One of the most curious features of popular Anarchism is its martyrology, aping Christian forms, with the guillotine (in France) in place of the cross.Many who have suffered death at the hands of the authorities on account of acts of violence were no doubt genuine sufferers for their belief in a cause, but others, equally honored, are more questionable.One of the most curious examples of this outlet for the repressed religious impulse is the cult of Ravachol, who was guillotined in 1892 on account of various dynamite outrages.His past was dubious, but he died defiantly; his last words were three lines from a well-known Anarchist song, the ``Chant du Pere Duchesne'':--Si tu veux etre heureux,Nom de Dieu! Pends ton proprietaire.
As was natural, the leading Anarchists took no part in the canonization of his memory; nevertheless it proceeded, with the most amazing extravagances.
It would be wholly unfair to judge Anarchist doctrine, or the views of its leading exponents, by such phenomena; but it remains a fact that Anarchism attracts to itself much that lies on the borderland of insanity and common crime.[18] This must be remembered in exculpation of the authorities and the thoughtless public, who often confound in a commondetestation the parasites of the movement and the truly heroic and high- minded men who have elaborated its theories and sacrificed comfort and success to their propagation.
[18] The attitude of all the better Anarchists is that expressed by L.S.Bevington in the words: ``Of course we know that among those who call themselves Anarchists there are a minority of unbalanced enthusiasts who look upon every illegal and sensational act of violence as a matter for hysterical jubilation.Very useful to the police and the press, unsteady in intellect and of weak moral principle, they have repeatedly shown themselves accessible to venal considerations.They, and their violence, and their professed Anarchism are purchasable, and in the last resort they are welcome and efficient partisans of the bourgeoisie in its remorseless war against the deliverers of the people.'' His conclusion is a very wise one:
``Let us leave indiscriminate killing and injuring to the Government--to its Statesmen, its Stockbrokers, its Officers, and its Law.'' (``Anarchism and Violence,'' pp.9-10.Liberty Press, Chiswick, 1896.)The terrorist campaign in which such men as Ravachol were active practically came to an end in 1894.After that time, under the influence of Pelloutier, the better sort of Anarchists found a less harmful outlet by advocating Revolutionary Syndicalism in the Trade Unions and Bourses du Travail.[19]
[19] See next Chapter.
The ECONOMIC organization of society, as conceived by Anarchist Communists, does not differ greatly from that which is sought by Socialists.Their difference from Socialists is in the matter of government: they demand that government shall require the consent of all the governed, and not only of a majority.It is undeniable that the rule of a majority may be almost as hostile to freedom as the rule of a minority: the divine right of majorities is a dogma as little possessed of absolute truth as any other.A strong democratic State may easily be led into oppression of its best citizens, namely, those those independence of mind would make them a force for progress.Experience of democratic parliamentary government has shown that it falls very far short of what was expected of it by early Socialists, and the Anarchist revolt against it is not surprising.But in theform of pure Anarchism, this revolt has remained weak and sporadic.It is Syndicalism, and the movements to which Syndicalism has given rise, that have popularized the revolt against parliamentary government and purely political means of emancipating the wage earner.But this movement must be dealt with in a separate chapter.
