But the State and the institution of private property by no means exhausts the list of tyrannies. Individual liberty is as little compatible with irrevocable vows—that is, with a present promise which binds for ever the will of man—as it is with submission to external authority. The present marriage law, for example, violates both these conditions. Marriage ought to be a free union. A contract freely entered upon and deliberately fulfilled is the only form of marriage that is compatible with the true dignity and equality of both man and woman.[1333] A free and not a legal contract is the only form of engagement which the anarchists recognise. Free contract between man and wife, between an individual and an association, between different associations pursuing the same task, between one commune and another, or between a commune and a whole country. But such engagements must always be revocable, otherwise they would merely constitute another link in the chain that has shackled humanity. Every contract that is not voluntarily and frequently renewed becomes tyrannical and oppressive and constitutes a standing menace to human liberty. “Because I was a fool yesterday, must I remain one all my life?”[1334] asks Stirner; and on this point Bakunin, Kropotkin, Reclus, Jean Grave, and even Proudhon are agreed.
To regard their social philosophy as nothing but pure caprice because of the wonderful faith which they had in their fellow-men would, however, be a great mistake.
Notwithstanding the merciless criticism of authority of every kind, there was still left one autocrat, of a purely abstract character perhaps, but none the less imperious in its demands. This was the authority of reason or of science. The sovereignty of reason was one of the essential features of Proudhon’s anarchist society.[1335] What Proudhon calls reason Bakunin refers to as science, but his obeisance is not a whit less devotional. “We recognise,” says he, “the absolute authority of science and the futility of contending with natural law. No liberty is possible for man unless he recognise this and seek to turn this law to his own advantage. No one except a fool or a theologian, or perhaps a metaphysician, a jurist, or a bourgeois economist, would revolt against the mathematical law which declares that 2 + 2 = 4.” The utmost that a man can claim in this matter is that “he obeys the laws of nature because he himself has come to regard them as necessary, and not because they have been imposed upon him by some external authority.”[1336]
Not only does Bakunin bow the knee to science, but he also swears allegiance to technical or scientific skill. “In the matter of boots I am willing to accept the authority of the shoemaker; of clothes, the opinion of the tailor; if it is a house, a canal, or a railway, I consult the architect and the engineer. What I respect is not their office but their science, not the man but his knowledge. I cannot, however, allow any one of them to impose upon me, be he shoemaker, tailor, architect, or savant. I listen to them willingly and with all the respect which their intelligence, character, or knowledge deserves, but always reserving my undisputed right of criticism and control.”[1337] Bakunin has no doubt that most men willingly and spontaneously acknowledge the natural authority of science. He agrees with Descartes and employs almost identical terms[1338] when he declares that “common sense is one of the commonest things in the world.” But common sense simply means “the totality of the generally recognised laws of nature.” He shares with the Physiocrats a belief in their obviousness, and invokes their authority whenever he makes a vow. He is also anxious to make them known and acceptable of all men through the instrumentality of a general system of popular education. The moment they are accepted by “the universal conscience of mankind the question of liberty will be completely solved.”[1339] Let us again note how redolent all this is of the rationalistic optimism of the eighteenth century, and how closely Liberals and anarchists resemble one another in their absolute faith in the “sweet reasonableness” of mankind. Bakunin only differs from the Physiocrats in his hatred of the despot whom they had enthroned.
A society of free men, perfectly autonomous, each obeying only himself, but subservient to the authority of reason and science—such is the ideal which the anarchists propose, a preliminary consideration of its realisation being the overthrow of every established authority. “No God and no master,” says Jean Grave; “everyone obeying his own will.”[1340]
III: MUTUAL AID AND THE ANARCHIST CONCEPTION OF SOCIETY
At first sight it might seem that a conception of social existence which would raise every individual on a pedestal and proclaim the complete autonomy of each would speedily reduce society to a number of independent personalities. Every social tie removed, there would remain just a few individuals in juxtaposition, and society as a “collective being” would disappear.
But it would be a grievous mistake to conceive of the anarchist ideal in this light. There is no social doctrine where the words “solidarity” and “fraternity” more frequently recur. Individual happiness and social well-being are to them inseparable. Hobbes’ society, or Stirner’s, where the hand of everyone is against his brother, fill the anarchists with horror. To their mind that is a faithful picture of society as it exists to-day. In reality, however, man is a social being. The individual and society are correlative: it is impossible to imagine the one without thinking of the other.
No one has given more forcible expression to this truth than Bakunin; and this is possibly because no one ever had a keener sense of social solidarity. “Let us do justice once for all,” he remarks, “to the isolated or absolute individual of the idealists. But that individual is as much a fiction as that other Absolute—God.… Society, however, is prior to the individual, and will doubtless survive him, just as Nature will. Society, like Nature, is eternal; born of the womb of Nature, it will last as long as Nature herself.… Man becomes human and develops a conscience only when he realises his humanity in society; and even then he can only express himself through the collective action of society. Man can only be freed from the yoke of external nature through the collective or social effort of his fellow-men, who during their sojourn here have transformed the surface of the earth and made the further development of mankind possible. But freedom from the yoke of his own nature, from the tyranny of his own instincts, is only possible when the bodily senses are controlled by a well-trained, well-educated mind. Education and training are essentially social functions. Outside the bounds of society, man would for ever remain a savage beast.”[1341]
Whether we read Proudhon or Kropotkin, we always meet with the same emphasis on the reality of the social being, on the pre-existence of the State, or at least of its necessary coexistence, if the individual is ever to reach full development. It is true that there are a few anarchists, such as Jean Grave, who still seem to uphold the old futile distinction between the individual and society, and who conceive of society as made up of individuals just as a house is built of bricks.