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

36 / ANARCHISM
ket; but they do not produce long, because, the cheapness being due to the quantity
and rapidity of production, the productive power tends more than ever to outstrip
consumption. It is when labourers, whose wages are scarcely sufficient to support
them from one day to another, are thrown out of work, that the consequences of the
principle of property become most frightful. They have not been able to economize,
they have made no savings, they have accumulated no capital whatever to support
them even one day more. Today the fa ctory is closed. Tomorrow the people starve in
the streets. Day after tomorrow they will either die in the hospital, or eat in the jail ...
What is to be the fo rm of government in the future I hear some of my younger
readers reply: "Why, how can you ask such a question You are a republican." "A republican!"
"Yes; but that word specifies nothing. Res publica; that is, the public thing.
Now, whoever is interested in public affairs-no matter under what fo rm of government-may
call himself a republican. Even kings are repUblicans." "Well! you are a
democrat" "No." "What! you would have a monarchy." "No." "A constitutionalist"
"God fo rbid!" "YOLI are then an aristocrat" "Not at aIL" "You want a mixed government"
"Still less." "What are you, then" "I am an anarchist."
"Oh! I understand you; you speak satirically. This is a hit at the government."
"By no means. I have just given you my serious and well-considered profession of
fa ith. Although a finn friend of order, I am (in the fu ll fo rce of the term) an anarchist.
Listen to me."
... Man, in order to procure as speedily as possible the most thorough satisfaction
of his wants, seeks rule. In the beginning, this rule is to him living, visible, and
tangible. It is his fa ther, his master, his king. The more ignorant man is, the more
obedient he is, and the more absolute is his confidence in his guide. But, it being a
law of man's nature to conform to rule-that is, to discover it by his powers of reflection
and reason-man reasons upon the commands of his chiefs. Now, such reasoning
as that is a protest against authority-a beginning of disobedience. At the
moment that man inquires into the motives which govern the will of his sovereign-at
that moment man revolts. If he obeys no longer because the king commands,
but because the king demonstrates the wisdom of his commands, it may be
said that henceforth he will recognize no authority, and that he has become his own
king. Unhappy he who shall dare to command him, and shall offer, as his authority,
only the vote of the majority; fo r, sooner or later, the minority will become the majority,
and this imprudent despot will be overthrown. and all his laws annihilated ...
Thus, in a given society, the authority of man over man is inversely proportional
to the stage of intellectual development which that society has reached; and the