Anarchy and Order: Essays in politics [1st Edition] 0807043931

Table of contents :
Preface
Introduction by Howard Zinn: The Art of Revolution
Introduction: Revolution and Reason (1953)
The Philosophy of Anarchism (1940)
Poetry and Anarchism (1938)
1. No Programme
2. Poets and Politicians
3. Why We English Have No Taste
4. Essential Communism
5. The Necessity of Anarchism
6. The Prerequisite of Peace
7. The Importance of Living
The Paradox of Anarchism (1941)
Existentialism, Marxism and Anarchism (1949)
Chains of Freedom (1946-52)
Index of names (text only)

Citation preview

ANARCHY AND ORDER Essays in Politics

i?Y

HERBERT READ INTRODUCTION

BY HOWARD ZINN

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CONTENTS Preface Introduction copyright© 1971 by Howard Zinn First published in 1954 by Faber and Faber Limited Printed by special arrangement with the Herbert Read Discretionary Trust A 11 rigl, ts reserved Library of Congress catalog card number: 76-141875 International Standard Book Number: 0-8070-4393-1 Beacon Press books are published under the auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Association Published simultaneously in Canada by Saunders of Toronto, Ltd. Printed in the United States of America

VII

Introduction by Howard Zinn: The Art of Revolution

IX

Introduction: Revolution and Reason (1953)

13

The Philosophy of Anarchism (1940)

35

Poetry and Anarchism (1938)

55

1. No Programme

57

2. Poets and Politicians

61

3. Why We English Have No Taste

67

4. Essential Communism

73

5. The Necessity of Anarchism

89

6.. The Prerequisite of Peace

109

7. The Importance of Living

122

The Paradox of Anarchism (1941)

129

Existentialism, Marxism and Anarchism (1949)

141

Chains of Freedom (1946-52)

161

Index of names (text only)

231

v

PREFACE

T

his volume assembles all the various essays that I have written specifically on the subject of Anarchism. There is no categorical separation, however, between what I have written on this subject and what I have written on social prob­ lems generally (The Politics of the Unpolitical) or on the social aspects of art (Art and Society and The Grass Roots of Art) or on the social aspects of education (Education Through Art and Education for Peace). The same philosophy reappears in my literary criticism and in my poetry. The first essay is now published for the first time. The rest have been revised, sometimes drastically, but though I may here and there have removed a rash or ambiguous phrase, I have not attempted to give an air of caution to the impetuous voice of youth. Indeed, I now envy those generous occasions. Poetry and Anarchism was first published by Messrs. Faber and Faber in 1938 as a separate volume, but it already included writings of an earlier date. The Philosophy of Anarchism was first published by the Freedom Press in 1940; Existentialism, Marx­ ism, and Anarchism by the same press in 1949. 'The Paradox of Anarchism' has already appeared in A Coat of Many Colours (Routledge, 1945); and Chains of Freedom contains aphorisms and paragraphs from fugitive writings in a wide range of periodi­ cals, the details of which would be tedious to enumerate.

H.R .

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VII

INTRODUCTION BY HOWARD ZINN THE ART OF REVOLUTION

T

he word. anarchy unsettles most people in the Western world: 1 t suggests disor?er, violence, uncertainty. We have ~o?d re3:son for fearing those conditions, because we ha,:e ~n living with them for a long time, not in anarchist soc!et!es (there have never been any) but in exactly those societies most fearful of anarchy-the powerful nation-states of modern times . .\t no time in human history has there been such social chaos. Fifty million dead in the Second World War. More than a million dead in Korea, a million in Vietnam, half a million in Indonesia, hundreds of thousands dead in Nigeria, and in Mozambique. A hundred violent political struggles all over the world in the twenty years following the second war to end all wars. Millions starving, or in prisons, or in mental institutions. Inner turmoil to the point of large-scale alienation, confusion, unhappiness. Outer turmoil symbolized by huge armies, stores of nerve gas, and stockpiles of hydrogen bombs. Wherever men, women, and children are even a bit conscious of the world outside their local borders, they have been living with the ultimate uncertainty: whether or not the human race itself will survive into the next generation. It is these conditions that the anarchists have wanted to end; to bring a kind of order to the world for the first time. ~e h~ve never listened to them carefully, except through the hearing aids supplied by the guardians of disorder-the national government leaders whether capitalist or socialist. The 'order desired by anarchists is different from the order ("Ordnung," the Germans called it; "law and order," say the American politicians) of national governments. They want a voluntary forming of human relations, arising out of .,the needs IX

THE ART OF REVOLUTION

of people. Such an order comes from within and s · . , o is natural People flow mto easy arrangements, rather than bei · and forced. It is like the form given by the artist a nfg pus 11ed . . b . . , orm con genial, often p 1 easmg, sometimes eautiful, It has the g f . race o a fid voluntary, con ent act. Tl ms t 1iere is nothing surpri · . R d d l ·1 · 1 smg in Herbert ea , poe1!l an 11 o1sop 1ehr _of art, being an anarchist Read came to p 11. osop 1P. uca anarc ism. out of his special t f. . . . Yorkshi experiences: grow mg up m or cs 'nre as the son of an E seo 1· h di 1 1 k · 1 · ng farmer, s~n mg sever~ ye:~rs as acer !~ t re mdustrial city isof Leeds, going to the University there, writing poetry, entran d by art and lite_r~ture-and then _en~uring the sounds and sm:11s of war as a ~ntish Army Captain m World War I. For a while he was captivated, as were so many, by the Bolshevik Revolution, but the party dictatorship turned him firmly toward anarchism, which also seemed to fit more comfortably his wideranging interest in the arts: pottery, poetry, Wordsworth and Coleridge, art criticism. the philosophy of art. He had written over forty books before he died in 1968, mostly on art and literature. In Anarchy and Order, published in England in 1954. he put together various essays he had written on anarchism. from his slim volume of 1938, Poetry and Anar­ chum, to hi e say "Revolution and Reason," of 1953. This important book was never published in the United States, perhaps because America in the Fifties was not hospitable to anarchism. or to serious dissent of any kind. As we start the Seventi . the mood i different. Read offers us something that thi generation m to want and need: an aesthetic approach to politics. The order of politi · . as we have known it in the world, is an order impo. d n s ·iety neither desired by most people, _nor dir ted to their u d . It i therefore chaotic and destructive. Politics grates on our sen. ibilities. It violates the elementary requirement f ae sthet i conventr~n,conformity, and discipline. } There IS a a·15 ti t" I' im . me ion to be made here between a discip ine posed on life, and the law which is inherent in life. My o\VJl 40

'l'HE PHILOSOPHY

OF ANARCHISM

arly experiences in war led me to suspect th al . . e . th t h h . . e v ue of diseiine even m a sp ere w ere rt is so often r ded p] ' · I" I t was not discipline b egar as ..the t tw first essenba ror success. · · · · , u o qualities which I wou IdcaIIinitiative and free associatio th t · · th t f · n, a proved essential m e s ress o action. These qualities are develo ed indi~dually, and tend to be destroyed by the mechanlcal · routme of the barrack square. As for the unconsc· bed' . h diiscip · J"me an d drilI are supposed to i IOUS Ot .l· ence whic .1 h II. h ncuIca e, 1t breaks. as easi y as eggs e m t e face of machine-guns and high explosives. The Jaw which is inherent in life is of an altogether diff t dmit l the si eren kind. We must a mit t e singular fact', as Nietzsche called it , that everything of the nat_ure of fr~edom, elegance, boldne:s: dance, and masterly certainty, which exists or has existed whether it be in _tho~ght it~elf, or _in administration, or in speak: .ing and persuading, m art Just as m conduct, has only·developed by the means of the tyranny of such arbitrary law; and in all seriousness, it is not at all improbable that precisely this is ''natur~". and "natural".' (Beyond Good and Evil, §188.) That 'nature rs penetrated throughout by 'law' is a fact which beco.~e~ cle~rer with every _advance of science; and we need only criticize Nietzsche for callmg such law 'arbitrary'. What is arbitrary is not the law of nature, in whatever sphere it exists, but man's interpretation of it. The only necessity is to discover the true laws of nature and conduct our lives in accordance with them. The most general law in nature is equity-the principle of bala~ce and symmetry which guides the growth of forms along t~e Imes of the greatest structural efficiency. It is the law which gives the leaf as well as the tree, the human body and the universe itself, an harmonious and functional shape, which is at the same time objective beauty. But when we use the expression: t~e ~aw of equity, a curious paradox results. If we look up the 1ct~onary definition of equity we find: 'recourse to principles of Justice to correct or supplement law'. As so often, the words.we use betray us: we have to confess, by using the word eqwty, that common and statute law which is the law imposed by the St~te. is not necessarily the natural or just law; that there exist prmc1ples of justice which are superior to these man-made laws

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THE PHILOSOPHY

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f . ess inherent m the natural order rty and airn

-principles of equa I . . of the universe. . fl t came into evidence m Rornan The principle of equity . rsd by analogy from the physical d was derive · f th bi jurisp_rudence an a. In a classical disc~ssion .o e su hJect in meaning of the wor 5. Henry Maine pomts out t at the his book on Ancient Lai~ irin fact imply the principle of equal Aequitas of the Roma~lS ?es , The equal division of numbers or . t distribution. . d . h or proporbona. e . d0:ebtless closely entwme wit our per. physical m3¥nit_udes ~s few associations which keep their ceptions of 1ustice; t eret bbornly or are dismissed from it with d . th mind so s u groun m e h d pest thinkers.' 'The feature of the Jus such _difficul~y by t e ~:nted to the apprehension of a Roman Gentium which w~ pr was exactly the first and most vividly by the word Eq~ir, of the hypothetical state of nature. Nature realized charac~~1the order first in the physical world, and next ~plied sralymmed earli;st notion of order doubtless involved in the mo . an · h lin · ven surfaces, and measure d diis t ances. ' I emp h astraig t es, e · · t di · this · · of the word because it is very necessary o issize ongin hi h id f . · · h between the laws of nature (w ic , to avoi con usion, tmgmsht universe) 'and we oug rather to call the laws of the physical . that theory of a pristine state of ~at~re ~ hich was m~de the basis of Rousseau's sentimental egahtariamsm. It was this latter concept which, as Maine dryly remarke~, 'helped most _powerfully to bring about the grosser disappomtments ?f which the first French Revolution was fertile'. The theory is still that of the Roman lawyers, but the theory is, as it were, turned upside down. 'The Roman had conceived that by careful observation of existing institutions parts of them could be singled out which either exhibited already, or could by judicious purification be made to exhibit, the vestiges of that reign of nature whose reality he faintly affirmed. Rousseau's belief was that a perfect social order could be evolved from the unassisted consideration of the natural state, a social order wholly irrespective of the ~tual condition of the world and wholly unlike it. The great difference betw een th e views · · adlY is that one bitterly and bro ~hendemh. ns the present for its unlikeness to the ideal past; while doesotnoter,affassummg. th e present to be as necessary as the pas t , ect to disregard or censure it.' 42

OF ANARCHISM

t going to claim that modem anarchism has any direct 1 9:m Roman jurisprudence; but I do claim that it has its rel9:tl~: the law of natur~ rather than i~ the. ~ate of nature. It ba515 d analogies derived from the simplicity and harmony ·is base. onal physical laws, ra th er th an on any assumptions · of of unrversal goodness of human nature-and this is precisely · fu n d amenta 11y from democratic· t h e na.tur it begins to diverge wh~rl~ i which goes back to Rousseau, the true founder of state · 1·ism may aim · at grvmg · · soc1a . rism, 1 Though state socia to eac h socia :,m· to his needs, or, as nowadays in Russia, according to 10~5 a.~cc:: the abstract notion of equity is really quite foreign his. e:fou~ht. The tendency of modern socialism is to establish a to its tem of statutory law against which there no "longer exists a vaslet S'f19 em,,ity. The object of anarchism, on the other hand, is to a inthe:i principle • P extend of equity unti·z it. altogether superse des statutory 0;0

la~his distinction was already clear to Bakunin, as the following quotation will show: , When we speak of justice, we do not mean what is laid down in codes and in the edicts of Roman jurisprudence, founded for the most part on acts of violence, consecrated by time and the benediction of some church, whether pagan or christian, and as such accepted as absolute principles from which the rest can be deduced logically enough; we mean rather that justice which is based solely on the conscience of mankind, which is present in the conscience of each of us, even in the minds of children, and which is simply translated as equalness (equation). 'This justice which is universal but which, thanks to the abuse of force and to religious influences, has never yet prevailed, neither in the political nor in the juridical, nor in the economic world-this universal sense of justice must be made the basis of the new world. Without it no liberty, no republic, no prosperity, no peace!' (O•er and &elfis serves. teofthe~oft m~rest of the bureau· 100 at10ns. It is commonly

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THE NECESSI'fY OF ANARCHISM that the League was frustrated first by Japan and then assumed d that France and England refused to enforce by Italy, .atyn on these test occasions because they were not . uthor1 S h h b 1ts a. tl armed to fight. uc may ave een the actual catassufficienb yt the ground had been slowly and deliberately undertr?ph;, T~e League of Nations was destroyed by a rival League nune ·L ague of Diplomats. Ambassadors and secretaries the -theId ver e saw m · t h e L eague o f N a tiions a riv · al organization, · · wo~ h ':vhen perfected would reduce their embassies to post wffihic and replace their several provinces by a single central o ees . t he permanent officials . th rity. So on every poss1"bl e occasion a~ ev:ry Foreign Office in Europe did all in their power to frus~ate the activities of the League. They have been only too successful! What we have to ask, then, is how can the bureaucracy be abolished in a communist society? If we cannot answer that question, we have to admit that our ideal of a classless society can never be realized. The syndicalist-the anarchist in his practical rather than his theoretical activity-proposes to liquidate the bureaucracy first by federal devolution. Thereby he destroys the idealistic concept of the State-that nationalistic and aggressive entity which has nearly ruined Western civilization. He next destroys the money monopoly and the superstitious structure of the gold stand~d, and substitutes a medium of exchange based on the productive capacity of the country-so many units of exchange for_ so many units of production. He then hands over to the syndicates all other administrative functions-fixing of prices, transport, and distribution, health, and education. In this manner the State begins to wither away! It is true that the~ w~ll. remain local questions affecting the immediate interests of 1~d1vidua~-questions of sanitation, for example; and the synd1cat~ will elect a local council to deal with such questions-a council of work~rs. And on a higher plane there will be quest~ons of co~op~rat!on and exchange between the various productive and d1str1butiv_e syndicates, which will have to be dealt wit~ by a central counc!l of delegates-but again the delegates w~ll be work~rs. U~til an hi · l te there will be questions of foreign policy ard de /m is cho?1hP e .. in will be dealt with by delegated workers. an erence, w ic ag101

But no whole-time officials no b -- .. ..,"'1 . ' ureaucr t d 1ctat~rs. Everywhere there will be a s, no Poli . . accordmg to their abilities and rec .. cells of 'Worke tic1ans . e1vmg a . rs , 110 I re al. ize that there is nothing ori . cc_ord1ngto _lllorkin an~hist community: it has all th ~Ina} in this out/Ir lleedsg murusm as imagined by Marx and e eznents of essente of~ mon with Guild Socialism and Christgels; it. has lllUch I~J colll. matter. very much what we call our1an ~oc1a1isin. It din colll. anarchism because that word em h . u1tunate ideal oes not doctrine-the abolition of the as1zes, as no other I cau it ~perative commonwealth. But a_te and the creati~n e central

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::t, ~t allenging the possibility :~~~t :11t1. these .forins o;~~-eoal. l can never be establi h unate Ide l . I . of mankind Eve . s ed because of the n a , is the cry established: it isn !~ne non-governmental corn::~ depravity descend on it and ann' ~me predatory tribe or n could be To that ob. . exe it. a ion Would im Ii . ~ection we must re l p es pacifism. I Would th p y that anarchism t for the erefore pr na urally moment. I do not shirk h opose to avoid that . more full · th t eq t· ISsue The Ob~ lD. e next chapter. ues ion: I shall discuss it Jections raised calls himself by the state · . hility. Moder: co~unist) are based s~~1ahst (he now usually complicated thae~tence, he says, has begrounds practicag!'eat suff . t it cannot be sim . come so munensely ing that n~-~d chaotic disorg P~fie~ now without causing o UJb()J"U • • anization A greater than ·e,&nlzation or suff . · part from retortin RUSsia, th that C&1JSed by the c could conceivably be the charge "'~ to this char o ectivization of agriculture refonn the ~ has been brou:t mus~ be that it is precisely &llarchists on system. When th against every attempt to so on, the~llilds of impraetiC:,~~munists object to the ~ears, the ~rely l'eJ>eating at Y, .unreality, idealism, ;:es of the Past. nt.a USed ag~t t't:; Interval of thirty or of vis· t matters in Pliti lllselves by the rese. ion. fol"Ce of CS-what tion. has ever L. __ l'eaaon. Noth;..,._ ~tters in histo . . plated . uq:n Won by -.qag, in the slo ry-1s clarity ha. leell~nee; has seen~ othei, llleans : course of civilizaow these elctnent.,1 elenient.a cl . 1 man has eontemCOuJd be l'e&ft ear Y and discretely· 1~ 8.Dged to better effect:

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THE NECESSITY OF ANARCHISM well-being. In that way-entirely realistically-a ter · · has shown it to 1,·-: b rn and a man w ho has seen thi s vision • • nIS O ' ~si~ fri nds and neigh bours, w ho have t hen become inspired bis rre . . A d to. the same vrsion. n so a group, a sect, a party has been with d the necessary enthusiasm has been aroused, and the f~r~e in due time been realized. That is the only way in "ision · WhiICh a civilize· ·· which progress ta k es p I ~Ce- th e on I Way m tion is built up. When t ere arde n~ ?l~ge~ men who have such . . s then progress ceases an a crvi ization decays. Such is the vision , . hi h . . essential law of history-a 1 aw tow ic the theory of dialectical aterialism is but a corollary. m It will be seen that there is nothing in this conception of anarchism to prevent the emergence of an aristocracy of the intellect. Anarchism is not in this respect an egalitarian doctrine, any more than communism is. The distinction is that anarchism would not confer any special powers upon such an elite. Power corrupts even the intellect, and an aristocracy plus power is no longer an aristocracy, but an oligarchy. The seer, the visionary, the poet will be respected and honoured as never before in the history of mankind; but that dreadful confusion between the man of imagination and the man of action will be avoided. Imagination renders a man incapable of determinate action; determinate action inhibits imagination-such is the dialectic of the human personality. Anarchism is a rational ideal-an ideal common to Marx, Bakunin, and Lenin. It is only because that ideal has been lost sight of in the collective socialism of contemporary Russia that it becomes necessary to reaffirm it under its most uncompro· mising name. Socialism is dynamic: it is a movement of society in a definite direction and it is the direction that matters most. In our conception of socialism, are we moving toward~ centralization, concentration, depersonalization; or are we movmg towards individualization, independence, and freedo~f It_ seei_ns ~o me that. there can be no possible doubt as to which direction is the more desirable· and I am afraid that, at the moment, everywhere in the world we are moving in the wrong direction. nl"f'.B

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It is often said, by advocates of fascism and the totalitarian state, that democracy has failed because the electorate has 108

POETRY

AND ANARCHISM

which that sy t Proved unworthy of the· responsibility A l ti ti government places upon it. t e ec ion imes it· acts eithers em. ca of. ciously or ignorantly, or even refuses to act at all. This ob Prttion is based on certain true facts: it is the deduction only seh~alif . I . w ich is wrong. Even i~. my1 own . 1 etime, p a1~t. condsc1ous of a great slackening of politica consciousness. o 1 ics o not occupy th space they used to in the Press, and parliamentary proceedi'n e gs are no longer followed witith any grea t' mterest. For the most part, though their fate may depend on the result of their voting the electors are bored and apathetic. Even with all the machiner; of party organizations, publicity campaigns, door-to-door canvassing, open-air meetings, broadcasting, etc., it is difficult to get more than 50 per cent of the electorate into the polling booths. Without these ·artificial stimulants, it is doubtful if as much as 80 per cent of the electorate would exercise the right to vote. But the reason for this apathy is not strictly political. It may be a case of democracy not functioning, but you cannot blame a vehicle for not moving if you overload it. The degeneration of political consciousness in modern democratic states is not a moral degeneration. It is due to this very process of centralization and collectivization which is taking place independently, and in spite of the particular political system we supposedly enjoy. There was a time when the relationship between the citizen and his representative in Parliament was direct and human; there was a time when the relationship between a member of Parliament and the government was direct and human; but all that has passed. We have been the victims of a process of dehumanization in our political life. Parties have become obedient regime~ts of mercenaries; delegates have been replaced by committees; the paid official, the omnipresent bureaucrat, stands between the citizen and his Parliament. Most departmen!-5 of na~ional life are controlled by vast and efficient bureaucratic machines which would continue to function to a large extent independently-that is to say irrespective of political control. ' Universal political franchise has been a failure-that we have to confess. O~ly a minority of the people is politically conscious, and the remainder only exist to have their ignorance and apathy

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TlIE NECESSITY 01• AN t'\J:\\..t-u.:,.u ulous Press. But do not let us confuse P an unscru · 'th d emoeb ited Y . bich is a system o f el ection, W1 ~ I0 rrancb1se, w . . u . al fr · erssl · ·ple of social orgamzabon. mvers anun1'V . h 1. s a prmc1 di . . ht . t wh1c tial to democracy than rvme rig is o rs.c Y ' ore essen l . f ·se is no D1 . ytll· a quite illusory de egation o power. chl It is a m . . . . l r · d freedom-these are the true pnnc1p es o 0na.rchY fustice, equalitr' i~nis possible-it has bee~ amply pro~ed by an d Germany-that the universal franchise can d eJJlocracy, · Italy an · d eed , impose · events in tee these principles, and may, m in no sense guarant . here in effect no liberty of choice exists ". a. fiction of co~sen w illage and propose to introduce electric If you go mto . a t v a city street and propose to wiid en 1it ; 1·r 1if you go . m O f bread or curtail the hours of drinki 1 ng Power; . the price o f h iti you raise ou touch the immediate interests o t e c~ izen. licences-then y. t the voter and without any coaxmg or Put these questions o · be will run to the poll. . . canvassing l litics are local politics. If we can make politics In short, :e~[:e them real. For this reason the universal vo~

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local governmen s ou t 11 d by the local the citizen. Such interests as are not con ro e f the s ndicate council should be controlled by his local bra~c; o sts~estions or soviet to which he belongs. His remote: m. ere ffa1·rs-should · f d 1ore1gn a of co-operation, intercommumca ion, an d b the local councils be settled by councils of delegates electe ll Y er get a democand the syndicates. Only in that way sha we ev racy of vital articulation and efficient force. alifice.tion without It is important, however, to ~ak; i:gate should always which any democratic system will fai · e arates himself from be an ad hoc delegate. Once. a dele!:~e s~omes a professi~ his natural productive function, on . in The bureaucratic Id ble sets m agai · the t d elegate, then all the o . ~u . le of leadership intervenes; parasite is born· the evil prmcip h chosen people. They are ' . t rrode t ese lust for power begms O co b uld O consumed by pride. . an anomalous figure, anTdhs · lsn is · e proThe professional po Iiitici h critical an al ysis. ed thoroug · 0 ne departsome day be sub~ec~ to :iiing,-he is an expert ~ a specific fessional economist is one ould be capable of supplymg rnent of knowledge and sh 105

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POETRY AND ANARCHISM

eed i the community. The local man of standing-a la d n t1~ e industrialist who allows himself to be elected t: p0'\Vn.er or act IV d d u t y- h e too is aru from a sense of respons1ibilit I y an . a. :a~e type. But there exists t~is other type of p~litician w~~ll~ti. ch functionalstatus. He is the man who deliberately d as 0Pts np:l:~cs as a career. He may incidentally be a lawyer or a at . li t b t h . . li . l'ade union s~re~ or a Journa to1s ; 1· u b te isffim po idtics for What h~ can get out of it. He means c im o o ce an to powe . I bi . r, and his motive throughout is persona am ition and megalom . . fh h an1a Owingto the preoccupations.o t e o~ :~ ty~es of parliamenta · representatives, this professional politician is only too lik l ry . Iar who rs . a d anger in a soci eyto succeed. It is he in particu lis · ~iety, for with the disappearan~e of the disintere~ted ma: 0~ leisure, he becomes the predommant type of politician. Un. checked by rival types, he monopolizes all offices of power and t~en~ into~ca~ ~th the exercise of this power, turns a~ainst his nvals within his own category, ruthlessly exterminates those who threaten to supplant him, and enforces the strict obedience o! all who _promise to se~e him. Such is the process by which dic~tors nse. ~d es~blish th~mselves; such is the process by which Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler established themselves. It is ~ pr~ which the social democratic state unconsciously but me~tably en~~ages. The only safeguard against such a process IS the abolitionof the professional politician as such and the re~ ~ ~ functional basis of representation. It ought to be axiomatic a communistsoeie · ty th at power is · never de legated to · diin . dual sho::i~~ VI b as s~ch, to be exercised arbitrarily. Power cised im. an allstr:ion, a grace invested in an office, exernever h el~t.ed.dele~ate or representative should distinction whicha: ~~y with his individuality-it is the old and the human v~ ureh made between the divine grace Generally I would sugg t ·tha . . t.ary socialism, which is thes tin many respects parliamen· individualistic doctrine of e final eXJ?ression of a subjective and the Renai~ance, has to r=r which began its fatal course at and function which are m . to. concepts of grace freedom, ore in lin . , Philoso.p hY t han with modern with scholastic Christian to see m communism a rea.ftirma. Phy. I have always tended tion of certain metaphysical 106

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philOS:

TIIE NECESSITY OF ANARCHISM hi h Europe possessed in the Middle Ages, and then

doetrines w. ~cg tide of humanism, liberalism, and idealism. I do · the · formulas of the Jost 1n . verisin that we can go b ack to t he re1·igious not bebe nd for that reason I do not believe that we can be )fiddle Ag:s~:vival of Catholicism; in the theory of anarchism saved by . d Church is as much an anathema as the State. But the organize cessary that we should once again admit the uni. 1· s very nef truth and submit · our 1·rves to t he rue I of reason. it . vex:5ahs~e~salismand this reason, as Catholic philosophersinsist, This un ts of realism.1 There can only be one kind of truth are aspe;here is only the single reality of our experience, and we be~a.use t the true nature of that experience by the process of arrive ·a Communists speak of d"ialectica · l materia · 1·ism, but diareasonmg. Th · of t he · 1 ealism would be a better phrase. e negation lect1ca r . . f Ari stot 1e, of Albertus id 1· m of Hegel is realism; the realism o 1 ea 1s • • h· · · t ence on science wit its insis and A quines:, the realism of modern . the universality of law and design. . . When we follow reason, th.en, m the , medieval s~n~, we listen to the voice of God: we discover Gods order, whic~ IS ~e Kingdom of Heaven. Otherwise there are only the subjective prejudices of individuals, and these prejudices ~ated to. the . . . · dimensions of nationa 1.ism, mys ti1c1sm, megalomama, and fascism. . . A realistic rationalism rises above all these diseas~ 0! the spirit and establishes a universal order of thought, which IS; n~sary order of thought because it is the order of the re wor ; li doctrine see Professor For a brilliant restatement of th~ Cat h.0 c d •ts ~nt Value' in Etienne Gilson's essay on 'Medieval U~vei:earu:;:~ Thoug'M and An Independence, Oonvergenu and BorrOWln(l "' na sent.en~ which give the (~a.rvar• moment I am Onl . that on the basis of his st d 0.f · Y concerned to emphasize of a similar study of n, ~ Y. the Hutterite community, and Pal estine, · · · the conclusionon religious . co -operative settlements ID ~tra.l emotional impulseemerges, m all its clarity, 'that some 1& important to the succesi: 7mparable to the religious motive, O comprehensive co-operation'.

.

\\.e must remember .. L •. t.

·~

retreat f:rom reality. . a certain ItWI& ii faztn from the sense all metaphyaica is a

170

PUl'pose

of these notes to

te a philosophy of freedom that is a compensation for ela.:~Jliberty.The philosophy of freedom is an activist philosophy zac h hilosophy of those who create-whether as artists as co-t e pors or as persona liti , i ies. I n t he p hil osophy of existentialism t opera is an' element o f compensation: . t h ere are too many disilluthere . . it nks t . sioned commumstMs m i hs r~ . ho giv.e one confidence in its . ·nterestedness. etap ysics is t e opium of the isolated indi' d 151 vidual: commum it y see k s, no t so muc h a religion, as the 8

concreteness of a ri~ual. . . . . . Hegelian dialectics, Marxism m its ideological aspects-all this metaphysical opium was manufactured by people without a living experience of communion: the philosophy of authoritarians and exiles.

16 The bankruptcy of historical materialism as a social philosophy is paralleled by the bankruptcy of logical positivi'im as a general philosophy. The two movements are, of course, closely related expressions of the Zeitgeist: they both proceed from °:nwarranted assumptions about the nature of ~n. The M~t deduces all social phenomena from economic. calculations (figures): the logical positivist would p~ve everything by mathematical processes. Both in the end (which we have now reach~) find themselves in a state of arid Iogomachy without parallel in the history of thought. They are slaves of the~ fo~ulae-h~, intolerant, and sadistic. The paver:tY of both ~;0 ism and logical positivism is explained ~y t e~. of the tive modes of thought, ~f super-rati~ b ~hwir ·:~nder of aesthetic nature of perception-i:;: wo ~it: one antenna, existential freedom, They ~ sn tion (logical positivists) gyrating either inward~~ 8 pai~:aikns of the commonplace or outwards, towards bII11tless (historical materialists). ed .. ;nee I became intellectually · · t everWi~dom,. as I have msis ·ch comes to rest betw~n ~~on.and conscious, is the needle w~h mprises instinct, intuition, unaromanticism (a word whic: (see §18) uses this metaphor to ination and fantasy), ~uLL: .. 1..ing of the tremors of the needle: g ' b t be J.S uiu-describe freedo~, ": . which it points. wisdom is the difeCtion in l 11

!t~ ~:1i:r:::

t

ails

CHAINS OF FREEDOM

CHAINS OF FREEDOM

17

is not your beloved for whom you have a passionate partiality, not your friend dfor whom ed you .have a passionate partiality . N or,

. '~q~ality ', wi:ote Nietzsche, ' as an actual a s~ty, of winch the theory of equal ri h . pprmcitnatio sion, belongs essentially to decadence. Theg :sis but the ex: lo man, between class and class the multi rg· p between es. to assert t~e self, to stand o,;t in contr!i'"~t:f t)'.pes, the: pathos 0!?istance, belongs to every vigoro~s erw~ch I call the Th~re ~· of course, an inescapable trutJ. iod. ~ua~ty, m. democratic theory and ractic m such criticism· identified with a policy of l.evelling T: e, h3:5 too often be · of of capabilities, has ~n i e ::::•al diversity of nee:.• forced into common moulds fl d gn . ' and men have bee, of all kinds. Not only their ~e:e b:::tme~, standard patim:: of men, have been conscripted b-,J th s:e minds and sensibilities of d"?'ocratic justice. This democr e . ate, and all in the name JM:rceived, conflicts with the essen:~c tendency, as Nietzsche Nietzsche could not see h f d nature of freedom and li . ow ree om w t b ' equa ty m the democratic St t N as o e reconciled with another concept which had to be e. or can I. But freedom is ~ore he considered it, the redefined by Nietzsche, and the ~ot something which clearly he realized that freedom 18 social contract: it som0t=o~e . 88 by natural endowment or by ' a disc' , ipline of the 18· spirit eFhing whi.ch one wins by conquest, by one , aelf. · reedom u the will to be responsible for

lllaJ

meri!'5,

if you a.re ~ e ucat

man, is you~ neighbour the one who is

educated, with whom you are equal m education-for with your neighbour you have h~man eq~a~ty ~fore God. Nor is the neighbour the one ~ho is m?re d1stmgmshed than yourself, that is, he is not your ne1gh~our .Just because he is more distinguished than yourself, for lo~ng him becaus~ ~e is more distinguished than yourself, can easily become parba.hty, and in so far selfishness. Nor is your neighbour one who is inferior to you, that is, in so far as he is humbler than yourself he is not your neighbour, for to love one because he is inferior to yourself can readily be· come the condescension of partiality, and in so far selfishness. No, loving your neighbour is a matter of equality. It is encouraging in your relation to a distinguished man, that in him you must love your neighbour; it is humbling in relation to the inferior, that you do not have to love the inferior in him, but must love your neighbour; it is a saving grace if you do it, for you must do it. The neighbour is every man; for be is not your neighbour through the difference, or through the equality with you as in your difference from other men, He is your neighbour

through equality with you before God, but every man unconditionally has this equality, and has it unconditionally.'(Wm-"6 of Love, II B, trans. D. F. and L. M. Swenson (Oxford, 194"6},) 20

~=.

Freed 18 h . om can be defined l . P ysically, b':1t equality ogically, psychologically, even meta· Even if we fall ~ be defined only in a sociological are an~ say that we the eq~ivocal formula of the outsid efining a social relat' equal m the sight of God, we 8~ i e society . ionshi · h reference to a paint · base f h . --erectmg at· P wit o t ebe triangl e 1S · level: and nangle · l basis, · But t he inevitabl th on ~ socra Y a Leveller. e Christian, in politics, must

B

..:r:.n

19

ut let us look a littl gaard, for exampl e.. , The e closer at this . neighbour . equivocation-in Kierke· 172 18 your equal. The neighbour

This argument seems to imply double-dealingon the part of E n bet God apparently does not guarantee

God

'i·t qu~th1y

or~ hbour and the notion, which Nietzsche

ua 1 y wi your ne1g , . t · th · eq and Burckhardt held, that the demoera~c movemen is e0;0~ inheritance of the Christian ff'.o~ement. : ::::::.::.:.. false interpretation ~f CbriS~ds'ffs:;:':Ces, are inborn. 'As little K'ier k eg~ d ,.as f ~r Nietzsche, or can livei without a physical body, just as ~he Chnst~ b"V•• id• the differencesof earthly life to which as bttle can he lrve ou:~ by condition, by circumstances, by every individual by ' These differences must continue as · tc belongs · · · continues, and must continue · ucat1on, e ., al existence to ed long as the temPor 1 '18

CHAINS OF FREEDOM

tempt every man who comes into the world.' In . whether of the Kierkegaardian pattern, or of the Cnerl_lichJcei, · ' yogi pattern, offersa complete escape f rom social resp a ifor . nian onsibility, 21

In a society where the preservation of the commu 't . first consideration, love of one's neighbour, as Niet:i 15 the again pointed out, is secondary matter.' A sympath e ~nee for instance, is called neither good nor bad, moral noe ~c action, in the best period of the Romans; and should it be pra ~ i~irnoral, of resentful disdain is compatible with this praise ise 'a sort best, ?irectly the sympathetic action is compared wit~::: at ~he contributes to the welfare of the whole to th which , e res publ·~ (Beyond Good and Evil, s 201.) -a. ,

a

;.c

1

22

{w!~~~che =es no distinction between a totalitarian society • IS '_Ve together by external bonds) and a communal :;;;e:u=h 81~h;;:s by ~t~~ of its internal morale, by instinc. ~ . • • e possibility of such an instinct as mutual 81id 18 J.Oreign to his false darwi .... ;.... Hi as a blind struggl ~ . ...... "Uill)m, s conception of evolution e J.Or existence =~ t a t'ion of some umver. sal 'will to po , Ob . · .' a mamres struggle, we =t fear ::usly~ if evolution is nothing but such a as a matter of fact N' neighbour rather than love him, and that fear is the mot~etzsche had n~ difficulty in pointing out loftiest and strongest. e~· of bourgeois morality. 'It is by the and carry the individ: rcts, when they break out passionately the low level of the gr 8: above and beyond the average and ego.nous~nscience, · ' 0f h ~ e community is d tro that. the self-reliance as it were, breaks·co es yed, its belief in itself its backbone b d ' IlSequentl th ' ' ~an ed and defamed. The 1 ~se very instincts will be most to stand alone, and even t? independent spirituality, the ng~rs;everything that el e cogent reason are felt to be and lS a evates th . di . ' evil; the of fear to the nei ~: ivi~ual above the herd, position the ant, .u°8:85uming, self-!aa ~, is henceforth called and hon~ur, (medLoc~y of desires atti'ting, self-equalizing dis· · · cit.) ' ins to moral distinction

:II

J

;,r:ce

11,

28

. seless to pretend that a dilemma does not exist here. It IS uwth of democracy an d of ega1'itarian . socia . 1·ism has led to The g:~alence and predominance of mediocre men in public life. the pr resent House of Commons descends below mediocrity to Our Pabsolute zero of vu I gar1it y an d meptitu . . d e. The House of ~::iemonness, it might be called. ~ s~y t~is r~memberingall that Bagehot said in d~fence of s~up1d1t~m high places. But the odern politician is not stupid: he is a grotesque figure who seems to have escaped from some circus, and has the sinister quality of the clown. It is not fair to see in this type a final product of the movement that produced Saint Augustine, Pascal, and Kierkegaard. 24

It is obvious that Kierkegaard and Nietzsche could be reconciled, for both believe in an inward relationship to transcendental values in which the individual is oblivious to the social situation. They differ profoundly in how they interpret this relationship, but they were both personalists, and ~ot,. in the literal sense of the word' socialists. It is not without significance . . that some of Nietzsche's best commentators have been Christians (Figgis, Maulnier, Thibon, Copleston, etc.). 25 Equality is a very ambiguous word. There are at leas~ three distinct contexts in which it can be used: the economi~,.the functional, the intellectual-~d four if w~ include the sp?'itual (and I think we should, in the sense implied by Bagehot m t~e quotation I will give in the next paragr~ph). We cannot l~gislate for spiritual and intellectual eq~ality, thoug~ we might in th ti of these qualities m a community by concrease e ra 10 . . . · bl · b t th trolled mating. Functional inequal1~)'.' is mbevitfa et1~ any ud et . , · madic commumties, ut unc ion nee no mo~t pdr~ffmitivet'alnostatus-the Elders in a Hutterite community conJ.er 1 eren 1 · head of · I privileges though the Preacher, who is h ave no specie ' · h t th t d f th e commum· t y, may have the rig t o e grea er egree o 175

seclusionwhich his duties require. Inequality O f. tion cannot be avoided, and they only be intel_Iect or f allied to economic inequality. And this is th come Viciouswine. matter, the crossroads where socalism in gen e ~rux of the When turning. For the essential thing is not t era takes the wr 01e . ong equaI-t he 1"d eaI of the average democrat·o make. ~II incorn abolish all incomes and hold all things in re socialist-but es was the foundation of the early Christ1_common. This principtol muItit 1 ude of t hem that believed were fan commurn"t·res, 'The soul:neither sai~ any of them that augh~ 0~~~:ea~t and ~f on: po~sessedwas his own; but they had all thin s ~hmgs whichhe Neither was there any among them th t 1 kg in common . a ae ed· for ·· w~repossessorsof lands or houses sold the . as many as pnces of the things that were sold a d I . -:{1' and brought the apostles' feet: and distribution ,;.,at a~ them down at the acco~dingas he had need.' ma e unto every man It IS essentialto stress the radical . . ~een equal partition and n~ture of this distinction be. distinction between faise c comm_umty of ownership. It is the tween the totalitar1"an omm_umsmand true communism be , · herd, and the libertari concepbo !1 f th e State as a controlled On this an conception of s . t b . ce conceptionis full . ocie Y as a rotherhood. trine of equality di y realized, the ambiguities of the doc. th sappear· the c m e ~onceptof communit oncept of equality is dissolved It will, of COUl's b . Y· hood . e, e said th t h is superhuman-that . a sue a conception of brotherperf~t world.The first H it c_ould never be realized in this imm spite of four centur~tter1tecolonies were founded in 1526, ion, they still u:ist. Ind IeJ of persecution and enforced migraroved themselvesto be t~e ' we might claim that they have ion ever devisedb e most stabl f . an undeviat· Y man. No other ~ orms of social organizenot our modmg ~ecordof stability 8rial system can boast such JuUy realized~r;:. emocraticsystemanB self-sufficiency-certainly · ere a.re no degrees ut the conception must be O communal living.

°

i:

f

sf

Bagehot wr te . 26 viewers'): 'A ol (in his essay ' e ear, Pree· . on The F' . ISe, d1scrim· . irst Edinburgh Re· inatin · 176 g intellect shrinks at

CHA INS OF FREEDOM

the symbolic, the unbounded, the indefinite. The mis· · · · t rue. Th. ere certaiinly are kinds of once from . that mysticism is & rtune is . . . I 10 th borne in as it were instinctive y on the human intellect, tru '. fluential on the character and the heart, yet hardly mostble rn of stringent statement , diffi 1 cu l t to 1·imit· by an elaborate ~:~:ition. Their course is shadowy; the mind seems rather to een than to see them, more to feel after than definitely ha.Ve S l . . . apprehend them. They common y mv?lve an mfimte element, hich of course cannot be stated precisely, or else a first prin:ple-an original tendency--of our intellectual constitution, which it is impossible not to feel, and yet which it is hard to extricate in terms and words. Of this latter kind is what has been called the religion of nature, or more exactly, perhaps, the religion of the imagination.' 27

Ni dieu ni maitre, cries the doctrinaire socialist. The mind which rejects the notion of a social hierarchy tends at the same time to reject the notion of a spiritual hierarchy, and therefore to deny, not only the existence of God, but even a religion of the imagination. This can be excused in a thorough-going Marxian materialist, but it is difficult to see where the Christian democrat, finds his logical footing. A Christian anarchist, like Eric Gill, is conceivable, as is a Christian royalist like T. S. Eliot. One derives from Saint Peter, the other from Saint Paul. The Christian democrat, howeveryis among those who 'tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgement and the love of God', who 'love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets', who 'are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them'. 28

Equality in its democratic usage is partitive, and a denial of brotherhood of communion, of true communism. The democratic State is a house divided (though equally) against itself. It is impossible to divide what is held in common. Equality is a materialistic measure-a balance of weights. 177

Nature knows symmetry, but not equality-th in nature are always joined together.

CHAINS OF FREEDOM e equal Parts

29 The sociologists are slowly beginning to distin · h two types of co-operation, one which they call ,guis between 'partial.', the other' comprehensive' or 'integral, ~~gmental' or co-operation the members associate to satisfy lik · . n segrnenta} is the type found in consumers', producers' ma P.k, m~erests. This · co-operatives, · cessmg a II organized for the 'bett r ebng. and Prospecified economic ends. Comprehensive eo-o :~aa~tai~ment of ~pon ~ommoninterests ... Comprehensive co-~ er b~n 1~ based tised in a community when all the essenti I . p abon is prac. satisfied in a co-operative way.' (H Fial interests of life are L nnng · · in· P-'· ·1946) nfield ' Co-operative alestine (Kegan Paul, London ' ' p. 3.) 80 We should not be afraid t (~tead of pseudo-scientific tero us~ t~~ word ' brotherhood, sunply because it has ti ms like mtegral co-operation') sen 1mental · · necessary physical (s t· associations. It indicates the . . . ensa ional) basis f th I . . . operative living, Broth h . o e re ationship m coalternative words ar er ood Is a concrete existential bond· has . e conceptual d . . ' . ~omething difficult but . an evasive. Trlgant Burrow ongmally total organi pertinent to say on this subject: 'The fitness h ' . c sense of wh l . . , or t e basic right o eness, co-ordination and ness that Is . common· and consistent . · t hraugh ou t all organis mere soc· I · ms of the s~ecies, · ac i~ llllage of wholen has been shifted to a J.at:odmpamed by a phenom/nss orfr1ghtness. This shift has been · di1viduaI hon o heh aviour · · autl , itseparated in w h ereby the isoion y or p . as bee private r~pr1etary "right,, ? ve~ted with a pseudo· symbol :::ession. Inevitably th. Right Is hia right. It is his flicts and disoedoute~ appearance over-accentuation of the counterpart .r er within the indi ~ d right has ultimated in con· unity, hanno:ny mere peripherat1 ualbthat have their reaction· , or Who} eness in th ' syzn . oliic representations · of e social 178 community.

;8.

'Vnder these conditions _it is ~ot .s~rising that there exists . Uy the hodge-podge of irrter-iridividun] relationships of missocdte. standings, of contra.dictory feelings and impressions · f un er f hi f . , o Jove 1in the form o mere .owners ip, o Jealousies , petty competi 1tions, proprie~a~y a~ect~~ns and ef ually proprietary aversions. It is not s_urprism~ t at ere are t ie co~~tant incentives at one time to dictators~1p, at ~mother to servility, with all the irritation and disa~ect~on which we. no~ ~nly see but which we ourselves feel subJectively both as individuals and as nations. With this basic miscarriage of function within the primary organism it becomes clear why we have such monstrous disfigurements of feeling and thinking as exist in our various social and political dogmas and creeds. It becomes clear why there lurks beneath our programmes of socialism and a wider brotherhood a secret assertion of the self that is in no sense different from the selfassertion that characterizes the most blatant of our monarchial or oligarchical regimes. Nor is it surprising that, as a result of t~s p~imary dissociation, we have in the community widely disseminated and rapidly growing principles of communism which, .though dynamically active, belong to a purely verbal, symbolic system of behaviour, and that upon analysis these pri?ciples ~dicate as violent an intolerance towards a physio!og1cal basis of community feeling and accord as may be found m the most enthusiastic advocates of our prevailing capitalistic systems.' (The Biology of Human Conflict (Macmillan, New York, 1987), pp. 98-4.) 81

In this same context Burrow makes an acute criticism of Kropotkin. After pointing out that the first portion of Mutual Aid 'gives an excellent account of the principle of organic consisteney uniting and motivating the individuals of an animal sp~cies into an integral, organismic whol~ ': he ex~re~s~s the opinion that the second half of Kropotkin s book distinctly falls away in its artificial att~mpt to relate ~his bio~ogical principle of unity evidenced in a~~m3:1s t,~ the quite senti!11en~~ ~nd self-conscfous expressions of unity that characterize civilized communities of man. In the author's eff~rt to affiliate our widely systematized charities or the helpful community services of the

179

CHAINS

OF FREEDOM

social worker with the manifestations of th· bi id h' h · · of mu t ua l ar , is t esis is largely vitiated.' is(Oiolocs ~Acal Princi I agree that many of the examples of , m t p. c~t., p. 64. ) Ple

' hi h Kro · u ual aid · se1ves w ic . potkm gives in his l ast two hamong OUr examp les of partial sympathy rather tha f bi c apters · but Kropotkin nevertheless was on then ? h IOlogical Uni~ Burrow would have discovered had he rig t track, as DY, .mto th e 'Ii tt 1e known work' of this authopursued hiis research r. . hi E . r a 1.ittle f th es examp 1e, m is thics he makes it quite cl h ur er. Fo . h b' l . ear t at r whi ch is t e 10 ogical principle of unit mutual aid ti all furth y, precedes d , o~s . er. stages of group organization-that ~n condi. basic, orgamsmic wholeness concepts lik . . without this are ~orthless superstructu~es. For exa: Jr:~1~~and morality ~ustu:e-.Morality are thus the consecutiv: st~ utual Aidmg series, revealed to us by the study of th p~ of an ascendman. They constitute an or anic . e. animal world and its own justification, confir!ed b 7h1ch carries in itself the animal kingdom be . . y . e .w o e of the evolution of form of colonies of the m1!:'s~rup~g 7-th its e~liest stages (in the rising to our civilized h rum rve ~r~amsms), and gradually ing, it is a universal lawuman co~mumti.es. Figuratively speaksense of Mutual Aid J 0 organic evolution, and this is why the mind with all th ~ , ustice, .and Morality are rooted in man's 1orce of an mbo · . that of Mutual eAid be' . rn mstmct-the first instinct, third, developed laU:r thmg evidently _the strongest, while the the least imperativ f than the others, Is an unstable feeling and

ne;:ssitt

f

eo

,

e three.' 32

It is not correct to exclusively by the d te ~y. that the whole of Nature is ruled · e mumsf are Obliged to conceive th ie f,orce of necessity. No doubt we determined process, butt: run of ev~nts.in general as a causally show that even in the behae ~ntological investigation of life will germ of fireedom (spontaneit viour of s1mp · l e orgamsms . . a there is qu;itly ~evelops in man int! and .autoplasticity), which subse· . ere, in Woltereck's Onto g~nume freedom.' basis logu des Lebend igen, · · the sc1ent1 · · fie most for dist'our phil . osophy. Woltereck IS mguished biologists of h. ~~ a scientist, one of the 18 time (1877-1942), fully 180

CHAINS OF FREEDOM

the metaphysical implications of his empirical analysis f ~are o . wor k constitutes . a if -processes. His the first acceptable alternaof. lieto existentia. . li sm. ti"e 33 , It is of the essence of man to live in the midst of various polar tensions, bet"'.een the ''upper" and the "l~~e~ ", between spirit d instinct, JOY and fear, rapture and triviality. Polar tension ~nalso bound up with the ontically very significant fact of free~- On free-will conceived as '' compulsion to personal decision'' there rests in part ... man's "existential dread", and on freedom of decision there certainly rests guilt and the crippling sense of guilt. 'This, however, is offset by a totally different aspect of the fact of freedom. We have been told, without agreeing with such a division, that subjective "spirit" because of its freedom marks itself off from Nature, which is thought of as exclusively filled with necessity, causality and mindless repetitions. To this we opposed the view, and shall later substantiate it, that although freedom only develops in the spirit of man it is germinativ.el_y work in all living things as spontaneity and autoplastic1ty ·

"!

(Woltereck, trans. R. F. C. Hull.) 84'

Against this confident claim we must set B~?n:s warning: 'Our freedom, in the very movements.by .wl:ric.h it .18 affirmed, creates the growing habits that will stifle it if it ~ails Ttoh renewt · ts If b ff · t · d 0 gged by automat1Sm, e mos 1. ~ y a constant e ort: ! '!'8 . i ula that expresses it. living thought becomes fngid in the i°rm kills th spirit , The word turns against the idea. The ettur~s- to the :ssenti~ fact B ut mt . h e nex t pal'P6·:a ffl'Aph Bergson re f W: are relatively stable 'and -particular m~e~tatioi:e; tha: we treat each of them as a counterfeit immobility so forgetting that the very permathing rather than as ~ ~~e outline of their movement. At nence of their fo~ ;s vision, the invisible breath that times. however, in ·a}ized before our eyes. We have this sudden bears them is maten rtain forms of maternal love, so striking illumination before ee 181

P'::f fl~thig

CHAINS OF FREEDO:\l

CHAINS OF FREEDOM and in most animals so touching, observable e . tude of the plant for its seed. This love, in whichven in the sou . ~ 'b some h c1. t h e great mys t ery o f Ii re, may poss1 ly deliver u 1"£ 1 , ave 8

shows each generation leaning over the generati s ~ s secrete;n. low. It allows us a glimpse of the fact that thon .t _at shall e 1lVIng b OIt• a b ove a 11 a t h oroug hfare, an d that the essenc Of . . eing · movement by which life is transmitted · , (Cereative • hfe Is in this . E e trans. Arthur Mitchell (London, 1914), pp. 134_5.) Volution,

t

85 Everywhere (in nature) we encounter wh t B 'irremediable difference of rhythm'. This bi 1 a. ergson calls . l li . I . 1· 10 ogical fact h socia or po tica imp ications, 'Natural, ine ual · . as its the pattern of life. To what extent should i:es are part of human institutions? ey e reflected in

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I have insisted elsewhere that equalit . . never existed in fact, and it is difficult sis a mys_tique-it has can be reconciled with differential e d ee how m practice it health, and temperament Th d~ff owm~nts of skill, strength, to functional differentiati~ns . e~~ 1 erential endo~ments lead these by free choice as well .b e econ~my of s~c1ety-lead to There would seem th ~ y economic necessity. equality and ine ualit ere ore, to be . a double requirementmelody. 'Each n qte. y. Gustave Thibon finds a parallel in O mamelody o~cu~1es · a diifferent place in the scale, and all the diff very. silences] are une e;:~t con.tr~butmg factors (including the there would be q 'and if it were not for this inequality melody if you a~~=ody. But neither would there be an; ?ifferent factors whi h that deep kind of equality among the in the unity of the wch r1esults from their communion or fusion, f o e·· all you would have would 'be a chaos O sound. 'This double requir ~ound throughout the ~:~ntf, hequality and inequality is to be O importance · t y. It is of the' greates t tw di . to sub stitute th uman . socie eq:./;iensional idea of eqJ·~ofo~nd idea of harmony for the their m~n can resi~/ ~e~he o~ly true and desirab!e reooses , . ' ror it can only be ither m their nature nor rn r-- ..upon comm union, · and co an eq··~,.: "':'"""'Y by convergence, Jt 1s2 rnmunion dispenses with dif·

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. In all harmony, inequality is corrected and comferen~es interdependence.' (H hat Ails 1'1ankindJ Trans. pl~te d gill (New York, 1947), p. 57.) WillaI' f r the too passive notion of' interdependence' let us subO . .:But the active notion o f ' mu t ua l aiid ' . Th'ibon tries to draw 8 st1tute t between an un ltea ltl iy ' at lieistical · · equalitarianism ' contras d. ff d which , pares human e~en~es oh,~'111 ~o the ground', and 8 Christian equa 1_11tariamsm w ic 11s based on the surpasslthy hea . . l diifferences=-' it carries ing, and not upoi: the ext-incti~n'. o f tlde:e h rn back to their common orrgm, an forward to their common t d in eternal love. And thus it is that the synthesis between enu~lity and inequality is accomplished in the unity of that f;ve.' But this is the mystique of equality that has never had any existence in fact. When it comes to the practice, not of equality, but of social harmony, the Christians have nothing to offer us by way of example. They are split into a thousand antagonistic sects, and their history is written in the blood of martyrs (for the heretic of one sect is the martyr of another).

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86 Contrast the notions of 'unity' and 'harmony'· Unity is apt to be the name we give to a foreshor_ten~ng of our retrospective vision: even parallel lines seem to unite if we prolong them far enough away from our point of view. . . The question of social harmony should be argued ?n its immediate or practical merits or as an abstract questwn, but not used as a plea for the ;ecovery or renaissance of a defunct

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. tural values have always arisen Cul that bt . · · h Th ere can b e no d ou under conditions of strife, rivalry, or emFulalt.10n._Etvenwlithg1nrastpe . di id . . l munity ee mg m ense y, in 1v1 ual as w1thm t ie com · Ii t' t r in . t ,l ' Ii . ' intensely: form strugg mg o mas e g m' ense y, rea izmg' . -it: , 8 chaos grinding itself into content; material sub?ued to sp~u. ' the essential nature of the compatibility, (Coler1dg~)-suc :n to suppose that culture is cultural process. There 19 ~o re~ reason to suppose that it is fa~oured by uni~y; there :n~v:nequalities. But it is important stimulated by difference:. logical or 'natural, differences, and 10 to distinguish between 188

economic or social differences, which are artifi . tained by power. cial and rn . The real drive in culture is teleological ain. argued. Culture is intimately related to the ' as Woltereck Consciousness itself is a 'cultural' developm pr~cess of evolut'has 1011• The process is retarded by war and tyrann e~ : . mutual aid. Y, It is Proznoted by 87 In a certain sense one can welcome the hr ki of European history. The State and all 1'tea mg of the patte· 1 · s works b .,, th ell' s~angu atmg currency, the international m ' anks and the tanff system and the artificial distribut· f i oney market shelters behind it, nationalized systems of ion ol industry Which military . secu ar edu ti . service, of taxation and amorti . . ca ion, of perish. The Black Market has man u I f, zabon-1t may all it does represent a certain human ~ta1ii ~at~res, b~t a~ least escape from the artificial bonds of th y a etermmation to point.of view, I am somewhat envious ;rrm a cultural need IS a Black Market in cultur !s v1. a ity, What we bankrupt acad . . . . e, a determmation to avoid the dized products e;:;.i~;:titutions, th~ fixed values and standarspiritual goods throu hnt art and _literature; not to trade our State, or Press· ratherg t the recogmzed channels of Church, or O But let me hasten pass them 'under the counter'. utterance' I do beli t~edress the balance of such a nihilistic relapse to locaJ autoeve ~t a collapse of central government, a better p~ of nomly is a better condition of life and offers · - --t"-"'" a cu tural · ' attem~t to preserve exist' . re~iv~I, than any too conscious necessity of instituti ifmg mstitutions. But I do not deny the the Primitive level we .are to elevate a new culture above b~is of social health pod mt ~s that we have to begin from some historical an SOcial sim I· · t perspective, be called H P 1~1 Y which might, in any con