"In our project, society receives the impulse of power."
In what does the impulse that power gives to society consist? In imposing upon it the project of Mr. Louis Blanc.
On the other hand, society is the human race. The human race, then, is to receive its impulse from Mr. Louis Blanc.
It is at liberty to do so or not, it will be said. Of course the human race is at liberty to take advice from anybody, whoever it may be. But this is not the way in which Mr. Louis Blanc understands the thing. He means that his project should be converted into law, and consequently forcibly imposed by power.
In our project, the State has only to give a legislation
to labor, by means of which the industrial movement may and
ought to be accomplished in all liberty. It (the State)
merely places society on an incline (that is all) that it
may descend, when once it is placed there, by the mere force
of things, and by the natural course of the established
mechanism.
But what is this incline? One indicated by Mr. Louis Blanc. Does it not lead to an abyss? No, it leads to happiness. Why, then, does not society go there of itself? Because it does not know what it wants, and it requires an impulse. What is to give it this impulse? Power. And who is to give the impulse to power? The inventor of the machine, Mr. Louis Blanc.
We shall never get out of this circle—mankind passive, and a great man moving it by the intervention of the law. Once on this incline, will society enjoy something like liberty? Without a doubt. And what is liberty?
Once for all: liberty consists not only in the right
granted, but in the power given to man to exercise, to
develop his faculties under the empire of justice, and under
the protection of the law.
And this is no vain distinction; there is a deep meaning
in it, and its consequences are imponderable. For
when once it is admitted that man, to be truly free, must
have the power to exercise and develop his faculties, it
follows that every member of society has a claim upon it for
such education as shall enable his faculties to display
themselves, and for the tools of labor, without which human
activity can find no scope. Now, by whose intervention is
society to give to each of its members the requisite
education and the necessary tools of labor, unless by that
of the State?
Thus, liberty is power. In what does this power consist? In possessing education and tools of labor. Who is to give education and tools of labor? Society, who owes them. By whose intervention is society to give tools of labor to those who do not possess them? By the intervention of the State. From whom is the State to obtain them?