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

Epilogue And Prologue To Volume 2 /505
I balance anarchism with surrealism, reason with romanticism, the understanding
with the imagination, function with freedom. Happiness, peace, contentment-these
are all one and are due to the perfection of this balance. We may speak
of these things in dialectical terms-terms of contradiction, negation, and synthesis-the
meaning is the same. The world's unhappiness is caused by men who incline
so much in one direction that they upset this balance, destroy this synthesis. The very
delicacy and subtlety of the equilibrium is of its essence; for joy is only promised to
those who strive to achieve it, and who, having achieved it, hold it lightly poised.
131. Malatesta: Toward Anarchy
By way of conclusion, I end this volume with a short extract from an article by Malatesta, "Taward
Anarchy, " origina{{y published in La Questione Sociale, New Series No. 14, December 9,
1899, an "anarcha-socialist periodical" based in Paterson, New jersey, then a centre of Italian
American anarchism. This article has previously been mistranslated into English as "Towards Anarch
ism, " obliterating the important distinction Malatesta always drew between anarchy, the jiJturefree
society, and anarchism, the doctrine in support of that ideal. It is anarchy towards which
we should always be striving, not the triumph of any particular ideology.
IT IS A COMMONLY HElD VIEW THAT WE, because we call ourselves revolutionaries,
expect anarchy to come with one stroke, as the immediate result of an insurrection
which violently overthrows all that which exists and replaces it with truly new institutions.
And to tell the truth this idea is not lacking among some comrades who also
conceive the revolution in such a manner.
This prejudice explains why so many honest opponents believe anarchy a thing
impossible; and it also explains why some comrades, disgusted with the present
moral condition of the people and seeing that anarchy cannot come about soon, waver
between an extreme dogmatism which blinds them to the realities of life and an
opportunism which practically makes them forget that they are anarchists and that
for anarchy they should struggle.
Of course, the triumph of anarchy cannot be the result of a miracle and neither
can it come about in contradiction to the general law (it being an axiom of evolution
that nothing can happen without sufficient cause) that nothing can be done without
having the strength to do it.
If we should want to substitute one government for another, that is, impose our
desires upon others, it would only be necessary to combine the material forces
needed to resist the actual oppressors and put ourselves in their place.