This is the only point of principle that separates anarchism from
socialism. In other respects anarchism may be said to be but an extremer
phase of socialism. It indulges in more violent methods, and in a more
omnivorous spirit of destruction. Its fury takes a wider sweep; it
attacks all current beliefs and all existing institutions; it puts its
hopes in universal chaos. I shall endeavour in a future chapter to
explain, from peculiarities of the national character and culture, why
this gospel of chaos should find so much acceptance in Russia; but it is
no exclusively Russian product. It was preached with singular coolness,
as will be subsequently shown, by some of the young Hegelians of Germany
before 1848, and it obtains among the more volatile members of most
socialist organizations still. Attacks on religion, patriotism, the
family, are very usual accessories of their practical agitations
everywhere. As institutions and beliefs are seen to lend strength to
each other, teeth set on edge against one are easily brought to gnash at
all. A sharp check from the public authority generally brings out to the
front this extremer element in German socialism. After the repressive
legislation of 1878 the German socialists struck the restriction of
proceeding "by legal methods" out of their programme, and the wilder
spirits among them would be content with nothing short of a policy of
general destruction, and, being expelled from the party, started an
organization of their own on thoroughly anarchist lines.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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