IN the popular mind, an Anarchist is a person who throws bombs and commits other outrages, either because he is more or less insane, or because he uses the pretense of extreme political opinions as a cloak for criminal proclivities.This view is, of course, in every way inadequate.Some Anarchists believe in throwing bombs; many do not.Men of almost every other shade of opinion believe in throwing bombs in suitable circumstances: for example, the men who threw the bomb at Sarajevo which started the present war were not Anarchists, but Nationalists.And those Anarchists who are in favor of bomb-throwing do not in this respectdiffer on any vital principle from the rest of the community, with the exception of that infinitesimal portion who adopt the Tolstoyan attitude of non-resistance.Anarchists, like Socialists, usually believe in the doctrine of the class war, and if they use bombs, it is as Governments use bombs, for purposes of war: but for every bomb manufactured by an Anarchist, many millions are manufactured by Governments, and for every man killed by Anarchist violence, many millions are killed by the violence of States.We may, therefore, dismiss from our minds the whole question of violence, which plays so large a part in the popular imagination, since it is neither essential nor peculiar to those who adopt the Anarchist position.
Anarchism, as its derivation indicates, is the theory which is opposed to every kind of forcible government.It is opposed to the State as the embodiment of the force employed in the government of the community.Such government as Anarchism can tolerate must be free government, not merely in the sense that it is that of a majority, but in the sense that it is that assented to by all.Anarchists object to such institutions as the police and the criminal law, by means of which the will of one part of the community is forced upon another part.In their view, the democratic form of government is not very enormously preferable to other forms so long as minorities are compelled by force or its potentiality to submit to the will of majorities.Liberty is the supreme good in the Anarchist creed, and liberty is sought by the direct road of abolishing all forcible control over the individual by the community.
Anarchism, in this sense, is no new doctrine.It is set forth admirably by Chuang Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, who lived about the year 300 B.C.:--Horses have hoofs to carry them over frost and snow; hair, to protect them from wind and cold.They eat grass and drink water, and fling up their heels over the champaign.Such is the real nature of horses.Palatial dwellings are of no use to them.
One day Po Lo appeared, saying: ``I understand the management of horses.''
So he branded them, and clipped them, and pared their hoofs, and put halters on them, tying them up by the head and shackling them by the feet,and disposing them in stables, with the result that two or three in every ten died.Then he kept them hungry and thirsty, trotting them and galloping them, and grooming, and trimming, with the misery of the tasselled bridle before and the fear of the knotted whip behind, until more than half of them were dead.
The potter says: ``I can do what I will with Clay.If I want it round, I use compasses; if rectangular, a square.''
The carpenter says: ``I can do what I will with wood.If I want it curved, I use an arc; if straight, a line.''
But on what grounds can we think that the natures of clay and wood desire this application of compasses and square, of arc and line? Nevertheless, every age extols Po Lo for his skill in managing horses, and potters and carpenters for their skill with clay and wood.Those who govern the empire make the same mistake.
Now I regard government of the empire from quite a different point of view.
The people have certain natural instincts:--to weave and clothe themselves, to till and feed themselves.These are common to all humanity, and all are agreed thereon.Such instincts are called ``Heaven-sent.''
And so in the days when natural instincts prevailed, men moved quietly and gazed steadily.At that time there were no roads over mountains, nor boats, nor bridges over water.All things were produced, each for its own proper sphere.Birds and beasts multiplied, trees and shrubs grew up.The former might be led by the hand; you could climb up and peep into the raven's nest.For then man dwelt with birds and beasts, and all creation was one.There were no distinctions of good and bad men.Being all equally without knowledge, their virtue could not go astray.Being all equally without evil desires, they were in a state of natural integrity, the perfection of human existence.
But when Sages appeared, tripping up people over charity and fettering them with duty to their neighbor, doubt found its way into the world.And then, with their gushing over music and fussing over ceremony, the empire became divided against itself.[11]
[11] ``Musings of a Chinese Mystic.'' Selections from the Philosophyof Chuang Tzu.With an Introduction by Lionel Giles, M.A.(Oxon.).Wisdom of the East Series, John Murray, 1911.Pages 66-68.
