This relation is the key-stone in the arch of capitalism; this relation is the prime element in the present form of society.
This parasitic relation enables the capitalists to rule, rob and ruin the working class all the time everywhere.
This relation must be destroyed; this despotic, parasitic relation must be cut.
The capitalist class must be legally pared off, legally pushed off, legally shorn from, the chief material means of production—as PRIVATE owners.
Yes, this robbery, this organized, legalized robbery called capitalism—must be destroyed.
“The vast individual and corporate fortunes, the vast combinations of capital, which have marked the development of our industrial system, create new conditions and necessitate a change from the old attitude of the state and nation toward property.”[[319]]
The case, the circumstances, require unflinching social surgery.
You believe in surgery, don’t you. Of course you do. Surgery is recognized the world over as a rational and necessary means of saving life, the life of the individual.
Well, extend the application of the principle and practice of surgery to society—to the social body.[[320]]
Parasites never voluntarily let go their grasp on the source of their lives, never voluntarily let go the living things from which they suck their livings. And the parasitic capitalist class will stick to the means of production, as private owners, till they are legally dislodged—shorn from the means of production. What is here written concerning social parasites should not be misunderstood as malicious reflection on the ancient slave owner or the ancient feudal landlord or the modern capitalist. In the course of human evolution the appearance and activity of social parasites has been—and is now—as natural as the appearance and activity of parasites in the lower animal world and in the vegetable world. And the effort to dislodge human parasites from society should be, as far as is humanly possible, free from personal malice.[[321]]