Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

136 / ANARCHISM
one against the other, fo rcing them to tear from each other the pittance it apportions
with such exceeding parsimony. They also show ... that every social system based
upon authority cannot but beget evil effects; since power is vested in persons subject
to the same defects as other men, it is clear that if men do not know how to govern
themselves, still less do they know how to govern others ...
If we were a political party anxious to get into power, we might make a lot of
promises to people in order to get ourselves carried to the top; but it is a different
thing with Anarchy; we have nothing to promise, nothing to ask, nothing to give. And
when after having pointed out the facts which demonstrate the tendency of humanity
towards this ideal, our opponents object that our ideas are impossible, nothing
remains to us but to come back to the proofs of the abuses proceeding from all our
institutions, the fa lsity of the bases upon which these rest, the emptiness of these refo
rms by which charlatans would divert the people's attention, and to remind them
of the alternative open to them-either to continue to submit to exploitation or to
revolt-at the same time demonstrating to them that the success of this revolution
will depend upon the energy with which they "will" the realization of what they know
to be good. This is our task: the rest depends on others, not on us.
For our own part we are not exactly partisans of a propaganda accomplished by
means of sonorous or sentimental phrases; their effect is to make people hope fo r an
immediate triumph, which is impossible ...
Our ideal is to tultiIJ a less brilliant and grandiose task, but a more lasting one.
Instead of confining our efforts to capturing people through sentiment, we seek
above all to win them through logic and reason. We certainly do not want to underrate
those whose ability consists in winning people through an appeal to feeling. To
each his task, according to his temperament and his conceptions. But fo r ourselves
we prefer securing conviction rather than belief All those who take part in the propaganda
should know what difficulties await them, that they may be ready to meet
them and not be discouraged by the first obstacle in the way ...
Another very generally accepted prejudice among Anarchists is to consider the
masses as plastic dough, which may be molded at will and about which there is no necessity
of troubling oneself. This notion comes from the fact that, having made one
step in advance of the rest, these people consider themselves in a way as prophets,
and as much more intelligent than common mortals.
"We shall make the masses do so-and-so," "we shall lead them at our backs,"
etc. Verily a dictator would not talk differently. This way of regarding the masses is
an inheritance from our authoritarian past. Not that we wish to deny the influence of