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non serviam #8
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Contents: Editor's Word
Ken Knudson: A Critique of Communism and
The Individualist Alternative (serial: 8)
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Editor's Word
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In this issue, Ken's article comes on its own. Todays chapter is an
exposition of his ideas on egoism, viewed from a political point of
view. Nothing more needs to be said. Enjoy!
Svein Olav
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Ken Knudson:
A Critique of Communism
and
The Individualist Alternative
(continued)
EGOISM: THE PHILOSOPHY OF FREEDOM
"Many a year I've used my nose
To smell the onion and the rose;
Is there any proof which shows
That I've a right to that same nose?"
- Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller
The philosophy of individualist-anarchism is "egoism."
It is not my purpose here to give a detailed account of this
philosophy, but I would like to explode a few of the more
common myths about egoism and present to the reader enough
of its essence so that he may understand more clearly the
section on individualist economics. I am tempted here to
quote long extracts from "The Ego and His Own," for it was
this book which first presented the egoist philosophy in a
systematic way. Unfortunately, I find that Stirner's
"unique" style does not readily lend itself to quotation.
So what I have done in the following pages is to dress up
Stirner's ideas in a language largely my own.
Voltaire once said, "If God did not exist, it would be
necessary to invent him." Bakunin wisely retorted, "If God
DID exist, it would be necessary to abolish him."
Unfortunately, Bakunin would only abolish God. It is the
egoist's intention to abolish GODS. It is clear from
Bakunin's writings that what he meant by God was what
Voltaire meant - namely the religious God. The egoist sees
many more gods than that - in fact, as many as there are
fixed ideas. Bakunin's gods, for example, include the god
of humanity, the god of brotherhood, the god of mankind -
all variants on the god of altruism. The egoist, in
striking down ALL gods, looks only to his WILL. He
recognises no legitimate power over himself.* The world is
there for him to consume - if he CAN. And he can if he has
the power. For the egoist, the only right is the right of
might. He accepts no "inalienable rights," for such rights -
by virtue of the fact that they're inalienable - must come
from a higher power, some god. The American Declaration of
--------------------
* He does not, of course, claim to be omnipotent. There
ARE external powers over him. The difference between the
egoist and non-egoist in this regard is therefore one mainly
of attitude: the egoist recognises external power as an
enemy and consciously fights against it, while the non-
egoist humbles himself before it and often accepts it as a
friend.
- 33 -
Independence, for example, in proclaiming these rights found
it necessary to invoke the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's
God." The same was true of the French Revolutionary
"Declaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen."
The egoist recognises no right - or what amounts to the
same thing - claims ALL rights for himself. What he can get
by force he has a right to; and what he can't, he has no
right. He demands no rights, nor does he recognise them in
others. "Right - is a wheel in the head, put there by a
spook," [73] says Stirner. Right is also the spook which has
kept men servile throughout the ages. The believer in rights
has always been his own jailer. What sovereign could last
the day out without a general belief in the "divine right of
kings"? And where would Messrs. Nixon, Heath, et. al. be
today without the "right" of the majority?
Men make their tyrants as they make their gods. The
tyrant is a man like any other. His power comes from the
abdicated power of his subjects. If people believe a man to
have superhuman powers, they automatically GIVE him those
powers by default. Had Hitler's pants fallen down during one
of his ranting speeches, the whole course of history might
have been different. For who can respect a naked Fuehrer?
And who knows? The beginning of the end of Lyndon Johnson's
political career might well have been when he showed his
operation scar on coast-to-coast television for the whole
wide world to see that he really was a man after all. This
sentiment was expressed by Stirner when he said, "Idols
exist through me; I need only refrain from creating them
anew, then they exist no longer: `higher powers' exist only
through my exalting them and abasing myself. Consequently
my relation to the world is this: I no longer do anything
for it `for God's sake,' I do nothing `for man's sake,' but
what I do I do `for my sake'." [74] The one thing that makes
a man different from any other living creature is his power
to reason. It is by this power that man can (and does)
dominate over the world. Without reason man would be a
pathetic non-entity - evolution having taken care of him
long before the dinosaur. Now some people say that man is
by nature a social animal, something like an ant or a bee.
Egoists don't deny the sociability of man, but what we do
say is that man is sociable to the extent that it serves his
own self-interest. Basically man is (by nature, if you will)
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a selfish being. The evidence for this is overwhelming.* Let
us look at a hive of bees to see what would happen if
"reason" were suddenly introduced into their lives:
"In the first place, the bees would not fail to try
some new industrial process; for instance, that of making
their cells round or square. All sorts of systems and
inventions would be tried, until long experience, aided by
geometry, should show them that the hexagonal shape is the
best. Then insurrections would occur. The drones would be
told to provide for themselves, and the queens to labour;
jealousy would spread among the labourers; discords would
burst forth; soon each one would want to produce on his own
account; and finally the hive would be abandoned, and the
bees would perish. Evil would be introduced into the honey-
producing republic by the power of reflection, - the very
faculty which ought to constitute its glory." [75]
So it would appear to me that reason would militate
against blind, selfless cooperation. But by the same token,
reason leads to cooperation which is mutually beneficial to
all parties concerned. Such cooperation is what Stirner
called a "union of egoists." [76] This binding together is
not done through any innate social instinct, but rather as a
matter of individual convenience. These unions would
probably take the form of contracting individuals. The
object of these contracts not being to enable all to benefit
equally from their union (although this isn't ruled out, the
egoist thinks it highly unlikely), but rather to protect one
another from invasion and to secure to each contracting
individual what is mutually agreed upon to be "his."
By referring to a man's selfishness, you know where you
stand. Nothing is done "for free." Equity demands
reciprocity. Goods and services are exchanged for goods and
services or (what is equivalent) bought. This may sound
"heartless" - but what is the alternative? If one depends on
kindness, pity or love the services and goods one gets
become "charity." The receiver is put in the position of a
beggar, offering nothing in return for each "present." If
you've ever been on the dole, or know anyone who has, you
will know that the receiver of such gifts is anything but
gracious. He is stripped of his manhood and he resents it.
Now the egoist isn't (usually) so cold and cruel as this
--------------------
* Many people cite trade unions as a "proof" of man's
solidarity and sociability. Just the opposite is true. Why
else do people strike if not for their own "selfish" ends,
e.g. higher wages, better working conditions, shorter hours?
- 35 -
description makes him out to be. As often as not he is as
charitable and kind as his altruist neighbour. But he
CHOOSES the objects of his kindness; he objects to
COMPULSORY "love." What an absurdity! If love were
universal, it would have no meaning. If I should tell my
wife that I love her because I love humanity, I would be
insulting her. I love her not because she happens to be a
member of the human race, but rather for what she is to me.
For me she is something special: she possesses certain
qualities which I admire and which make me happy. If she is
unhappy, I suffer, and therefore I try to comfort her and
cheer her up - for MY sake. Such love is a selfish love. But
it is the only REAL love. Anything else is an infatuation
with an image, a ghost. As Stirner said of his loved ones,
"I love them with the consciousness of egoism; I love them
because love makes ME happy, I love because loving is
natural to me, because it pleases me. I know no `commandment
of love'." [77]
The lover of "humanity" is bewitched by a superstition.
He has dethroned God, only to accept the reign of the holy
trinity: Morality, Conscience and Duty. He becomes a "true
believer" - a religious man. No longer believing in himself,
he becomes a slave to Man. Then, like all religious men, he
is overcome with feelings of "right" and "virtue." He
becomes a soldier in the service of humanity whose
intolerance of heretics rivals that of the most righteous
religious fanatic. Most of the misery in the world today (as
in the past) is directly attributable to men acting "for the
common good." The individual is nothing; the mass all.
The egoist would reverse this situation. Instead of
everyone looking after the welfare of everyone else, each
would look after his own welfare. This would, in one fell
swoop, do away with the incredibly complicated, wasteful and
tyrannical machinery (alluded to previously) necessary to
see to it that not only everyone got his fair share of the
communal pie, but that everyone contributed fairly to its
production. In its stead we egoists raise the banner of free
competition: "the war of all against all" as the communists
put it. But wouldn't that lead to (dare I say it) ANARCHY?
Of course it would. What anarchist would deny the logical
consequences of the principles he advocates? But let's see
what this "anarchy" would be like.
The egoist believes that the relationships between men
who are alive to their own individual interests would be far
more just and equitable than they are now. Take the
property question for example. Today there is a great
disparity of income. Americans make up about 7% of the
world's population, but they control over half of its
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wealth. And among the Americans, nearly one quarter of the
wealth is owned by 5% of the people.* [78] Such unequal
distribution of wealth is due primarily to the LEGAL
institution of property. Without the state to back up legal
privilege and without the people's acquiescence to the
privileged minority's legal right to that property, these
disparities would soon disappear. For what makes the rich
man rich and the poor man poor if not the latter GIVING the
former the product of his labour?
Stirner is commonly thought to have concerned himself
little with the economic consequences of his philosophy. It
is true that he avoided elaborating on the exact nature of
his "union of egoists," saying that the only way of knowing
what a slave will do when he breaks his chains is to wait
and see. But to say that Stirner was oblivious to economics
is just not so. On the contrary. It was he, after all, who
translated into German both Adam Smith's classic "An Inquiry
into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" and
Jean Baptiste Say's pioneering work on the free market
economy, "Traite d'Economie Politique." The few pages he
devotes to economics in "The Ego and His Own" are among his
best:
"If we assume that, as ORDER belongs to the essence of the
State, so SUBORDINATION too is founded in its nature, then
we see that the subordinates, or those who have received
preferment, disproportionately OVERCHARGE and OVERREACH
those who are put in the lower ranks....By what then is your
property secure, you creatures of preferment?...By our
refraining from interference! And so by OUR protection! And
what do you give us for it? Kicks and disdain you give to
the `common people'; police supervision, and a catechism
with the chief sentence `Respect what is NOT YOURS, what
belongs to OTHERS! respect others, and especially your
superiors!' But we reply, `If you want our respect, BUY it
for a price agreeable to us. We will leave you your
property, if you give a due equivalent for this
leaving.'...What equivalent do you give for our chewing
potatoes and looking calmly on while you swallow oysters?
Only buy the oysters of us as dear as we have to buy the
potatoes of you, then you may go on eating them. Or do you
suppose the oysters do not belong to us as much as to
you?...Let us consider our nearer property, labour...We
distress ourselves twelve hours in the sweat of our face,
--------------------
* Contrary to popular belief, this gulf is getting
larger. Since 1966, despite a constantly mushrooming GNP,
the American factory workers' REAL wages (as opposed to his
apparent, inflationary wages) have actually declined. [79]
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and you offer us a few pennies for it. Then take the like
for your labour too. Are you not willing? You fancy that our
labour is richly repaid with that wage, while yours on the
other hand is worth a wage of many thousands. But, if you
did not rate yours so high, and gave us a better chance to
realise value from ours, then we might well, if the case
demanded it, bring to pass still more important things than
you do for the many thousand pounds; and, if you got only
such wages as we, you would soon grow more industrious in
order to receive more. But, if you render any service that
seems to us worth ten and a hundred times more than our own
labour, why, then you shall get a hundred times more for it
too; we, on the other hand, think also to produce for you
things for which you will requite us more highly than with
the ordinary day's wages. We shall be willing to get along
with each other all right, if only we have first agreed on
this - that neither any longer needs to - PRESENT anything
to the other....We want nothing presented by you, but
neither will we present you with anything. For centuries we
have handed alms to you from good-hearted - stupidity, have
doled out the mite of the poor and given to the masters the
things that are - not the masters'; now just open your
wallet, for henceforth our ware rises in price quite
enormously. We do not want to take from you anything,
anything at all, only you are to pay better for what you
want to have. What then have you? `I have an estate of a
thousand acres.' And I am your plowman, and will henceforth
attend to your fields only for a full day's wages. `Then
I'll take another.' You won't find any, for we plowmen are
no longer doing otherwise, and, if one puts in an appearance
who takes less, then let him beware of us. There is the
housemaid, she too is now demanding as much, and you will no
longer find one below this price. `Why, then it is all over
with me.' Not so fast! You will doubtless take in as much as
we; and, if it should not be so, we will take off so much
that you shall have wherewith to live like us. `But I am
accustomed to live better.' We have nothing against that,
but it is not our lookout; if you can clear more, go ahead.
Are we to hire out under rates, that you may have a good
living? The rich man always puts off the poor with the
words, `What does your want concern me? See to it how you
make your way through the world; that is YOUR AFFAIR, not
mine.' Well, let us let it be our affair, then, and let us
not let the means that we have to realise value from
ourselves be pilfered from us by the rich. `But you
uncultured people really do not need so much.' Well, we are
taking somewhat more in order that for it we may procure the
culture that we perhaps need....`O ill-starred equality!'
No, my good old sir, nothing of equality. We only want to
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count for what we are worth, and, if you are worth more, you
shall count for more right along. We only want to be WORTH
OUR PRICE, and think to show ourselves worth the price that
you will pay." [80]
Fifty years later Benjamin Tucker took over where
Stirner left off:
"The minute you remove privilege, the class that now enjoy
it will be forced to sell their labour, and then, when there
will be nothing but labour with which to buy labour, the
distinction between wage-payers and wage-receivers will be
wiped out, and every man will be a labourer exchanging with
fellow-labourers. Not to abolish wages, but to make EVERY
man dependent upon wages and secure to every man his WHOLE
wages is the aim of Anarchistic Socialism. What Anarchistic
Socialism aims to abolish is usury. It does not want to
deprive labour of its reward; it wants to deprive capital of
its reward. It does not hold that labour should not be sold;
it holds that capital should not be hired at usury." [81]
Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his second inaugural
address that "We have always known that heedless self-
interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad
economics." I've tried to show in this section that self-
interest is "good morals." I now intend to show that it is
also good economics.
-----
REFERENCES
73. Stirner, op. cit., p. 210.
74. Ibid., p. 319.
75. Proudhon, op. cit., pp. 243-4.
76. Stirner, op. cit., p. 179.
77. Ibid., p. 291.
78. "At the Summit of the Affluent U.S. Society," "The
International Herald Tribune." March 19, 1971, p. 1.
79. "Newsweek," February 1, 1971 , p. 44.
80. Stirner, op. cit., pp. 270-2.
81. Tucker, "Instead of a Book," p. 404. Reprinted from
"Liberty," April 28, 1888.
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- EGOTIST, n.: *
- A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me. *
- *
- From "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce *
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