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

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ANARCHISM
matically defeated if the country refuses consent to its own enslavement: it is not
necessary to deprive him of anything, but simply to give him nothing; there is no
need that the cOlintlY make an effort to do anything for itself provided it does nothing
against itself. It is therefore the inhabitants themselves who permit, or, rather,
bring about, their own subjection, since by ceasing to submit they would put an end
to their servitude. A people enslaves itself, cuts its own throat, when, having a choice
between being vassals and being free men, it deserts its liberties and takes on the
yoke, gives consent to its own misery, or, rather, apparently welcomes it.lf it cost the
people anything to recover its freedom, I should not urge action to this end, although
there is nothing a human should hold more dear than the restoration of his own natural
right, to change himself from a beast of burden back to a man, so to speak. I do
not demand of him so much boldness; let him prefer the doubtful security of living
wretchedly to the uncertain hope of living as he pleases. What then If in order to
have liberty nothing more is needed than to long for it, if only a simple act of the will
is necessalY, is there any nation in the world that considers a single wish too high a
price to pay in order to recover rights which it ought to be ready to redeem at the
cost of its blood, rights such that their loss must bring all men of honor to the point
of feeling life to be unendurable and death itself a deliverance
Everyone knows that the fire from a little spark will increase and blaze ever
higher as long as it finds wood to burn: yet without being quenchpcI hy W