As I was saying earlier, anarchism is of necessity gradualist. Anarchy can be seen as absolute perfection, and it is right that this concept should remain in our minds, like a beacon to guide our steps. But quite obviously, such an ideal cannot be attained in one sudden leap from the hell of the present to the longed-for heaven of the future. The authoritarian parties, by which I mean those who believe it both moral and expedient to impose a given social order by force, may hope - vain hope! - that when they come to power they can, by using the laws, decrees... and gendarmes subject everybody indefinitely to their will. But such hopes and wishes are inconceivable for the anarchists, since anarchists seek to impose nothing but respect for liberty and count on the force of persuasion and perceived advantages of free cooperation for the realisation of their ideals. This does not mean I believe (as, by way of polemic, one unscrupulous and ill-informed reformist paper had me believe) that to achieve anarchy we must wait till everyone becomes an anarchist. On the contrary, I believe - and this is why Im a revolutionary - that under present conditions only a small minority, favoured by special circumstances, can manage to conceive what anarchy is. It would be wishful thinking to hope for a general conversion before a change actually took place in the kind of environment in which authoritarianism and privilege now flourish. It is precisely for this reason that I believe in the need to organise for the bringing about of anarchy, or any rate that degree of anarchy which would become gradually feasible, as soon as a sufficient amount of freedom has been won and a nucleus of anarchists somewhere exists that is both numerically strong enough and able to be self-sufficient and to spread its influence locally. I repeat, we need to organise ourselves to apply anarchy, or that degree of anarchy which becomes gradually possible. Since we cannot convert everybody all at once and the necessities of life and the interests of propaganda do not allow us to remain in isolation from the rest of society, ways need to be found to put as much of anarchy as possible into practice among people who are not anarchist or who are only sympathetic. - Errico Malatesta
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 23:37:00 +0000
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