The Kingdom of God is Within You / Christianity and Patriotism / MiscellaniesTolstoy, Leo, graf
Religion
The Kingdom of God is Within You / Christianity and Patriotism / Miscellanies
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
Russian literature -- Translations into English
It is this formation and increase of the army, which is necessary
for the support of power, that has introduced a decomposing
principle into the social concept of life.
The end of power and its justification consists in the limitation
of those men who might wish to attain their interests to the
disadvantage of the interests of the aggregate. But whether the
power has been acquired by the formation of a new power, by
inheritance, or by election, men who possess power by means of an
army have in no way differed from other men, and so have, like
other men, been prone not to subordinate their interests to those
of the aggregate, but, on the contrary, having in their hands the
possibility of doing so, have been more prone than any one else to
subordinate the common interests to their own. No matter how much
men have devised means for depriving men in power of the possibility
of subordinating the common interests to their own, or for
entrusting the power only into the hands of infallible men, there
have so far been discovered no means for doing either.
All methods employed, either of divine sanction, or of election, or
of heredity, or of suffrage, or of assemblies, or of parliaments, or
of senates, have proved ineffective. All men know that not one of
these methods attains the aim of entrusting the power into none but
infallible hands, or of preventing its being misused. All know that,
on the contrary, men in power, be they emperors, ministers, chiefs
of police, policemen, become, by the very fact of having power, more
prone to commit immoralities, that is, to subordinate the common
interests to their own, than men who have no power, as indeed it
could not be otherwise.
The social concept of life justified itself only so long as all men
voluntarily sacrificed their interests to the common interests; but
the moment there appeared men who did not voluntarily sacrifice
their interests, and power was needed, that is, violence, for the
purpose of limiting these individuals, the decomposing principle
of power, that is, violence exerted by one set of people against
another, entered into the social concept of life and the structure
which is based upon it.
For the power of one set of men over another to attain its end of
limiting men who strove after their individual interests to the
disadvantage of those of the aggregate, it was necessary to have
the power vested in the hands of infallible men, as is assumed to
be the case by the Chinese, and as has been assumed in the Middle
Ages and at the present time by men who believe in the sanctity
of anointment. It was only under this condition that the social
structure received its justification.
But since this does not exist, and men in power, on the contrary,
by the very fact of their possession of power, are never saintly,
the social structure, which is based on power, should not have any
justification.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account