Anarchism will succeed because its message of freedom comes down the
rising wind of social revolt first of all to the common man, the
material slave, and bids him know that he, too, should have an
independent will, and the free exercise thereof; that no philosophy, and
no achievement, and no civilization is worth considering or achieving,
if it does not mean that he shall be free to labor at what he likes and
when he likes, and freely share all that free men choose to produce;
that he, the drudge of all the ages, is the cornerstone of the building
without whose sure and safe position no structure can nor should
endure. And likewise it comes to him who sits in fear of himself, and
says: "Fear no more, neither what is without or within. Search fully and
freely your Self; hearken to all the voices that rise from that abyss
from which you have been commanded to shrink. Learn for yourself what
these things are. Belike what they have told you is good, is bad; and
this cast mould of goodness, a vile prison-house. Learn to decide your
own measure of restraint. Value for yourself the merits of selfishness
and unselfishness; and strike you the balance between these two: for if
the first be all accredited you make slaves of others, and if the
second, your own abasement raises tyrants over you; and none can decide
the matter for you so well as you for yourself; for even if you err you
learn by it, while if he errs the blame is his, and if he advises well
the credit is his, and you are nothing. _Be yourself_; and by
self-expression learn self-restraint. The wisdom of the ages lies in the
reassertion of all past positivisms, and the denial of all negations,
that is, all that has been claimed by the individual for himself is
good, but every denial of the freedom of another is bad; whereby it will
be seen that many things supposed to be claimed for oneself involve the
freedom of others and must be surrendered because they do not come
within the sovereign limit, while many things supposed to be evil, since
they in nowise infringe upon the liberty of others are wholly good,
bringing to dwarfed bodies and narrow souls the vigor and full growth of
healthy exercise, and giving a rich glow to life that had else paled out
like a lamp in a grave-vault."
To the sybarite it says, Learn to do your own share of hard work; you
will gain by it; to the "Man with the Hoe," Think for yourself and
boldly take your time for it. The division of labor which makes of one
man a Brain and of another a Hand is evil. Away with it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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