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02 - Anarchy - Errico Malatesta · The Philosophy Insights Collection

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