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Title: Weak Statesmen, Weaker People! Author: Gustav Landauer Date: 1910 Language: en Topics: libertarian socialism, socialism, social revolution, the State Source: https://www.panarchy.org/landauer/state.html Notes: This short piece contains one of Landauer’s most quoted lines, namely his definiition of the state as “a social relationship; a certain way of people relating to one another.” First published as “Schwache Staatsmänner, schwächeres Volk!” in *Der Sozialist*, June, 15, 1910.
A pale, nervous, sick, and weak man sits at his writing desk. He
scribbles notes on a sheet of paper. He is composing a symphony. He
works diligently, using of all the trade secrets that he has learned.
When the symphony is performed, a hundred and fifty men play in the
orchestra; in the third movement, there are ten timpani, fifteen
percussion instruments, and an organ; in the final movement, an eight
part chorus of five hundred people is added as well as an extra
orchestra of fifes and drums. The audience is mesmerized by the enormous
force and the imposing vigour.
Our statesmen and politicians — and increasingly our entire ruling class
— remind us of this composer who possesses no actual power, but allows
the masses to appear powerful. Our statesmen and politicians also hide
their actual weakness and helplessness behind a giant orchestra willing
to obey their commands. In this case the orchestra are the people in
arms, the military.
The angry voices of the political parties, the complaints of the
citizens and the workers, the clenched fists in the pockets of the
people — none of this has to be taken seriously by the government. These
actions lack any real force because they are not supported by the
elements that are naturally the most radical in each people: the young
men from twenty to twenty-five. These men are lined up in the regiments
under the command of our inept government. They follow every order
without question. It is they who help camouflage the government’s true
weaknesses, allowing them to remain undetected — both within our country
as much as outside of it.
We socialists know how socialism, i.e., the immediate communication of
true interests, has been fighting against the rule of the privileged and
their fictitious politics for over one hundred years. We want to
continue and strengthen this powerful historical tendency, which will
lead to freedom and fairness. We want to do this by awakening the spirit
and by creating different social realities. We are not concerned with
state politics.
If the powers of un-spirit and violent politics at least retained enough
force to create great personalities, i.e., strong politicians with
vision and energy, then we might have respect for these men even if they
were in the enemy’s camp. We might even concede that the old powers will
continue to hold onto power for some time. However, it is becoming
increasingly obvious that the state is not based on men of strong spirit
and natural power. It is increasingly based on the ignorance and
passiveness of the people. This goes even for the unhappiest among them,
for the proletarian masses. The masses do not yet understand that they
must flee the state and replace it, that they must build an alternative.
This is not only true in Germany; it is also the case in other
countries.
On the one side, we have the power of the state and the powerlessness of
the masses, which are divided into helpless individuals — on the other
side, we have socialist organisation, a society of societies, an
alliance of alliances, in other words: a people. The struggle between
the two sides must become real. The power of the states, the principle
of government and those who represent the old order will become weaker
and weaker. The entire system would vanish without a trace if the people
began to constitute themselves as a people apart from the state.
However, the people have not yet grasped this. They have not yet
understood that the state will fulfil a certain function and remain an
inevitable necessity as long as its alternative, the socialist reality,
does not exist.
A table can be overturned and a window can be smashed. However, those
who believe that the state is also a thing or a fetish that can be
overturned or smashed are sophists and believers in the Word. The state
is a social relationship; a certain way of people relating to one
another. It can be destroyed by creating new social relationships; i.e.,
by people relating to one another differently.
The absolute monarch said: I am the state. We, who we have imprisoned
ourselves in the absolute state, must realise the truth: we are the
state! And we will be the state as long as we are nothing different; as
long as we have not yet created the institutions necessary for a true
community and a true society of human beings.