WITHOUT GOVERNMENT
By MAX BAGINSKI
THE gist of the anarchistic idea is this, that there are qualities present in man, which
permit the possibilities of social life, organization, and co-operative work without the
application of force. Such qualities are solidarity, common action, and love of justice. To-day
they are either crippled or made ineffective through the influence of compulsion; they can
hardly be fully unfolded in a society in which groups, classes, and individuals are placed in
hostile, irreconcilable opposition to one another. In human nature to-day such traits are
fostered and developed which separate instead of combining, call forth hatred instead of a
common feeling, destroy the humane instead of building it up. The cultivation of these traits
could not be so successful if it did not find the best nourishment in the foundations and
institutions of the present social order.
On close inspection of these institutions, which are based upon the power of the State that
maintains them, mankind shows itself as a huge menagerie, in which the captive beasts seek
to tear the morsels from each other's greedy jaws. The sharpest teeth, the strongest claws
and paws vanquish the weaker competitors. Malice and underhand dealing are victorious
over frankness and confidence. The struggle for the means of existence and for the
maintenance of achieved power fill the entire space of the menagerie with an infernal noise.
Among the methods which are used to secure this organized bestiality the most prominent
ones are the hangman, the judge with his mehanical: "In the name of the king," or his more
hypocritical: "In the name of the people I pass sentence"; the soldier with his training for
murder, and the priest with his: "Authority comes from God."
The exteriors of prisons, armories, and churches show that they are institutions in which the
body and soul are subdued. He whose thoughts reach beyond this philosophy of the
menagerie sees in them the strongest expression of the view, that it is not possible to make
life worth living the more with the help of reason, love, justice, solidarity. The family and
school take care to prepare man for these institutions. They deliver him up to the state, so to
speak, blindfolded and with fettered limbs. Force, force. It echoes through all history. The
first law which subjected man to man was based upon force. The private right of the
individual to land was built up by force; force took way the claims upon homesteads from the
majority and made them unsettled and transitory. It was force that spoke to mankind thus:
"Come to me, humble yourself before me, serve me, bring the treasures and riches of the
earth under MY roof. You are destined by Providence to always be in want. You shall be
allowed just enough to maintain strength with which to enrich me infinitely by your exertions
and to load me down with superfluity and luxury."
What maintains the material and intellectual slavery of the masses and the insanity of the
autocracy of the few? Force. Workingmen produce in the factories and workshops the most
varied things for the use of man. What is it that drives them to yield up these products for
speculation's sake to those who produce nothing, and to content themselves with only a
fractional part of the values which they produce? It is force.
What is it that makes the brain-worker just as dependent in the intellectual realm as the
artisan in the material world? Force. The artist and the writer being compelled to gain a
livelihood dare not dream of giving the best of their individuality. No, they must scan the
market in order to find out what is demanded just then. Not any different than the dealer in
clothes -who must study the style of the season before he places 'his merchandise before the
public. Thus art and literature sink to the level of bad taste and speculation. The artistic
individuality shrinks before the calculating reckoner. Not that which moves the artist or the
writer most receives expression; the vacillating demands of mediocrity of every-day people
must be satisfied. The artist becomes the helper of the dealer and the average men, who trot
along in the tracks of dull habit.
The State Socialists love to assert that at present we live in the age of individualism; the truth,
however, is that individuality was never valued at so low a rate as to-day. Individual thinking
and feeling are incumbrances and not recommendations on the paths of life. Wherever they
are found on the market they meet with the word "adaptation." Adapt yourself to the
demands of the reigning social powers, act the odedient servant before them, and if you
produce something be sure that it does not run against the grain of your "superiors," or say
adieu to success, reputation and recompense. Amuse the people, be their clown, give them
platitudes about which they can laugh, prejudices which they hold as righteousness and
falsehoods which they hold as truths. Paint the whole, crown it with regard for good
manners, for society does not like to hear the truth about itself. Praise the men in power as
fathers of the people, have the devourers of the commonwealth parade along as benefactors
of mankind.
Of course, the force which humbles humanity in this manner is far from openly declaring
itself as force. It is masked, and in the course of time it has learned to step forward wit the
least possible noise. That diminishes the danger of being recognized.
The modern republic is a good example. In it tyranny is veiled so correctly, that there are
really great numbers of people who are deceived by this masquerade and who maintain that
what they perceive is a true face with honest eyes.
No czar, no king. But right in line with these are the landowners, the merchants,
manufacturers, landlords, monopolists. They all are in possession, which is as strong a
guarantee for the continuance of their power, as a castle surrounded by thick walls. Whoever
possesses can rob him who possesses nothing of his independence. If I am dependent for a
living on work, for which I need contrivances and machines, which I myself cannot procure,
because I am without means, I must sacrifice my independence to him who possesses these
contrivances and machines. You may work here, he will tell me, but only under the condition
that you will deliver up the products of your labor to me, that I may trade with and make
profit on them.
The one without possessions has no choice. He may appeal to the declaration of human
rights; he may point to his political rights, the equality before the law, before God and the
archangels--if he wants to eat, drink, dress and have a home he must choose such work as
the conditions of the industrial mercantile or agricultural plants impose upon him.
Through organized opposition the workingmen can somewhat improve this condition; by the
help of trade unions they can regulate the hours of work and hinder the reduction of wages
to a level too low for mere living. The trade unions are a necessity for the workingmen, a
bulwark against which the most unbearable demands of the class of possesors rebound; but a
complete freeing of labor--be it of an intellectual or of a physical nature--can be brought
about only through the abolition of wage work and the right of private ownership of land and
the shit this essay had been cut short!!!!!!!!
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