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

62 / ANARCHISM
the measures most inimical to the needs of the age; emergency law follows upon
emergency law, spreading like fire-damp until the mine caves in and the fu se ofrevolution
is ignited and it is blown asunder along with its whole array of defensive measures.
Could it have done otherwise and surrendered a single one of its bastions The
enemy, to wit, the revolution, would only have overrun it and turned it into a gun emplacement.
Surrender It was called upon to sue for mercy: and it knew that the enemy
sought the ruination of its interests, its enslavement and finally its death.
It is not the men but rather the thing itself that is evil. Depending on their surroundings,
and the circumstances in which they operate, men are useful or harmful
to those about them.
What is req uired is that they should not be set apart from the common herd, so
that they will have no need to do harm . What is required is that we dispense with
shepherds if we would not become a flock and dispense with rulers if we would not
be slaves.
No 1110re government, so no more of these malignant ambitions that merely
clamber on to the shoulders of an ignorant, credulous people in order to make it a
stepping-stone for their cravings. No more acrobatic candidates walking the tightrope
of professions of faith, right fo ot this side, left fo ot that side. No more of these
political sleight-of-hand merchantsjuggling with the three words from the Republic's
motto, Liberty, Eq uality and Fraternity, like three cups brandished before the eyes of
the onlooker, only to be palmed into the recesses of their conscience, that other
poacher's pocket. No more ofthese charlatans of public life who, from the balcony of
the Tuileries or the Ho tel de Ville, or the floor of the ronW'lltion or Constituent Assembly,
have spent so many years regaling us with the same parade, the same sham
finest of republics, for which we must all finish up paying with our sweat and our
blood-poor ninnies that we are.
No more government, so no more army to oppress the people in the people's
own name. No more University to crush young intelligence beneath the yoke of cretinism,
tinkering with hearts and minds, kneading and molding them in the image of
an obsolete world. No more magistrate-inquisitors to torture on the rack of indictment
and to sentence the voices of the press and the clubs, the stirring of consciousness
and thought, to the silence of imprisonment or exile. No more hangmen, no
more jailers, no more gendarmes, no more town sergeants, no more snitches to spy
upon, knife, arrest and put to death anyone less than devoted to the authorities. No
more pre scriptive centralization, no more prefects, no more ordinary or extraordinary
envoys to carry the state of siege to every department in the land. No more bud-