Background Image

...

From Infancy, Almost, The Average Girl Is Told That Marriage Is Her Ultimate Goal; Therefore Her Training And Education Must Be Directed Toward That End. Like The Mute Beast Fattened For Slaughter, She Is Prepared For That.

-Emma Goldman

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

From Infancy, Almost, The

Emma Goldman

...

From Infancy, Almost, The Average Girl Is Told That Marriage Is Her Ultimate Goal; Therefore Her Training And Education Must Be Directed Toward That End. Like The Mute Beast Fattened For Slaughter, She Is Prepared For That.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Emma Goldman

True Emancipation ... Will Have To Do Away With The Absurd Notion Of The Dualism Of The Sexes, Or That Man And Woman Represent Two Antagonistic Worlds.

The Demand For Equal Rights In Every Vocation Of Life Is Just And Fair; But, After All, The Most Vital Right Is The Right To Love And Be Loved.

The Benefits Brought To The Russian People By Bolshevism Exist Only On Paper Painted In Glowing Colors By Bolshevist Propaganda.

The Christian Religion And Morality Extols The Glory Of The Hereafter, And Therefore Remains Indifferent To The Horrors Of The Earth. Indeed, The Idea Of Self-denial And Of All That Makes For Pain And Sorrow Is Its Test Of Human Worth, Its Passport To The Entry Into Heaven.

No Real Social Change Has Ever Been Brought About Without A Revolution... Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

Few Countries Have Produced Such Arrogance And Snobbishness As America. Particularly Is This True Of The American Woman Of The Middle Class. She Not Only Considers Herself The Equal Of Man, But His Superior, Especially In Her Purity, Goodness, And Morality. Small Wonder That The American Suffragist Claims For Her Vote The Most Miraculous Powers. In Her Exalted Conceit She Does Not See How Truly Enslaved She Is, Not So Much By Man, As By Her Own Silly Notions And Traditions. Suffrage Can Not Ameliorate That Sad Fact; It Can Only Accentuate It, As Indeed It Does.

We Americans Claim To Be A Peace-loving People. We Hate Bloodshed; We Are Opposed To Violence. Yet We Go Into Spasms Of Joy Over The Possibility Of Projecting Dynamite Bombs From Flying Machines Upon Helpless Citizens. We Are Ready To Hang, Electrocute, Or Lynch Anyone, Who, From Economic Necessity, Will Risk His Own Life In The Attempt Upon That Of Some Industrial Magnate. Yet Our Hearts Swell With Pride At The Thought That America Is Becoming The Most Powerful Nation On Earth, And That She Will Eventually Plant Her Iron Foot On The Necks Of All Other Nations. Such Is The Logic Of Patriotism.

Religion! How It Dominates Man's Mind, How It Humiliates And Degrades His Soul. God Is Everything, Man Is Nothing, Says Religion.but Out Of That Nothing God Has Created A Kingdom So Despotic, So Tyrannical, So Cruel, So Terribly Exacting That Naught But Gloom And Tears And Blood Have Ruled The World Since Gods Began.

Before We Can Forgive One Another, We Have To Understand One Another.

Corruption Of Politics Has Nothing To Do With The Morals, Or The Laxity Of Morals, Of Various Political Personalities. Its Cause Is Altogether A Material One.

Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

What I Prized Most Was Freedom, Freedom To Do My Work, To Give Myself Spontaneously And Not Out Of Duty Or By Command. I Could Not Submit To Such Demands; Rather Would I Choose The Path Of A Homeless Wanderer; Yes, Even Go Without Love.

Poor America, Of What Avail Is All Her Wealth, If The Individuals Comprising The Nation Are Wretchedly Poor? If They Live In Squalor, In Filth, In Crime, With Hope And Joy Gone, A Homeless, Soulless Army Of Human Prey.

Woman, Essentially A Purist, Is Naturally Bigoted And Relentless In Her Effort To Make Others As Good As She Thinks They Ought To Be.

There Is No Greater Fallacy Than The Belief That Aims And Purposes Are One Thing, While Methods And Tactics Are Another ... All Human Experience Teaches That Methods And Means Cannot Be Separated From The Ultimate Aim.

I'd Rather Have Roses On My Table Than Diamonds On My Neck.

A Politician, He Knows That The Majority Cares Little For Ideals Or Integrity. What It Craves Is Display.

Revolution Is Indeed A Violent Process. But If It Is To Result Only In A Change Of Dictatorship, In A Shifting Of Names And Political Personalities, Then It Is Hardly Worth While.

I Don't Care If A Man's Theory For Tomorrow Is Correct, I Care If His Spirit Of Today Is Correct.

... If The Production Of Any Commodity Necessitates The Sacrifice Of Human Life, Society Should Do Without That Commodity, But Itcan Not Do Without That Life.

The State, Every Government Whatever Its Form, Character Or Color - Be It Absolute Or Constitutional, Monarchy Or Republic, Fascist, Nazi Or Bolshevik - Is By Its Very Nature Conservative, Static, Intolerant Of Change And Opposed To It.

Modern Woman Is No Longer Satisfied To Be The Beloved Of A Man; She Looks For Understanding, Comradeship; She Wants To Be Treated As A Human Being And Not Simply As An Object For Sexual Gratification.

I Want Freedom, The Right To Self-expression, Everybody's Right To Beautiful, Radiant Things.' Anarchism Meant That To Me, And I Would Live It In Spite Of The Whole World — Prisons, Persecution, Everything. Yes, Even In Spite Of The Condemnation Of My Own Closest Comrades I Would Live My Beautiful Ideal.

Religion Is A Superstition That Originated In Man`s Mental Inability To Solve Natural Phenomena. The Church Is An Orgainized Institution That Has Always Been Stumbling To Block Progress.

Leo Tolstoy ... Defines Patriotism As The Principle That Will Justify The Training Of Wholesale Murderers.

The Soldier's Business Is To Take Life. For That He Is Paid By The State, Eulogized By Political Charlatans And Upheld By Public Hysteria. But Woman's Function Is To Give Life, Yet Neither The State Nor Politicians Nor Public Opinion Have Ever Made The Slightest Provision In Return For The Life Woman Has Given.

There Are, However, Some Potentates I Would Kill By Any And All Means At My Disposal. They Are Ignorance, Superstition, And Bigotry — The Most Sinister And Tyrannical Rulers On Earth.

The Average Mind Is Easily Content With Inherited And Acquired Things, Or With The Dicta Of Parents And Teachers, Because It Is Much Easier To Imitate Than To Create.

Give Us What Belongs To Us In Peace, And If You Don't Give It To Us In Peace, We Will Take It By Force.

Poor Human Nature, What Horrible Crimes Have Been Committed In Thy Name! All Wars Are Wars Among Thieves Who Are Too Cowardly To Fight And Who Therefore Induce The Young Manhood Of The Whole World To Do The Fighting For Them.

The Triumph Of The Philosophy Of Atheism Is To Free Man From The Nightmare Of Gods; It Means The Dissolution Of The Phantoms Of The Beyond.

Every Daring Attempt To Make A Great Change In Existing Conditions, Every Lofty Vision Of New Possibilities For The Human Race, Has Been Labeled Utopian.

Our Institutions And Conditions Rest Upon Deep-seated Ideas. To Change Those Conditions And At The Same Time Leave The Underlying Ideas And Values Intact Means Only A Superficial Transformation, One That Cannot Be Permanent Or Bring Real Betterment. It Is A Change Of Form Only, Not Of Substance, As So Tragically Proven By Russia.

No One Has Yet Realized The Wealth Of Sympathy, The Kindness And Generosity Hidden In The Soul Of A Child. The Effort Of Every True Education Should Be To Unlock That Treasure.

Marriage Is Primarily An Economic Arrangement, An Insurance Pact. It Differs From The Ordinary Life Insurance Agreement Only In That It Is More Binding, More Exacting.

Men And Women ... Do You Not Realize That The State Is The Worst Enemy You Have? It Is A Machine That Crushes You In Order To Sustain The Ruling Class, Your Masters. Like Naïve Children You Put Your Trust In Your Political Leaders. You Make It Possible For Them To Creep Into Your Confidence, Only To Have Them Betray You To The First Bidder. But Even Where There Is No Direct Betrayal, The Labour Politicians Make Common Cause With Your Enemies To Keep You In Leash, To Prevent Your Direct Action. The State Is The Pillar Of Capitalism, And It Is Ridiculous To Expect Any Redress From It.

The Philosophy Of Atheism Has Its Root In The Earth, In This Life; Its Aim Is The Emancipation Of The Human Race From All God-heads, Be They Judaic, Christian, Mohammedan, Buddhistic, Brahmanistic, Or What Not. Mankind Has Been Punished Long And Heavily For Having Created Its Gods, Nothing But Pain And Persecution, Have Been Man's Lot Since Gods Began. There Is But One Way Out Of This Blunder. Man Must Break His Fetters Which Have Chained Him To The Gates Of Heaven And Hell, So That He Can Begin To Fashion Out Of His Reawakened And Illumined Consciousness A New World Upon The Earth.

Nowhere Is Woman Treated According To The Merit Of Her Work, But Rather As A Sex. It Is Therefore Almost Inevitable That She Should Pay For Her Right To Exist, To Keep A Position In Whatever Line, With Sex Favors. Thus It Is Merely A Question Of Degree Whether She Sells Herself To One Man, In Or Out Of Marriage, Or To Many Men!... The Economic And Social Inferiority Of Woman Is Responsible For Prostitution.

Mother Liberty Caresses With Generous Affections...[those] Who, Armed With The Weapons Of High-minded Honesty,...have Grasped That The Freedom Of Each Is Rooted In The Freedom Of All.

Readiness,' Far Far From Assuring Peace, Has At All Times And In All Countries Been Instrumental In Precipitating Armed Conflicts.

True Emancipation Begins Neither At The Polls Nor In The Courts. It Begins In Woman's Soul.

The Strongest Bulwark Of Authority Is Uniformity; The Least Divergence From It Is The Greatest Crime.

[woman's] Life-long Economic Parasitism Has Utterly Blurred Her Conception Of The Meaning Of Equality.

No Great Idea In Its Beginning Can Ever Be Within The Law. How Can It Be Within The Law? The Law Is Stationary. The Law Is Fixed. The Law Is A Chariot Wheel Which Binds Us All Regardless Of Conditions Or Place Or Time.

Politicians Promise You Heaven Before Election And Give You Hell After

Today Is The Parent Of Tomorrow. The Present Casts Its Shadow Far Into The Future. That Is The Law Of Life, Individual And Social. Revolution That Divests Itself Of Ethical Values Thereby Lays The Foundation Of Injustice, Deceit, And Oppression For The Future Society. The Means Used To Prepare The Future Become Its Cornerstone.

Indeed, The Keynote Of Government Is Injustice. With The Arrogance And Self-sufficiency Of The King Who Could Do No Wrong, Governments Ordain, Judge, Condemn, And Punish The Most Insignificant Offenses, While Maintaining Themselves By The Greatest Of All Offenses, The Annihilation Of Individual Liberty.

There Is No Such Thing As A Good Government. There Never Was. There Can't Be.

I Believe - Indeed, I Know - That Whatever Is Fine And Beautiful In The Human Expresses And Asserts Itself In Spite Of Government, And Not Because Of It.

Only When Human Sorrows Are Turned Into A Toy With Glaring Colors Will Baby People Become Interested - For A While At Least. The People Are A Very Fickle Baby That Must Have New Toys Every Day.

From Infancy, Almost, The Average Girl Is Told That Marriage Is Her Ultimate Goal; Therefore Her Training And Education Must Be Directed Toward That End. Like The Mute Beast Fattened For Slaughter, She Is Prepared For That.

Whether Our Reformers Admit It Or Not, The Economic And Social Inferiority Of Women Is Responsible For Prostitution.

The Dominant, Almost General, Idea Of Revolution - Particularly The Socialist Idea - Is That Revolution Is A Violent Change Of Social Conditions Through Which One Social Class, The Working Class, Becomes Dominant Over Another Class, The Capitalist Class. It Is The Conception Of A Purely Physical Change, And As Such It Involves Only Political Scene Shifting And Institutional Rearrangements

In Modern Capitalism Economic Exploitation Rather Than Political Oppression Is The Real Enemy Of The People.

Thinking Men And Women The World Over Are Beginning To Realize That Patriotism Is Too Narrow And Limited A Conception To Meet The Necessities Of Our Time.

The State Is The Altar Of Political Freedom And, Like The Religious Altar, It Is Maintained For The Purpose Of Human Sacrifice.

Since Every Effort In Our Educational Life Seems To Be Directed Toward Making Of The Child A Being Foreign To Itself, It Must Of Necessity Produce Individuals Foreign To One Another, And In Everlasting Antagonism With Each Other.

Every Society Has The Criminals It Deserves.

If Voting Changed Anything, They'd Make It Illegal.

Wealth Means Power: The Power To Subdue, To Crush, To Exploit, The Power To Enslave, To Outrage, To Degrade.

Emancipation Should Make It Possible For Woman To Be Human In The Truest Sense. Everything Within Her That Craves Assertion And Activity Should Reach Its Fullest Expression; All Artificial Barriers Should Be Broken, And The Road Towards Greater Freedom Cleared Of Every Trace Of Centuries Of Submission And Slavery.

The Powers Know That The People At Large Are Like Children Whose Despair, Sorrow, And Tears Can Be Turned Into Joy With A Little Toy. ... An Army And Navy Represents The People's Toys.

Anarchism...stands For Direct Action, The Open Defiance Of, And Resistance To, All Laws And Restrictions, Economic, Social, And Moral.

... The Modern Drama, Operating Through The Double Channel Of Dramatist And Interpreter, Affecting As It Does Both Mind And Heart,is The Strongest Force In Developing Social Discontent, Swelling The Powerful Tide Of Unrest That Sweeps Onward And Over The Dam Of Ignorance, Prejudice, And Superstition.

Why Waste Your Life Working For A Few Shillings A Week In A Scullery, Eighteen Hours A Day, When A Woman Could Earn A Decent Wage By Selling Her Body Instead?

The Most Unpardonable Sin In Society Is Independence Of Thought.

No Real Social Change Has Ever Been Brought About Without A Revolution - Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action. Every Effort For Progress, For Enlightenment, For Science, For Religious, Political, And Economic Liberty, Emanates From The Minority, And Not From The Mass.

Even Were The Workers Able To Have Their Own Representatives, For Which Our Good Socialist Politicians Are Clamoring, What Chances Are There For Their Honesty And Good Faith?

"what Would You Do With The Lazy Ones, Who Would Not Work?" "no One Is Lazy. They Grow Hopeless From The Misery Of Their Present Existence, And Give Up. Under Our Order Of Things, Every Man Would Do The Work He Liked, And Would Have As Much As His Neighbor, So Could Not Be Unhappy And Discouraged."

We Say That If America Has Entered The War To Make The World Safe For Democracy, She Must First Make Democracy Safe In America. How Else Is The World To Take America Seriously, When Democracy At Home Is Daily Being Outraged, Free Speech Suppressed, Peaceable Assemblies Broken Up By Overbearing And Brutal Gangsters In Uniform; When Free Press Is Curtailed And Every Independent Opinion Gagged? Verily, Poor As We Are In Democracy, How Can We Give Of It To The World?

Peter Kropotkin...was Recognized By Friend And Foe As One Of The Greatest Minds...of The Nineteenth Century...the Lucidity And Brilliance Of His Mind Combined With His Warm-heartednes S Into The Harmonious Whole Of A Fascinating And Gracious Personality.

There Can Be No Freedom In The Large Sense Of The Word, No Harmonious Development, So Long As Mercenary And Commercial Considerations Play An Important Part In The Determination Of Personal Conduct.

Success Achieved By The Most Contemptible Means Cannot But Destroy The Soul. ... It Helps To Cover Up The Inner Corruption And Gradually Dulls One's Scruples, So That Those Who Begin With Some High Ambition Cannot, Even If They Would, Create Anything Out Of Themselves.

After All, That Is What Laws Are For, To Be Made And Unmade.

Politics Is The Reflex Of The Business And Industrial World.

If Love Does Not Know How To Give And Take Without Restrictions, It Is Not Love, But A Transaction That Never Fails To Lay Stress On A Plus And A Minus.

It Is Characteristic Of Theistic "tolerance" That No One Really Cares What The People Believe In, Just So They Believe Or Pretend To Believe.

When We Have Undermined The Patriotic Lie, We Shall Have Cleared The Path For The Great Structure Where All Shall Be United Into A Universal Brotherhood — A Truly Free Society.

Revolution That Divests Itself Of Ethical Values Thereby Lays The Foundation Of Injustice, Deceit, And Oppression For The Future Society.

I Want Freedom, The Right To Self-expression , Everybody's Right To Beautiful, Radiant Things.

Life Without An Ideal Is Spiritual Death.

Spiritual Death

The State Is A Term For The Legislative And Administrative Machinery Whereby Certain Business Of The People Is Transacted, And Badly So.

Conceit, Arrogance And Egotism Are The Essentials Of Patriotism... Patriotism Assumes That Our Globe Is Divided Into Little Spots, Each One Surrounded By An Iron Gate. Those Who Have Had The Fortune Of Being Born On Some Particular Spot Consider Themselves Nobler, Better, Grander, More Intelligent Than Those Living Beings Inhabiting Any Other Spot. It Is, Therefore, The Duty Of Everyone Living On That Chosen Spot To Fight, Kill And Die In The Attempt To Impose His Superiority Upon All The Others.

Militarism Consumes The Strongest And Most Productive Elements Of Each Nation. Militarism Swallows The Largest Part Of The National Revenue.

The Most Vital Right Is The Right To Love And Be Loved.

Direct Action Is The Logical, Consistent Method Of Anarchism.

More Pernicious Than The Power Of A Dictator Is That Of A Class; The Most Terrible - The Tyranny Of A Majority.

The Contention That A Standing Army And Navy Is The Best Security Of Peace Is About As Logical As The Claim That The Most Peaceful Citizen Is He Who Goes About Heavily Armed.

...the Greatest Bulwark Of Capitalism Is Militarism.

All Government, Whatever Its Forms Or Pretenses, Is A Dead Weight That Paralyzes The Free Spirit And Activities Of The Masses.

The Inherent Tendency Of The State Is To Concentrate, To Narrow, And Monopolize All Social Activities; The Nature Of Revolution Is, On The Contrary, To Grow, To Broaden, And Disseminate Itself In Ever-wider Circles. In Other Words, The State Is Institutional And Static; Revolution Is Fluent, Dynamic.

Men Towering High Above Such Political Pygmies, Men Of Refinement, Of Culture, Of Ability, Are Jeered Into Silence As Mollycoddles. It Is Absurd To Claim That Ours Is The Era Of Individualism. Ours Is Merely A More Poignant Repetition Of The Phenomenon Of All History: Every Effort For Progress, For Enlightenment, For Science, For Religious, Political, And Economic Liberty, Emanates From The Minority, And Not From The Mass. Today, As Ever, The Few Are Misunderstood, Hounded, Imprisoned, Tortured, And Killed.

How Long Would Authority ... Exist, If Not For The Willingness Of The Mass To Become Soldiers, Policemen, Jailers, And Hangmen.

The Majority Cannot Reason; It Has No Judgement. It Has Always Placed Its Destiny In The Hands Of Others; It Has Followed Its Leaders Even Into Destruction. The Mass Has Always Opposed, Condemned, And Hounded The Innovator, The Pioneer Of A New Truth.

The Most Disheartening Tendency Common Among Readers Is To Tear Out One Sentence From A Work, As A Criterion Of The Writer's Ideas Or Personality.

Christianity Is Most Admirably Adapted To The Training Of Slaves, To The Perpetuation Of A Slave Society.

Crime Is Naught But Misdirected Energy.

What Is Patriotism? Is It Love Of One's Birthplace, The Place Of Childhood's Recollections And Hopes, Dreams And Aspirations? Is It The Place Where, In Childlike Naïveté, We Would Watch The Passing Clouds, And Wonder Why We, Too, Could Not Float So Swiftly? The Place Where We Would Count The Milliard Glittering Stars, Terror-stricken Lest Each One "an Eye Should Be," Piercing The Very Depths Of Our Little Souls?

It Requires Something More Than Personal Experience To Gain A Philosophy Or Point Of View From Any Specific Event. It Is The Quality Of Our Response To The Event And Our Capacity To Enter Into The Lives Of Others That Help Us To Make Their Lives And Experiences Our Own. In My Own Case My Convictions Have Derived And Developed From Events In The Lives Of Others As Well As From My Own Experience. What I Have Seen Meted Out To Others By Authority And Repression, Economic And Political, Transcends Anything I Myself May Have Endured.

The People Are Urged To Be Patriotic ... By Sacrificing Their Own Children. Patriotism Requires Allegience To The Flag, Which Means Obedience And Readiness To Kill Father, Mother, Brother, Sister.

With The Conception That The Revolution Was Only A Means Of Securing Political Power, It Was Inevitable That All Revolutionary Values Should Be Subordinated To The Needs Of The Socialist State; Indeed, Exploited To Further The Security Of The Newly Acquired Governmental Power.

Out Of The Chaos, The Future Emerges In Harmony And Beauty.

Anarchism Is The Only Philosophy Which Brings To Man The Consciousness Of Himself; Which Maintains That God, The State, And Society Are Non-existent, That Their Promises Are Null And Void, Since They Can Be Fulfilled Only Through Man's Subordination.

Everywhere And Always, Since Its Very Inception, Christianity Has Turned The Earth Into A Vale Of Tears; Always It Has Made Of Life A Weak, Diseased Thing, Always It Has Instilled Fear In Man, Turning Him Into A Dual Being, Whose Life Energies Are Spent In The Struggle Between Body And Soul. In Decrying The Body As Something Evil, The Flesh As The Tempter To Everything That Is Sinful, Man Has Mutilated His Being In The Vain Attempt To Keep His Soul Pure, While His Body Rotted Away From The Injuries And Tortures Inflicted Upon It.

Real Wealth Consists In Things Of Utility And Beauty, In Things That Help To Create Strong, Beautiful Bodies And Surroundings Inspiring To Live In.

John Burroughs Has Stated That Experimental Study Of Animals In Captivity Is Absolutely Useless. Their Character, Their Habits, Their Appetites Undergo A Complete Transformation When Torn From Their Soil In Field And Forest. With Human Nature Caged In A Narrow Space, Whipped Daily Into Submission, How Can We Speak Of Its Potentialities?

Never Can A New Idea Move Within The Law. It Matters Not Whether That Idea Pertains To Political And Social Changes Or To Any Other Domain Of Human Thought And Expression - To Science, Literature, Music; In Fact, Everything That Makes For Freedom And Joy And Beauty Must Refuse To Move Within The Law. How Can It Be Otherwise? The Law Is Stationary, Fixed, Mechanical, 'a Chariot Wheel' Which Grinds All Alike Without Regard To Time, Place And Condition, Without Ever Taking Into Account Cause And Effect, Without Ever Going Into The Complexity Of The Human Soul.

Conceit, Arrogance, And Egotism Are The Essentials Of Patriotism.

If They Do Not Give You Work, Demand Bread. If They Deny You Both, Take Bread. It Is Your Sacred Right!

The Demand For Equal Rights In Every Vocation Of Life Is Just And Fair; But, After All, The Most Vital Right Is The Right To Love And To Be Loved. Indeed, If Partial Emancipation Is To Become A Complete And True Emancipation Of Woman, It Will Have To Do Away With The Ridiculous Notion That To Be Loved, To Be Sweetheart And Mother, Is Synonymous With Being Slave Or Subordinate. It Will Have To Do Away With The Absurd Notion Of The Dualism Of The Sexes, Or That Man And Woman Represent Two Antagonistic Worlds.

One Cannot Be Too Extreme In Dealing With Social Ills; The Extreme Thing Is Generally The True Thing.

Methods And Means Cannot Be Separated From The Ultimate Aim.

Love Needs No Protection; It Is Its Own Protection.

When The Child Has Reached Manhood He Is Thoroughly Saturated With The Belief That He Is Chosen By The Lord Himself To Defend His Country Against The Attack Or Invasion Of Any Foreigner. It Is For That Purpose That We Are Clamoring For A Greater Army And Navy, More Battleships And Ammunition.

No, It Is Not Because Woman Is Lacking In Responsibility, But Because She Has Too Much Of The Latter That She Demands To Know How To Prevent Conception.

The Import Is Not The Kind Of Work Woman Does, But Rather The Quality Of The Work She Furnishes.

A Revolution Without Dancing Is Not A Revolution Worth Having.

The History Of Progress Is Written In The Blood Of Men And Women Who Have Dared To Espouse An Unpopular Cause, As, For Instance, The Black Man's Right To His Body, Or Woman's Right To Her Soul.

Understand One Another.

Leo Tolstoy, The Greatest Anti-patriot Of Our Time, Defines Patriotism As The Principle That Will Justify The Training Of Wholesale Murderers; A Trade That Requires Better Equipment In The Exercise Of Man-killing Than The Making Of Such Necessities As Shoes, Clothing, And Houses; A Trade That Guarantees Better Returns And Greater Glory Than That Of The Honest Workingman.

If Elections Really Changed Anything, They Would Be Outlawed.

The Ultimate End Of All Revolutionary Social Change Is To Establish The Sanctity Of Human Life, The Dignity Of Man, The Right Of Every Human Being To Liberty And Well-being.

To-day Is The Parent Of To-morrow. The Present Casts Its Shadow Far Into The Future.

Jealousy Is The Very Reverse Of Understanding, Of Sympathy, And Of Generous Feeling. Never Has Jealousy Added To Character, Never Does It Make The Individual Big And Fine.

The Function Of Militarism Is To Kill. It Cannot Live Except Through Murder.

Puritanism, In Whatever Expression, Is A Poisonous Germ. On The Surface Everything May Look Strong And Vigorous; Yet The Poison Works Its Way Persistently, Until The Entire Fabric Is Doomed.

Political Violence Is Organized Violence On The Top Which Creates Individual Violence At The Bottom.

It Is Safe To Say That No Other Superstition Is So Detrimental To Growth, So Enervating And Paralyzing To The Minds And Hearts Of The People, As The Superstition Of Morality.

The Higher Mental Development Of Woman, The Less Possible It Is For Her To Meet A Congenial Male Who Will See In Her, Not Only Sex, But Also The Human Being, The Friend, The Comrade And Strong Individuality, Who Cannot And Ought Not Lose A Single Trait Of Her Character.

The Pathos Of It All Is That The America Which Is To Be Protected By A Huge Military Force Is Not The America Of The People, But That Of The Privileged Class.

The Reward In Heaven Is The Perpetual Bait, A Bait That Has Caught Man In An Iron Net, A Strait-jacket Which Does Not Let Him Expand Or Grow.

Perhaps Even More Than Constituted Authority, It Is Social Uniformity And Sameness That Harass The Individual Most. His Very "uniqueness," "separateness" And "differentiation" Make Him An Alien, Not Only In His Native Place, But Even In His Own Home. Often More So Than The Foreign Born Who Generally Falls In With The Established.

Religion, The Dominion Of The Human Mind; Property, The Dominion Of Human Needs; And Government, The Dominion Of Human Conduct, Represent The Stronghold Of Man's Enslavement And All The Horrors It Entails.

The Individual Whose Vision Encompasses The Whole World Often Feels Nowhere So Hedged In And Out Of Touch With His Surroundings As In His Native Land.

Ask For Work. If They Don't Give You Work, Ask For Bread. If They Do Not Give You Work Or Bread, Then Take Bread.

No Revolution Can Ever Succeed As A Factor Of Liberation Unless The Means Used To Further It Be Identical In Spirit And Tendency With The Purposes To Be Achieved. Revolution Is The Negation Of The Existing, A Violent Protest Against Man's Inhumanity To Man With All The Thousand And One Slaveries It Involves. It Is The Destroyer Of Dominant Values Upon Which A Complex System Of Injustice, Oppression, And Wrong Has Been Built Up By Ignorance And Brutality. It Is The Herald Of New Values, Ushering In A Transformation Of The Basic Relations Of Man To Man, And Of Man To Society.

Consciously Or Unconsciously, Most Theists See In Gods And Devils, Heaven And Hell, Reward And Punishment, A Whip To Lash The People Into Obedience, Meekness And Contentment.... The Philosophy Of Atheism Expresses The Expansion And Growth Of The Human Mind. The Philosophy Of Theism, If We Can Call It A Philosophy, Is Static And Fixed.

The History Of Human Growth Is At The Same Time The History Of Every New Idea Heralding The Approach Of A Brighter Dawn, And The Brighter Dawn Has Always Been Considered Illegal, Outside Of The Law.

The Poor, Stupid, Free American Citizen! Free To Starve, Free To Tramp The Highways Of This Great Country, He Enjoys Universal Suffrage, And By That Right, He Has Forged Chains Around His Limbs. The Reward That He Receives Is Stringent Labor Laws Prohibiting The Right Of Boycott, Of Picketing, Of Everything, Except The Right To Be Robbed Of The Fruits Of His Labor.

Imagine, Capitalist America Also Divides The Anarchists Into Two Categories, Philosophic And Criminal. The First Are Accepted In Highest Circles; One Of Them Is Even High In The Councils Of The Wilson Administration. The Second Category, To Which We Have The Honor Of Belonging, Is Persecuted And Often Imprisoned. Yours Also Seems To Be A Distinction Without A Difference. Don't You Think So?

The Whole History Of Man Is Continuous Proof Of The Maxim That To Divest One's Methods Of Ethical Concepts Means To Sink Into The Depths Of Utter Demoralization.

The Individual Is The True Reality Of Life. A Cosmos In Himself, He Does Not Exist For The State, Nor For That Abstraction Called "society," Or The "nation," Which Is Only A Collection Of Individuals.

I May Be Arrested, I May Be Tried And Thrown Into Jail, But I Never Will Be Silent.

Let Us Not Overlook Vital Things, Because Of The Bulk Of Trifles Confronting Us.

Jealousy Is Indeed A Poor Medium To Secure Love, But It Is A Secure Medium To Destroy One

Perhaps Even More Than Constituted Authority, It Is Social Uniformity And Sameness That Harass The Individual Most.

The Political Arena Leaves One No Alternative, One Must Either Be A Dunce Or A Rogue.

Anarchism Aims To Strip Labor Of Its Deadening, Dulling Aspect, Of Its Gloom And Compulsion. It Aims To Make Work An Instrument Of Joy, Of Strength, Of Color, Of Real Harmony, So That The Poorest Sort Of A Man Should Find In Work Both Recreation And Hope.

Statutory Regulations, Legislative Enactments, Constitutional Provisions, Are Invasive. They Never Yet Induced Man To Do Anything He Could And Would Not Do By Virtue Of His Intellect Or Temperament, Nor Prevented Anything That Man Was Impelled To Do By The Same Dictates.

When We Can't Dream Any Longer We Die.

Nora Leaves Her Husband, Not-as The Stupid Critic Would Have It-because She Is Tired Of Her Responsibilities Or Feels The Need Of Woman's Rights, But Because She Has Come To Know That For Eight Years She Had Lived With A Stranger And Borne Him Children. Can There Be Anything More Humiliating, More Degrading Than A Life-long Proximity Between Two Strangers? No Need For The Woman To Know Anything Of The Man, Save His Income. As To The Knowledge Of The Woman-what Is There To Know Except That She Has A Pleasing Appearance?

On Rare Occasions One Does Hear Of A Miraculous Case Of A Married Couple Falling In Love After Marriage, But On Close Examination It Will Be Found That It Is A Mere Adjustment To The Inevitable.

Love Is It's Own Protection.

Have Not All Theists Painted Their Deity As The God Of Love And Goodness? Yet After Thousands Of Years Of Such Preachments The Gods Remain Deaf To The Agony Of The Human Race. Confucius Cares Not For The Poverty, Squalor And Misery Of The People Of China. Buddha Remains Undisturbed In His Philosophical Indifference To The Famine And Starvation Of Outraged Hindoos; Jahve Continues Deaf To The Bitter Cry Of Israel; While Jesus Refuses To Rise From The Dead Against His Christians Who Are Butchering Each Other.

No Great Idea In Its Beginning Can Ever Be Within The Law. How Can It Be Within The Law?

The Conception Of Gods Originated In Fear And Curiosity. Primitive Man, Unable To Understand The Phenomena Of Nature, And Harassed By Them, Saw In Every Terrifying Manifestation Some Sinister Force Expressly Directed Against Him; And As Ignorance And Fear Are The Parents Of All Superstition, The Troubled Fancy Of Primitive Man Wove The God Idea.

How To Raise This Dead Level Of Theistic Belief Is Really A Matter Of Life And Death For All Denominations. Therefore Their Tolerance; But It Is A Tolerance Not Of Understanding; But Of Weakness.

True, We Have No Conscription; That Is, Men Are Not Usually Forced To Enlist In The Army, But We Have Developed A Far More Exacting And Rigid Force-necessity.

Rather Would I Have The Love Songs Of Romantic Ages, Rather Don Juan And Madame Venus, Rather An Elopement By Ladder And Rope On A Moonlight Night, Followed By The Father's Curse, Mother's Moans, And The Moral Comments Of Neighbors, Than Correctness And Propriety Measured By Yardsticks.

So-called Individualism Is The Social And Economic Laissez-faire: The Exploitation Of The Masses By The Classes By Means Of Legal Trickery, Spiritual Debasement And Systematic Indoctrination Of The Servile Spirit, Which Process Is Known As 'education'.

Prostitution, Although Hounded, Imprisoned, And Chained, Is Nevertheless The Greatest Triumph Of Puritanism.

Democracy Must First Be Safe For America Before It Can Be Safe For The World.

Mankind Has Been Punished Long And Heavily For Having Created Its Gods; Nothing But Pain And Persecution Have Been Man's Lot Since Gods Began.

I Demand The Independence Of Woman, Her Right To Support Herself; To Live For Herself; To Love Whomever She Pleases, Or As Many As She Pleases. I Demand Freedom For Both Sexes, Freedom Of Action, Freedom In Love And Freedom In Motherhood.

Direct Action Against The Authority In The Shop, Direct Action Against The Authority Of The Law, Direct Action Against The Invasive, Meddlesome Authority Of Our Moral Code, Is The Logical, Consistent Method Of Anarchism. Will It Not Lead To A Revolution? Indeed, It Will. No Real Social Change Has Ever Come Without A Revolution. People Are Either Not Familiar With Their History, Or They Have Not Yet Learned That Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

Anarchism, Then, Really Stands For The Liberation Of The Human Mind From The Dominion Of Religion.

There Is No Hope Even That Woman, With Her Right To Vote, Will Ever Purify Politics.

Anarchism, The Great Leaven Of Thought, Is Today Permeating Every Phase Of Human Endeavor.... It Is The Philosophy Of The Sovereignty Of The Individual. It Is The Theory Of Social Harmony. It Is The Great, Surging, Living Truth That Is Reconstructing The World, And That Will Usher In The Dawn.

'rugged Individualism' Has Meant All The 'individualism' For The Masters, While The People Are Regimented Into A Slave Caste To Serve A Handful Of Self-seeking 'supermen.' America Is Perhaps The Best Representative Of This Kind Of Individualism, In Whose Name Political Tyranny And Social Oppression Are Defended And Held Up As Virtues; While Every Aspiration And Attempt Of Man To Gain Freedom And Social Opportunity To Live Is Denounced As 'un-american' And Evil In The Name Of That Same Individuality.

We Say That If America Has Entered The War To Make The World Safe For Democracy, She Must First Make Democracy Safe In America.

... Woman Does Not See What People Of Intellect Perceived Fifty Years Ago: That Suffrage Is An Evil, That It Has Only Helped To Enslave People, That It Has But Closed Their Eyes That They May Not See How Craftily They Were Made To Submit.

All Claims Of Education Notwithstanding, The Pupil Will Accept Only That Which His Mind Craves.

Patriotism Is A Menace To Liberty.

It Is The Absolutism Of Theism, Its Pernicious Influence Upon Humanity, Its Paralyzing Effect Upon Thought And Action, Which Atheism Is Fighting With All Its Power.

... Resistance To Tyranny Is Man's Highest Ideal.

To The Indefinite, Uncertain Mind Of The American Radical The Most Contradictory Ideas And Methods Are Possible. The Result Is A Sad Chaos In The Radical Movement, A Sort Of Intellectual Hash, Which Has Neither Taste Nor Character.

The American Suffrage Movement Has Been, Until Very Recently, Altogether A Parlor Affair, Absolutely Detached From The Economic Needs Of The People.

It Is A Tragedy, I Feel, That People Of A Different Sexual Type Are Caught In A World Which Shows So Little Understanding For Homosexuals And Is So Crassly Indifferent To The Various Gradations And Variations Of Gender And Their Great Significance In Life.

Free Love? As If Love Is Anything But Free. Man Has Bought Brains, But All The Millions In The World Have Failed To Buy Love.

If I Were To Give A Summary Of The Tendency Of Our Times, I Would Say, Quantity. The Multitude, The Mass Spirit, Dominates Everywhere, Destroying Quality. Our Entire Life--production, Politics, And Education--rests On Quantity, On Numbers. The Worker Who Once Took Pride In The Thoroughness And Quality Of His Work, Has Been Replaced By Brainless, Incompetent Automatons, Who Turn Out Enormous Quantities Of Things, Valueless To Themselves, And Generally Injurious To The Rest Of Mankind. Thus Quantity, Instead Of Adding To Life's Comforts And Peace, Has Merely Increased Man's Burden.

Pettiness Separates; Breadth Unites. Let Us Be Broad And Big.

Order Derived Through Submission And Maintained By Terror Is Not Much Of A Safe Guaranty; Yet That Is The Only "order" That Governments Have Ever Maintained. True Social Harmony Grows Naturally Out Of Solidarity Of Interests. In A Society Where Those Who Always Work Never Have Anything, While Those Who Never Work Enjoy Everything, Solidarity Of Interests Is Non-existent; Hence Social Harmony Is But A Myth.... Thus The Entire Arsenal Of Governments - Laws, Police, Soldiers, The Courts, Legislatures, Prisons - Is Strenuously Engaged In "harmonizing" The Most Antagonistic Elements In Society.

Patriotism ... Is A Superstition Artificially Created And Maintained Through A Network Of Lies And Falsehoods; A Superstition That Robs Man Of His Self-respect And Dignity, And Increases His Arrogance And Conceit.

Anarchism Asserts The Possibility Of An Organization Without Discipline, Fear, Or Punishment, And Without The Pressure Of Poverty: A New Social Organism Which Will Make An End To The Terrible Struggle For The Means Of Existence, --the Savage Struggle Which Undermines The Finest Qualities In Man, And Ever Widens The Social Abyss. In Short, Anarchism Strives Towards A Social Organization Which Will Establish Well-being For All.

Heaven Must Be An Awfully Dull Place If The Poor In Spirit Live There.

The Political Superstition Is Still Holding Sway Over The Hearts And Minds Of The Masses, But The True Lovers Of Liberty Will Have No More To Do With It. Instead, They Believe With Stirner That Man Has As Much Liberty As He Is Willing To Take. Anarchism Therefore Stands For Direct Action, The Open Defiance Of, And Resistance To, All Laws And Restrictions, Economic, Social, And Moral. But Defiance And Resistance Are Illegal. Therein Lies The Salvation Of Man. Everything Illegal Necessitates Integrity, Self-reliance And Courage.

Merely External Emancipation Has Made Of The Modern Woman An Artificial Being. Now, Woman Is Confronted With The Necessity Of Emancipating Herself From Emancipation, If She Really Desires To Be Free.

In The Face Of This Approaching Disaster, It Behooves Men And Women Not Yet Overcome By War Madness To Raise Their Voice Of Protest, To Call The Attention Of The People To The Crime And Outrage Which Are About To Be Perpetrated On Them.

The Custom Of Procuring Abortions Has Reached Such Appalling Proportions In America As To Be Beyond Belief... So Great Is The Misery Of The Working Classes That Seventeen Abortions Are Committed In Every One Hundred Pregnancies.

You Cannot Build Up A Standing Army And Then Throw It Back Into A Box Like Tin Soldiers. Armies Equipped To The Teeth With Weapons, With Highly Developed Instruments Of Murder And Backed By Their Military Interests, Have Their Own Dynamic Functions.

"all Government In Essence," Says Emerson, "is Tyranny." It Matters Not Whether It Is Government By Divine Right Or Majority Rule. In Every Instance Its Aim Is The Absolute Subordination Of The Individual.

Those Who Sit In A Glass House Do Wrong To Throw Stones About Them; Besides, The American Glass House Is Rather Thin, It Will Break Easily, And The Interior Is Anything But A Gainly Sight.

It Is Significant That Whenever The Public Mind Is To Be Diverted From Great Social Wrong, A Crusade Is Inaugurated Against Indecency.

... Woman's Narrow And Purist Attitude Toward Life Makes Her A Greater Danger To Liberty Wherever She Has Political Power. Man Haslong Overcome The Superstitions That Still Engulf Women.

True, The Movement For Woman's Rights Has Broken Many Old Fetters, But It Has Also Forged New Ones.

If I Can Not Dance, I Want No Part In Your Revolution.

Jealousy Is Indeed A Poor Medium To Secure Love, But It Is A Secure Medium To Destroy One's Self-respect. For Jealous People, Like Dope-fiends, Stoop To The Lowest Level And In The End Inspire Only Disgust And Loathing.

When In The Course Of Human Development, Existing Institutions Prove Inadequate To The Needs Of Man, When They Serve Merely To Enslave, Rob And Oppress Mankind, The People Have The Eternal Right To Rebel Against, And Overthrow, These Institutions.

The Free Expression Of The Hopes And Aspirations Of A People Is The Greatest And Only Safety In A Sane Society.

Lack Of Fairness To An Opponent Is Essentially A Sign Of Weakness.

Trending Author

Eddie Rickenbacker

Category