We can now begin to join the threads of our discussion. We have seen
that private appropriation of land in any form, whether limited by
Individualist Anarchism to occupying owners or not, means the unjust
distribution of a vast fund of social wealth called rent, which can by
no means be claimed as due to the labor of any particular individual
or class of individuals. We have seen that Communist Anarchism,
though it partly--and only partly--avoids the rent difficulty, is,
in the condition of morals developed under existing Unsocialism,
impracticable. We have seen that the delegation of individual
powers by voting; the creation of authoritative public bodies; the
supremacy of the majority in the last resort; and the establishment
and even endowment, either directly and officially or indirectly and
unconsciously, of conventional forms of practice in religion, medicine,
education, food, clothing, and criminal law, are, whether they be evils
or not, inherent in society itself, and must be submitted to with the
help of such protection against their abuse as democratic institutions
more than any others afford. When Democracy fails, there is no antidote
for intolerance save the spread of better sense. No form of Anarchism
yet suggested provides any escape. Like bad weather in winter,
intolerance does much mischief; but as, when we have done our best in
the way of overcoats, umbrellas, and good fires, we have to put up with
the winter; so, when we have done our best in the way of Democracy,
decentralization, and the like, we must put up with the State.
The Anarchist Spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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