💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › victor-yarros-anarchistic-socialism.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 14:38:57. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
➡️ Next capture (2024-06-20)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: Anarchistic Socialism Author: Victor Yarros Date: August 10, 1889 Language: en Topics: social anarchism, libertarian socialism, Libertarian Labyrinth, introductory Source: Retrieved on 2020-06-11 from https://www.libertarian-labyrinth.org/anarchist-beginnings/victor-yarros-anarchistic-socialism-1889/ Notes: “Anarchistic Socialism,” The Twentieth Century 3 no. 5 (Augest 10, 1889): 74–75
State Socialists are in the habit of charging the Anarchists with a
partiality for middle-class ideas and institutions, and nothing is more
common than the statement that we wish to retain the bourgeois
arrangements, while endeavoring to give them an ideal flavor. Our
teachings are taken to be identical with those of the individualistic
economists of the Cobden-Bastiat school, and we are constantly told that
the principles of individualism, inaugurated and embodied by the great
revolution in France, have been tried and found wanting, have been
condemned and utterly discredited by life itself. Our present social
evils are alleged to be the best practical proof of the failure of
liberty and the “let alone “ doctrine, which, though necessary for
purposes of destruction of superannuated customs, are absolutely of no
avail in constructive work. And hence it is urged upon us to abandon
these idols and recognize the importance of the principle of
association, cooperation, and collective effort, upon which the
civilization of the near future is to be based.
A complete refutation of all these claims would be found in the simple
fact that true, consistent individualism has never had a fair trial and
consequently could never have been discredited. It is necessary to
distinguish between pretence and reality. The middle class economists
and champions have indeed talked about the beauties of individualism,
and have pretended to uphold the existing regime on the ground of
liberty and equality, but, whether from ignorance or class interests,
they have steadily ignored the logic of their principle and have seen
liberty violated and outraged in many ways without raising a voice in
protest. The bourgeois economists have agitated for free trade (a very
excellent thing so far as it goes), but have never shown a due
appreciation of the other and greater denials of liberty of which the
prevailing social system is guilty. England has now got what Cobden
worked for; it enjoys free trade. Yet the labor question is as far from
settlement as ever, and poverty, pauperism, inequality, and crime are on
the increase. What are the modern bourgeois individualists doing to
reform and remedy abuses? What are they suggesting as solutions of the
burning problems of the day? Why, they are organizing “Liberty and
Property Defence Leagues” to combat Socialism and to defend their
privileges and monopolies. Their platforms contain not a single measure
of positive reform. The true, consistent individualists, the Anarchists,
on the other hand, speak in no uncertain tone of the reforms
imperatively demanded by present circumstances, and accuse the
economists of cowardice, disingenuousness, and superficiality. They
point out that Individualism is impossible in the absence of perfect
equality of opportunity, which equality is denied by the State-created
monopolies of land and credit. A landless and moneyless laborer does not
possess any liberty. The right to life and to seeking of happiness in
one’s own way is meaningless without the access to the means of life.
Now, land and capital are essential to him who would live independently
and in a more or less civilized manner, and the Government deprives us
of both. (It would be carrying coal to Newcastle to enlarge here on the
subject of land monopoly, the evils of which, if anything, only are too
strongly emphasized by the believers in the Single-tax, and of the money
question I will at present say no more, referring the reader to Mr. Hugo
Bilgram’s admirable letter on the matter in the issue of June 22, in
which he says that “a new industrial era will dawn and the distribution
of wealth will assume an equitable basis” as soon as the Government is
forced to allow freedom in the issue of currency and organization of
banking.
In our forecast of the results of freedom in money and land-occupation
we may be altogether mistaken. Perhaps the laborer will be as much the
slave of the owner of machinery then as he is now, and perhaps our
economic views are false and unscientific. I am entirely willing to
allow that this is not impossible. But at least let State Socialists and
other critics understand our exact position, and, instead of fighting
men of straw, let them examine our contentions and attempt to meet them.
As long as this is not done, as long as the Socialists refrain from a
careful analysis of our economic theories—and as one who has studied
Marx, Lassalle, Hyndman, Hirkop, and Gronlund, I know that nowhere in
the literature of “Scientific Socialism” is any attention bestowed on
the subject—they have no right to invidiously characterize our
conception of Individualism, our idea of free competition and our
attitude toward the proletariat.
But this is not the only answer we have to make to the State Socialists.
Though we favor the laissez-faire policy, we do not understand it in the
sense in which the bourgeois economists have understood it. Their “let
alone” principle was based on a false social philosophy, on a puerile
theology and immature political economy. Their optimism was that of Dr.
Pangloss, and they, believing that a beneficent providence directed
everything to the best in this best of worlds, objected to any men-made
laws, institutions, or organizations. They opposed combinations of
capital. Their “code of nature “ taught them to leave everything to
unconscious, spontaneous, automatic action and play. But this view does
not bear looking into. The modern theory of evolution destroys the sense
of such theological notions. Human opinion, conscious intelligent
endeavor, is the agency by which social improvement is furthered, and to
oppose conscious action and guidance is pure folly. The Anarchists are
emphatically in favor of association and cooperation, and liberty,
though a good end in itself, is from the economic standpoint only a
means to an end, that end being combination and association. They are
fully aware that most of the present blessings are due to cooperation,
and the coming social system will have “ association “ for its
watchword. What we protest against is the delusion that the element of
compulsion is indispensable, that men must be driven by force to
interest themselves in their own welfare, and that government, ever the
tool of exploiters, can be converted into a useful instrument of reform.
Power will always be abused, and the best man, when placed in
unfavorable conditions, loses the distinguishing qualities of noble,
refined, and dignified manhood. We do not believe in the government of
man by man, and we do not conceive that self-respecting people will
consent to be drilled, ordered about, and disciplined by anybody,
whether the somebody is called master or public servant. Our ideal of
the future is unity in freedom, not enforced uniformity.
A word, now, on the question: what to do in the meantime. It is evident
that the efforts of all who hold our views must be devoted to the
dissemination of true principles and ideas. The State exists because the
people have faith in it. This faith must be shaken and dissolved. We
must work to contract the sphere of authority, and to teach the
advantages of free association. Buckle has said that the only services
governments render to the people consist in the abolition of laws, not
manufacture of them, and we must agitate for the abolition of
objectionable laws, principally those that we hold responsible for the
economic servitude of the laborers. It may be true that just at present
the people are inclined to court governmental aid and to expect relief
from the intervention of authority, but why he who clearly perceives the
error of this method should lend a hand in this reactionary movement, is
hard to comprehend. The greater the pressure, the more need of counter
influence. The more widespread the error the more reason for vigorous
advocacy of truth. The masses readily accept Socialism only because, as
Grant Allen says, it is the first and easiest remedy they are ofiered.
Should we not, then, invite them to take a second, sober thought, and
examine more critically the philosophy which they have espoused? Of
course we should. And those who refleet and analyze are apt to discover
that State Socialism is as one-sided as the semi-individualism it was
called to criticise. The latter laid stress on self-help; the former, in
emphasizing the principle of cooperation, lost sight of liberty.
Anarchistic Socialism appears to reconcile them by a new synthesis.