Ah, well! Whatever our opponents say, it is they who are the empiricists; the experiments they have been making for centuries with the reforms and plasters which they recommend to us, prove to us that there are no true and effective reforms save those which attack the institutions, the bases, upon which society rests. Now, to touch institutions is the Revolution. The bourgeoisie, which holds the power, will not allow its own existence to be imperiled; so long as it holds the power it will make use of it to defend the system of organization which forms its strength. From the moment it should perceive that universal suffrage would tend to take its authority away, its bureaucracy, magistracy, police, and army would immediately be put in motion to arrest the destroying flood. The only reforms it will allow to be adopted will, therefore, be those which will not touch the institutions whence its privileges are derived; the only remedies it will consent to have tried are those which will attempt to mitigate the evils without attacking the causes. Such are the reforms we have seen adopted since the existence of universal suffrage—the projects which at present serve as platforms for the political parties; reforms which so long as they are projects only, set the worker floating on an ocean of felicities, but which being adopted, lead to no sensible results—lucky, indeed, if they do not become a new means of exploitation and enslavement in the hands of our masters.
Ah! It is because society is so organized that everything beautiful and good must finally concentrate in the hands of those who possess capital. Every fresh step in progress profits him, and him only, who has the wherewithal to put it into operation. Does there arise a new invention which enables production to go on more rapidly and with less expense? He who possesses will profit by it to diminish his working force, the eliminated part of which, thrown upon the street, will go to swell the somber army of the unemployed, the starving, while the rest will continue to toil as hard, as long, as before, even seeing their wages reduced in consequence of the competition waged against them by those who have been thrown out of the workshop. That is what your experimenting proves to us; that is what the reforms which have been tried have done; and these are the irrefutable objections we have to offer against all the projects that may be presented to us;—which proves very conclusively that we are right in retorting the epithet of “empiricists” upon those who claim that the ideas of Anarchism are not established by the experimental method. Moreover the strongest objection which such persons have so far been able to bring against the Anarchists is to say to them, “Your theories are very fine, but they cannot be realized.” This is not an argument. “Why can they not be realized?” we ask, and instead of answering us with reasons they bring forward their fears. They tell us that with man’s evil nature it is to be feared that he would profit by his liberty to stop working altogether; that when no mediating power existed it might happen that the stronger would exploit the weaker, etc. The Anarchists have shown the lack of foundation for these fears by proving that this evil tendency in man, these shortcomings in his character, are stimulated and encouraged by the present social organization which sets one against the other, forcing them to tear from each other the pittance it apportions with such exceeding parsimony. They also show, and support their assertions with proofs, that every social system based upon authority cannot but beget evil effects; since power is vested in persons subject to the same defects as other men, it is clear that if men do not know how to govern themselves, still less do they know how to govern others.
The great objection which remains consists, then, in assertion that as Anarchism has not so far been put to the test, it is condemned to remain a pure speculation, since it cannot be tried without overturning what has been proven to be bad. This is not serious and will not bear discussion. Because our forefathers allowed themselves to be exploited, should we, therefore, submit to exploitation? Because they bowed their necks to the yoke of authority should we, therefore, continue to be driven by the goad of power? Because the ideal of liberty and justice, after having been a vague and undefined aspiration of humanity, barely begins to shape itself in our days, must we renounce its application and wait till there are no more fearful ones? You agree that our ideal is beautiful. It is possible if individuals desire, and know how to conform their actions to it; this also you admit, and we ask no more. Those, then, who want to realize it, can only spread it, group together, stand shoulder to
