The Conquest of BreadKropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Philosophy
The Conquest of Bread
Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Anarchism; Communism
Even to-day we see men and women denying themselves necessaries to
acquire mere trifles, to obtain some particular gratification, or some
intellectual or material enjoyment. A Christian or an ascetic may
disapprove of these desires for luxury; but it is precisely these
trifles that break the monotony of existence and make it agreeable.
Would life, with all its inevitable drudge and sorrows, be worth living,
if, besides daily work, man could never obtain a single pleasure
according to his individual tastes?
If we wish for a Social Revolution, it is no doubt, first of all, to
give bread to everyone; to transform this execrable society, in which we
can every day see capable workmen dangling their arms for want of an
employer who will exploit them; women and children wandering shelterless
at night; whole families reduced to dry bread; men, women, and children
dying for want of care and even for want of food. It is to put an end to
these iniquities that we rebel.
But we expect more from the Revolution. We see that the worker,
compelled to struggle painfully for bare existence, is reduced to
ignore the higher delights, the highest within man's reach, of science,
and especially of scientific discovery; of art, and especially of
artistic creation. It is in order to obtain for all of us joys that are
now reserved to a few; in order to give leisure and the possibility of
developing everyone's intellectual capacities, that the social
revolution must guarantee daily bread to all. After bread has been
secured, leisure is the supreme aim.
No doubt, nowadays, when hundreds and thousands of human beings are in
need of bread, coal, clothing, and shelter, luxury is a crime; to
satisfy it, the worker's child must go without bread! But in a society
in which all have the necessary food and shelter, the needs which we
consider luxuries to-day will be the more keenly felt. And as all men do
not and cannot resemble one another (the variety of tastes and needs is
the chief guarantee of human progress) there will always be, and it is
desirable that there should always be, men and women whose desire will
go beyond those of ordinary individuals in some particular direction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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