This audio production was made in collaboration with Audible Anarchist
On anarchy
by Leo Tolstoy
the anarchists are right in everything in the negation of the existing order and in the assertion that
Without authority there could not be worse violence than that of authority under existing conditions.
They are mistaken only in thinking that anarchy can be instituted by a violent revolution
But it will be
instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require the protection of governmental power and
By their being more and more people who will be ashamed of applying this power
"The capitalistic
organization will pass into the hands of workers, and then there will be no more oppression of these workers and no unequal distribution of earnings."[Marxist]
"But who will establish the works who will administer them?"[Anarchist]
"it will go of its own accord the workmen themselves will arrange everything."[Marxist]
"but the capitalistic organization was established just because, for every practical affair there is need for
Administrators furnished with power if there be work. There will be leadership
Administrators with power and when there is power there will be abuse of it the very thing against which you are now striving." [Anarchist]
to the question how to be without a state without courts armies and so on an
an answer cannot be given because the question is badly formulated.
The problem is not how to arrange a state after the pattern of today or after a new pattern.
Neither I nor any of us is appointed to settle that question.
But though voluntarily yet inevitably must we answer the question
How shall I act faced with the problem whichever
arises before me? Am I to submit my conscience to the acts taking place around me?
Am I to proclaim myself an agreement with the government which hangs erring men send soldiers to murder?
demoralizes nations with opium and spirits and so on or am I to submit my actions to conscience that is
not participate in government.
The actions of which are contrary to reason what will be the outcome of this?
What kind of a government there will be? Of all this
I know nothing. Not that I don't wish to know but that I cannot
I only know that nothing evil can result from my following the higher guidance of a wisdom and love or wise love
which is implanted in me just as nothing evil comes of the be following the instinct and planted in her and
Flying out of the hive with the swarm
We should say to ruin
But I repeat I do not wish to and cannot judge about this. In this precisely
consists the power of Christ's teaching and that not because Christ is God or a great man, but because his teaching is irrefutable
the merit of his teaching consists in the fact that it transferred the matter from the domain of eternal doubt and
conjecture onto the ground of certainty.
You are a man of being rational and kind and you know that today or tomorrow you will die,
disappear if there be a god then you will go to him and he will ask of you an account of your actions
whether you have acted in accordance with his law or at least with the higher qualities implanted in you. If
there be no God you regard reason and love as the highest qualities and must submit to them your other inclinations
And not let them submit to your animal nature
To the cares about the commodities of life to the fear of annoyance and material calamities
The question is not I repeat
Which community will be the more secure, the better, the one which is defended by arms, cannons
gallows or the one that is not so safeguarded.
But there is only one question for a man and on it is impossible to evade
Will you a rational and good being having for a moment appeared in this world and at any moment
liable to disappear
Will you take part in the murder of erring men or men of a different race?
Will you participate in the extermination of whole nations? of so-called
Savages, will you participate in the artificial deterioration of generations of men by means of opium and spirits for
the sake of profit?
Will you participate in all these actions? Or even be in agreement with those who permit them or will you not? And
there can be but one answer to this question for those to whom it has presented itself as
To what the outcome will be of it, I don't know.
Because it is not given to me to know
But what should be done I do
unmistakeably know, and if you ask what will happen? Then I reply that good will certainly happen because
Acting in the way indicated by reason and love I am acting in accordance with the highest law known to me
the situation of the majority of men
enlightened by true brotherly enlightenment at
Present crushed by the deceit and cunning of usurpers who are forcing them to ruin their own lives
This situation is terrible and appears hopeless. Only two issues present themselves and both are closed
One is to destroy violence by violence by terrorism
Dynamite bombs and daggers as our nihilists and anarchists have attempted to do
To destroy the conspiracy of governments against nations from without the other is to come to an agreement with the government
Making concessions to it
Participating in it in order gradually to disentangle the net which is binding the people and to set them free
Both these issues are closed
Dynamite and the dagger as experience has already shown only cause reaction and destroy the most valuable power
The only one at our command that of public opinion the other issue is closed
Because governments have already learned how far they may allow the participation of men wishing to reform them
They admit only that which does not infringe which is non-essential and they are very sensitive
Concerning things harmful to them sensitive because the matter concerns their own existence
They admit men who do not share their views and who desire reform
Not only in order to satisfy the demands of these men, but also in their own interest and that of the government
These men are dangerous to the government's if they remain outside them and revolt against them
Opposing to the governments the only effective instrument the governments possess
public opinion.
They must therefore render these men harmless
Attracting them by means of concessions in order to render them innocuous
like cultivated microbes and then make them serve the aims of the governments that is
oppress and exploit the masses
Both these issues being firmly closed and impregnable, what remains to be done?
To use violence is impossible. It would only cause reaction, to join the ranks of the government is also impossible
one would only become its instrument.
One course therefore remains to fight the government by means of thought, speech
actions, life. Neither yielding to government nor joining its ranks and thereby increasing its power
This alone is needed will certainly be successful and this is the will of God the teaching of Christ
there can be only one permanent revolution a
Moral one the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place?
Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity
But every man feels it clearly in himself and yet in our world everybody thinks of changing
humanity and
Nobody thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy
1900
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