Background Image

...

Peace Or Harmony Between The Sexes And Individuals Does Not Necessarily Depend On A Superficial Equalization Of Human Beings; Nor Does It Call For The Elimination Of Individual Traits And Peculiarities. The Problem That Confronts Us Today, And Which The Nearest Future Is To Solve, Is How To Be One's Self And Yet In Oneness With Others, To Feel Deeply With All Human Beings And Still Retain One's Own Characteristic Qualities.

-Emma Goldman

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Peace Or Harmony Between

Emma Goldman

...

Peace Or Harmony Between The Sexes And Individuals Does Not Necessarily Depend On A Superficial Equalization Of Human Beings; Nor Does It Call For The Elimination Of Individual Traits And Peculiarities. The Problem That Confronts Us Today, And Which The Nearest Future Is To Solve, Is How To Be One's Self And Yet In Oneness With Others, To Feel Deeply With All Human Beings And Still Retain One's Own Characteristic Qualities.

Views: 4

Topic

More From Emma Goldman

Yes, Authority, Coercion, And Dependence Rest On The Mass, But Never Freedom Or The Free Unfoldment Of The Individual, Never The Birth Of A Free Society. The Socialist Demagogues Know That As Well As I, But They Maintain The Myth Of The Virtues Of The Majority, Because Their Very Scheme Of Life Means The Perpetuation Of Power.

Understand One Another.

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

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.

Public School - Where The Human Mind Is Drilled And Manipulated Into Submission To Various Social And Moral Spooks, And Thus Fitted To Continue Our System Of Exploitation And Oppression.

Politics Is The Reflex Of The Business And Industrial World, The Mottos Of Which Are: 'to Take Is More Blessed Than To Give'; 'buy Cheap And Sell Dear'; 'one Soiled Hand Washes The Other.

Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Under Miserable Conditions Of Life, Any Vision Of The Possibility Of Better Things Makes The Present Misery More Intolerable, And Spurs Those Who Suffer To The Most Energetic Struggles To Improve Their Lot, And If These Struggles Only Immediately Result In Sharper Misery, The Outcome Is Sheer Desperation.

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

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.

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.

Do Not All Theists Insist That There Can Be No Morality, No Justice, Honesty Or Fidelity Without The Belief In A Divine Power? Based Upon Fear And Hope, Such Morality Has Always Been A Vile Product, Imbued Partiy With Self-righteousness, Partly With Hypocrisy.

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

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.

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.

Peace Or Harmony Between The Sexes And Individuals Does Not Necessarily Depend On A Superficial Equalization Of Human Beings; Nor Does It Call For The Elimination Of Individual Traits And Peculiarities. The Problem That Confronts Us Today, And Which The Nearest Future Is To Solve, Is How To Be One's Self And Yet In Oneness With Others, To Feel Deeply With All Human Beings And Still Retain One's Own Characteristic Qualities.

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?

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.

... 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.

Love Is It's Own Protection.

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.

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

Anarchism:the Philosophy Of A New Social Order Based On Liberty Unrestricted By Man-made Law; The Theory That All Forms Of Government Rest On Violence, And Are Therefore Wrong And Harmful, As Well As Unnecessary.

There's Never Been A Good Government.

To Call The State An Organism Shows A Diseased Tendency To Make A Fetish Of Words.

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.

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'.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

They Do Not Want To Know That Centralization Is Not Only The Death-knell Of Liberty, But Also Of Health And Beauty, Of Art And Science, All These Being Impossible In A Clock-like, Mechanical Atmosphere.

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.

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

Poor Human Nature, What Horrible Crimes Have Been Committed In Thy Name!

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

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

If Not For The Direct Action Of A John Brown And His Comrades, America Would Still Trade In The Flesh Of The Black Man.

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

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

Life Without An Ideal Is Spiritual Death.

Spiritual Death

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.

What Is Generally Regarded As Success - Acquisition Of Wealth, The Capture Of Power Or Social Prestige - I Consider The Most Dismal Failures. I Hold When It Is Said Of A Man That He Has Arrived, It Means That He Is Finished - His Development Has Stopped At That Point.

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.

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

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

Art Is A Part Of The Rebellion Against The Realities Of Its Unfulfilled Desire.

If Elections Really Changed Anything, They Would Be Outlawed.

'what I Believe' Is A Process Rather Than A Finality. Finalities Are For Gods And Governments, Not For The Human Intellect.

The Persecution Of The Innovator And Protestant Has Always Been Inspired By Fear On The Part Of Constituted Authority Of Having Its Infallibility Questioned And Its Power Undermined.

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.

Sure, Nothing Succeeds Like Success. Fact Is, Dearest, We Are Fools. We Cling To An Ideal No One Wants Or Cares About. I Am The Greater Fool Of The Two Of Us. I Go On Eating Out My Heart And Poisoning Every Moment Of My Life In The Attempt To Rouse People's Sensibilities. At Least If I Could Do It With Closed Eyes. The Irony Is I See The Futility Of My Efforts And Yet I Can't Let Go.

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

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.

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.

When We Can't Dream Any Longer We Die.

What I Believe Is A Process Rather Than A Finality.

... 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.

You Have Opened Up The Prison Gates Of My Womanhood. And All The Passion That Was Unsatisfied In For Me So Many Years, Leaped Into A Wild Reckless Storm Boundless As The Sea.

The Most Absurd Apology For Authority And Law Is That They Serve To Diminish Crime. Aside From The Fact That The State Is Itself The Greatest Criminal, Breaking Every Written And Natural Law, Stealing In The Form Of Taxes, Killing In The Form Of War And Capital Punishment, It Has Come To An Absolute Standstill In Coping With Crime. It Has Failed Utterly To Destroy Or Even Minimize The Horrible Scourge Of Its Own Creation.

Man Must Get Back To Himself Before He Can Learn His Relation To His Fellows. Prometheus Chained To The Rock Of Ages Is Doomed To Remain The Prey Of The Vultures Of Darkness. Unbind Prometheus, And You Dispel The Night And Its Horrors.

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.

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.

‎civilization Has Been A Continuous Struggle Of The Individual Or Of Groups Of Individuals Against The State And Even Against "society," That Is, Against The Majority Subdued And Hypnotized By The State And State Worship.

Women Need Not Always Keep Their Mouths Shut And Their Wombs Open.

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.

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

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 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 Inhabitants Of The Other Spots Reason In Like Manner, Of Course, With The Result That From Early Infancy The Mind Of The Child Is Provided With Blood-curdling Stories About The Germans, The French, The Italians, Russians, Etc.

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.

The Philosophy Of Atheism Represents A Concept Of Life Without Any Metaphysical Beyond Or Divine Regulator. It Is The Concept Of An Actual, Real World With Its Liberating, Expanding And Beautifying Possibilities, As Against An Unreal World, Which, With Its Spirits, Oracles, And Mean Contentment Has Kept Humanity In Helpless Degradation.

Love Needs No Protection; It Is Its Own Protection.

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

"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."

Direct Action Is The Logical, Consistent Method Of Anarchism.

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

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.

I Feel Sure That The Police Are Helping Us More Than I Could Do In Ten Years. They Are Making More Anarchists Than The Most Prominent People Connected With The Anarchist Cause Could Make In Ten Years. If They Will Only Continue I Shall Be Very Grateful; They Will Save Me Lots Of Work.

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.

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.

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.

Methods And Means Cannot Be Separated From The Ultimate Aim.

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

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.

The Most Violent Element In Society Is Ignorance.

Christ And His Teachings Are The Embodiment Of Submission, Of Inertia, Of The Denial Of Life; Hence Responsible For The Things Done In Their Name.

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

Atheism In Its Negation Of Gods Is At The Same Time The Strongest Affirmation Of Man, And Through Man, The Eternal Yea To Life, Purpose, And Beauty.

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.

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.

What's Wrong With Lust? You Fancy Your Neighbor's Husband So What Are You Supposed To Do? Poke Your Eyes Out So That You Can't See Him Anymore? Acting On It Is Maybe A Sin ... But My God, Just Lusting After Someone? Is That So Bad?

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.

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.

What A Strange Development Of Patriotism That Turns A Thinking Being Into A Loyal Machine!

The Government Will ... Go On In The Highly Democratic Method Of Conscripting American Manhood For European Slaughter.

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.

The God Idea Is Growing More Impersonal And Nebulous In Proportion As The Human Mind Is Learning To Understand Natural Phenomena And In The Degree That Science Progressively Correlates Human And Social Events.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

I Do Not Believe In God, Because I Believe In Man. Whatever His Mistakes, Man Has For Thousands Of Years Been Working To Undo The Botched Job Your God Has Made.

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.

In The True Sense One's Native Land, With Its Background Of Tradition, Early Impressions, Reminiscences And Other Things Dear To One, Is Not Enough To Make Sensitive Human Beings Feel At Home.

Man Has Bought Brains, But All The Millions In The World Have Failed To Buy Love. Man Has Subdued Bodies, But All The Power On Earth Has Been Unable To Subdue Love. Man Has Conquered Whole Nations, But All His Armies Could Not Conquer Love. Man Has Chained And Fettered The Spirit, But He Has Been Utterly Helpless Before Love. Thus Love Has The Magic Power To Make Of A Beggar A King.

Always, At Every Period, The Few Were The Banner Bearers Of A Great Idea, Of Liberating Effort. Not So The Mass, The Leaden Weight Of Which Does Not Let It Move.

When Primitive Man Heard Thunder Or Saw The Lightning, He Could Not Account For Either, And Therefore Concluded That Back Of Them Must Be A Force Greater Than Himself. Similarly He Saw A Supernatural Force In The Rain, And In The Various Other Changes In Nature.

Supernatural Forces

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.

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

It Is Organized Violence On Top Which Creates Individual Violence At The Bottom. It Is The Accumulated Indignation Against Organized Wrong, Organized Crime, Organized Injustice, Which Drives The Political Offender To Act.

Politicians Promise You Heaven Before Election And Give You Hell After

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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

Poor Human Nature, What Horrible Crimes Have Been Committed In Thy Name! Every Fool, From King To Policeman, From The Flatheaded Parson To The Visionless Dabbler In Science, Presumes To Speak Authoritatively Of Human Nature. The Greater The Mental Charlatan, The More Definite His Insistence On The Wickedness And Weaknesses Of Human Nature.

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.

The Worker Who Knows The Cause Of His Misery, Who Understands The Make-up Of Our Iniquitous Social And Industrial System Can Do More For Himself And His Kind Than Christ And The Followers Of Christ Have Ever Done For Humanity; Certainly More Than Meek Patience, Ignorance, And Submission Have Done.

... The Keynote Of Government Is Injustice.

Some People Never Seem To Learn From Experience. No Matter How Often They Had Seen The Lion Devour The Lamb, They Continued To Cling To The Hope That The Nature Of The Beast Might Change. If Only The Lion Could Get To Know The Lamb Better, They Argued, Or Talk Matters Over.

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.

As To A Thorough Eradication Of Prostitution, Nothing Can Accomplish That Save A Complete Transvaluation Of All Accepted Values--especially The Moral Ones--coupled With The Abolition Of Industrial Slavery.

Thus Dante's Motto Over Inferno Applies With Equal Force To Marriage: "ye Who Enter Here Leave All Hope Behind.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

The Fathers Of The Church Can Well Afford To Preach The Gospel Of Christ. It Contains Nothing Dangerous To The Regime Of Authority And Wealth; It Stands For Self-denial And Self-abnegation, For Penance And Regret, And Is Absolutely Inert In The Face Of Every [in]dignity, Every Outrage Imposed Upon Mankind.

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.

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.

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

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.

In The Struggle For Supremacy The Various Political Parties Outdo Each Other In Trickery, Deceit, Cunning, And Shady Machinations, Confident That The One Who Succeeds Is Sure To Be Hailed By The Majority As The Victor. That Is The Only God--success. As To What Expense, What Terrible Cost To Character, Is Of No Moment.

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

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.

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

Atheism ... In Its Philosophic Aspect Refuses Allegiance Not Merely To A Definite Concept Of God, But It Refuses All Servitude To The God Idea, And Opposes The Theistic Principle As Such. Gods In Their Individual Function Are Not Half As Pernicious As The Principle Of Theism Which Represents The Belief In A Supernatural, Or Even Omnipotent, Power To Rule The Earth And Man Upon It. 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.

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.

The Most Unpardonable Sin In Society Is Independence Of Thought.

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.

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

We Shall Soon Be Obliged To Meet In Cellars, Or In Darkened Rooms With Closed Doors, And Speak In Whispers Lest Our Next Door Neighbors Should Hear That Freeborn Citizens Dare Not Speak In The Open.

It Cannot Be Sufficiently Emphasized That Revolution Is In Vain Unless Inspired By Its Ultimate Ideal. Revolutionary Methods Must Be In Tune With Revolutionary Aims.

Anarchism Is The Great Liberator Of Man From The Phantoms That Have Held Him Captive; It Is The Arbiter And Pacifier Of The Two Forces For Individual And Social Harmony.

Social And Economic Well-being Will Become A Reality Only Through The Zeal, Courage, The Non-compromising Determination Of Intelligent Minorities, And Not Through The Mass.

A Practical Scheme, Says Oscar Wilde, Is Either One Already In Existence, Or A Scheme That Could Be Carried Out Under The Existing Conditions; But It Is Exactly The Existing Conditions That One Objects To, And Any Scheme That Could Accept These Conditions Is Wrong And Foolish.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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?

The More Hideous The Mental Contortions, The Greater The Delight And Bravos Of The Mass.

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.

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.

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

People Have Only As Much Liberty As They Have The Intelligence To Want And The Courage To Take.

The Experience Of Every-day Life Fully Proves That The Armed Individual Is Invariably Anxious To Try His Strength. The Same Is Historically True Of Governments. Really Peaceful Countries Do Not Waste Life And Energy In War Preparations, With The Result That Peace Is Maintained.

The Average Mind Is Slow In Grasping A Truth, But When The Most Thoroughly Organized, Centralized Institution, Maintained At An Excessive National Expense, Has Proven A Complete Social Failure, The Dullest Must Begin To Question Its Right To Exist. The Time Is Past When We Can Be Content With Our Social Fabric Merely Because It Is "ordained By Divine Right," Or By The Majesty Of The Law.

A Revolution Without Dancing Is Not A Revolution Worth Having.

The State Has No More Existence Than Gods And Devils Have. They Are Equally The Reflex And Creation Of Man, For Man, The Individual, Is The Only Reality. The State Is But The Shadow Of Man, The Shadow Of His Opaqueness, Of His Ignorance And Fear.

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.

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?

'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.

Predigested Food' Should Be Inscribed Over Every Hall Of Learning As A Warning To All Who Do Not Wish To Lose Their Own Personalities And Their Original Sense Of Judgment.

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

The Emotions Of The Ignorant Man Are Continuously Kept At A Pitch By The Most Blood-curdling Stories About Anarchism. Not A Thing Too Outrageous To Be Employed Against This Philosophy And Its Exponents. Therefore Anarchism Represents To The Unthinking What The Proverbial Bad Man Does To The Child,-a Black Monster Bent On Swallowing Everything; In Short, Destruction And Violence.

I Regard It As A Tragedy That People Of A Differing Sexual Orientation Find Themselves Proscribed In A World That Has So Little Understanding For Homosexuals And That Displays Such Gross Indifference For Sexual Gradations And Variations And The Great Significance They Have For Living. It Is Completely Foreign To Me To Wish To Regard Such People As Less Valuable, Less Moral, Incapable Of Noble Sentiments And Behavior.

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

Anarchism Stands For The Liberation Of The Human Mind From The Dominion Of Religion And Liberation Of The Human Body From The Coercion Of Property; Liberation From The Shackles And Restraint Of Government. It Stands For A Social Order Based On The Free Grouping Of Individuals.

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.

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.

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 Spirit Of Militarism Has Already Permeated All Walks Of Life. Indeed, I Am Convinced That Militarism Is A Greater Danger Here Than Anywhere Else, Because Of The Many Bribes Capitalism Holds Out To Those Whom It Wishes To Destroy.

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

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

To The Moralist Prostitution Does Not Consist So Much In The Fact That The Woman Sells Her Body, But Rather That She Sells It Out Of Wedlock.

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 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.

Trending Author

Anderson Cooper

Category