in political power. However,
13:13
whether the bourgeoisie foresaw it or not when first they conceded to the people the
13:18
right to vote, the fact is that the right has proved in reality a
13:24
mockery, serving only to consolidate the power of the bourgeois, while giving to
13:28
the most energetic only of the proletariat the illusory hope of arriving at power.
13:35
So also with universal suffrage, we might say, especially with universal suffrage,
13:41
the government has remained the servant and police of the bourgeois class. How could
13:46
it be otherwise. If the government should reach the point of becoming hostile,
13:52
if the hope of democracy should ever be more than the delusion deceiving the people,
13:56
the proprietary class, menaced in its interests, would at once rebel,
14:01
and would use all the force and influence which come from the possession of wealth
14:07
to reduce the government to the simple function of acting as policemen in all times
14:13
and in all places. Whatever may be the name that the government takes,
14:18
whatever has been its origin or its organization, its essential function is always that
14:24
of oppressing and exploiting the masses, and of defending the oppressors and exploiters.
14:30
Its principal, characteristic and indispensable instruments are the bailiff and the tax collector,
14:35
the soldier, and the prison, and to these are necessarily added the time
14:39
serving priest or teacher, as the case may, be, supported and protected
14:45
by the government to render the spirit of the people's servile and make them docile
14:50
under the yoke. Certainly, in addition to this primary business, to this
14:54
essential department of governmental action, other departments have been added in the course of
15:00
time. We even admit that never, or hardly ever has a government been
15:05
able to exist in a country that was at all civilized without adding to its
15:09
oppressing and exploiting functions others useful and indispensable to social life. But this fact
15:16
makes it nonetheless true that government is in its nature oppressive and a means of
15:22
exploitation, and that its origin and position doom it to be the defense and
15:28
hotbed of a dominant class, thus confirming and increasing the evils of domination.
15:35
The government assumes the business of protecting, more or less vigilantly, the life
15:41
of citizens against direct and brutal attacks. Acknowledges and legalizes a certain number of
15:48
rights and primitive usages and customs without which it is impossible to live in society.
15:54
It organizes and directs certain public services, as the post preservation and construction
16:00
of roads, care of the public health, benevolent institutions, workhouses, and
16:06
such like. And it pleases it to opposes the protector and benefactor of the
16:10
poor and weak. But it is sufficient to notice how and why it fulfills
16:15
these functions to prove our point. The fact is that everything the government undertakes,
16:22
it is always inspired with the spirit of domination, and ordained to defend,
16:26
enlarge, and perpetuate the privileges of property and those classes of which government
16:33
is the representative and defender. A government cannot rule for any length of time
16:38
without hiding its true nature behind the pretense of general utility. It cannot respect
16:45
the lives of the privilege without assuming the error of wishing to respect the lives
16:48
of all. It cannot cause the privileges of some to be tolerated without appearing
16:55
as the custodian the rights of everybody. The law, and of course,
17:00
those that have made the law, that is, the government has utilized,
17:03
says Kopotkin, quote, the social sentiments of men, working into them those
17:08
precepts of morality which man has accepted, together with arrangements useful to the minority
17:15
the exploiters, and opposed to the interests of those who might have rebelled had
17:19
it not been for this show of a moral ground end quote. A government
17:25
cannot wish the destruction of the community, for then it and the dominant class
17:30
could not claim their exploitation gained wealth. Nor could the government leave the community
17:36
to manage its own affairs, for then the people would soon discover that it
17:41
the government was necessary from no other end than to defend the proprietary class,
17:45
who impoverished them, and would hasten to rid themselves of both government and proprietary
17:52
class. To day, in the face of the persistent and menacing demands of
17:56
the proletariat, governments show it tendancy to interfere in the relations between employers and
18:03
work people. Thus they try to arrest the labor movement and to impede with
18:07
delusive reforms, the attempts of the poor to take themselves that which is due
18:12
to them, namely, an equal share of the good things of life which
18:17
others enjoy. We must also remember that on the one hand, the bourgeois,
18:22
that is, the proprietary class, make war among themselves and destroy one
18:27
another continually. And on the other hand, the government, although composed of
18:33
the bourgeois and acting as their servant and protector, is still like every other
18:37
servant or protector, continually striving to emancipate itself and to domineer over its charge.
18:45
Thus this seesaw game, This swaying between conceding and withdrawing. This seeking
18:51
allies among the people against the classes, and among the classes against the masses,
18:56
forms the science of the governors and blinds the ingenious and phlegmatic, who
19:02
are always expecting that salvation is coming to them from on high. With all
19:07
this, the government does not change its nature. If it acts as regulator
19:12
or guaranteur of the rights and duties of each it perverts the sentiment of justice.
19:18
It justifies wrong and punishes every act which offends or menaces the privileges of
19:25
the governors and proprietors. It declares just legal the most atrocious exploitation of the
19:32
miserable, which means a slow and continuous material and moral murder perpetrated by those
19:37
who have on those who have not. Again, if it administrates public services,
19:44
it always considers the interests of the governors and proprietors, not occupying itself
19:48
with the interests of the working masses, except in so far as is necessary
19:53
to make the masses willing to endure their share of taxation. If it instructs
19:59
it fatter and curtails the truth and tends to prepare the minds and harder the
20:03
young to become either implacable tyrants or docile slaves, according to the class to
20:08
which they belong. In the hands of the government, everything becomes a means
20:14
of exploitation. Everything serves as a police measure, useful to hold the people
20:18
in check. And it must be thus. If the life of mankind consists
20:25
in strife between man and man, naturally there must be conquerors and conquered.
20:30
And the government, which is the prize of the strife, or is a
20:33
means of securing to the victors the results of their victory and perpetuating those results,
20:40
will certainly never fall to those who have lost, whether the battle be
20:44
on the grounds of physical or intellectual strength, or in the field of economics.
20:48
And those who have fought to conquer, that is, to secure to
20:52
themselves better conditions than others can have, to conquer privilege and add dominion to
20:59
power, and have attained the victory, will certainly not use it to defend
21:03
the rights of the vanquished, and to place limits to their own power and
21:07
to that of their friends and partisans. The government or the state, if
21:12
he will, as judge, moderator of social strife, impartial administrator of the
21:18
public interests is a lie. It is an allusion, a utopia never realized
21:25
and never realizable. If in truth, the interests of men must always be
21:30
contrary to one another, If indeed the strife between mankind has made laws necessary
21:36
to human society, and the liberty of the individual must be limited by the
21:41
liberty of other individuals, then each one would always seek to make his interests
21:47
triumph over those of others. Each would strive to enlarge his own liberty at
21:52
the cost of the liberty of others. And there would be government, not
21:56
simply because it was more or less useful to the totality of the members of
22:00
society to have a government, but because the conquerors would wish to secure to
22:06
themselves the fruits of victory. They would wish effectually to subject the vanquished and
22:12
relieve themselves of the trouble of being always on the defensive, and they would
22:17
appoint men specially adapted to the business to act as police. Where it is
22:22
indeed actually the case, then humanity would be destined to perish amidst periodical contests
22:29
between the tyranny of the dominators and the rebellion of the conquered. But fortunately
22:34
the future of humanity is a happier one because the law which governs it is
22:40
milder. This law is the law of solidarity. End of Section two.