Anarchism :: 6. REALIZATION (8)

6. REALIZATION (8)

I. With regard to the manner in which they conceive their realization—that is, the transition from the negated condition to the affirmed condition—as taking place, the seven teachings here presented have nothing in common.

1. The one part of them conceive their realization as taking place without breach of law: they have in mind a transition from the negated to the affirmed condition merely by the application of legal norms of the negated condition; these teachings may be characterized as reformatory. Reformatory are the teachings of Godwin and Proudhon. The other part conceive their realization as a breach of law: they have in mind a transition from the negated to the affirmed condition with violation of legal norms of the negated condition; these teachings may be called revolutionary. Revolutionary are the teachings of Stirner, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Tucker, and Tolstoi.

There cannot be given a more precise definition of what is common to the reformatory teachings on the one hand, to the revolutionary on the other, and what is peculiar to the one group as against the other, than has here been given. For the conceiving the transition from a negated to an affirmed condition as taking place in any given way has totally different meanings in the different teachings.

If Godwin, Proudhon, Stirner, Tucker, and Tolstoi conceive the transition from a negated to an affirmed condition as taking place in any given way, this is as much as to say that they demand that we should in a given way first prepare for, and then effect, the transition from a disapproved to an approved condition.

If, on the contrary, Bakunin and Kropotkin conceive the transition from a negated to an affirmed condition as taking place in any given way, this means that they foresee that in the progress of evolution the transition from a disappearing to a newly-appearing condition will of itself take place in a given way, and that they only demand that we should make a certain sort of preparation for this transition.

2. The revolutionary teachings part company again as to the fashion in which they conceive of the breach of law that helps in the transition from the negated to the affirmed condition.

Some of them conceive of the breach of law as taking place without the employment of force; these teachings may be characterized as renitent. Renitent are the teachings of Tucker and Tolstoi: Tucker conceiving the breach of law chiefly as a refusal to pay taxes and rent and an infringement of the banking monopoly, Tolstoi especially as a refusal to do military, police, or jury service, and also to pay taxes.

The other revolutionary teachings conceive of the breach of law that helps in the transition from the negated to the affirmed condition as taking place with the employment of force; these teachings may take the name of insurgent. Insurgent are the teachings of Stirner, Bakunin, and Kropotkin: Stirner and Bakunin conceiving only of the transition itself as attended with the use of violence, but Kropotkin also of preparation for it by such acts (propaganda of deed).

II. With regard to what they have in common in respect of the conceived manner of realization, the seven recognized Anarchistic teachings which have been presented may be taken as equivalent to the entire body of recognized Anarchistic teachings. In respect of the conceived manner of realization they have nothing in common. Much less, therefore, can the entire body of recognized Anarchistic teachings have anything in common in this respect.

Furthermore, as regards the specialties that they exhibit in respect of the conceived manner of realization the teachings here presented may be taken as equivalent to the entire body of Anarchistic teachings without limitation. For the specialties represented among them can be arranged as a system in which there is no room left for any more co-ordinate specialties, but only for subordinate. No Anarchistic teaching, therefore, can have any specialty that will not be subordinate to these specialties.

Therefore, what is true of the seven teachings here presented is true of the Anarchistic teachings altogether. In respect of the conceived manner of realization they have nothing in common, and are to be arranged as follows with reference to the differences therein:

Reformatory Teachings	Revolutionary Teachings
	Renitent	Insurgent
Godwin Proudhon	Tucker Tolstoi	Stirner Bakunin Kropotkin

FOOTNOTES:

[1164] [I shall not indorse this statement till I understand it, and I doubt if Tucker will. Perhaps Eltzbacher might have been content with saying "is in no case more injurious to the happiness of most individuals than its non-existence."]

[1165] [This, if interpreted by Eltzbacher's quotations from Tucker, must refer to the right of a voluntary association of any sort to make rules for its own members. But in this sense it seems in the highest degree doubtful whether Eltzbacher is justified in denying the same to all the other six, who have omitted to mention this point (perhaps regarding it as self-evident) while they were talking against laws in the sense of laws compulsorily binding everybody in the land.]

[1166] [But see on Proudhon and Stirner my notes on pages 80 and 97.]

[1167] [It will be seen by consulting the footnotes on pages 46, 47, and 48 that the warrants for this statement about Godwin are drawn exclusively from the first one-fifth of his book, contrary to Eltzbacher's profession at the top of page 41; that the passages quoted verbatim are not in Godwin's second edition; and that the quotations which are not verbatim are of doubtful correctness by the second edition. This makes it appear that Godwin's sweeping rejection of the principle of contract was one of those over-hasty propositions about which he changed his mind even before they were published (see his words quoted on page 40, and the preface to his second edition). Yet I am not prepared to assert that Godwin would at any time have made contract the basis of his civil order.]

[1168] [On Proudhon, Stirner, Tucker, see my notes on pages 80, 97, 274.]

[1169] [We are getting into an ambiguity of language here. The "collectivity" in which Kropotkin vests property is, as I understand, the entire population; the only "collectivity" which Tucker could recognize as owning property would be a voluntary association, whose membership, whether large or small, would in general be limited by the arbitrary choice of men.]

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