Errico Malatesta Archive
Written: 1922
Source: Published online by LibCom.org
Transcription/Markup: Andy Carloff
Online Source: RevoltLib.com; 2021
AMBROGIO: The other day you concluded that everything depends on the will. You were saying that if people want to be free, if they want to do what needs to be done to live in a society of equals, everything will be fine: or if not so much the worse for them. This would be all right if they all want the same thing; but if some want to live in anarchy and others prefer the guardianship of a government, if some are prepared to take into consideration the needs of the community and others want to enjoy the benefits derived from social life, but do not want to adapt themselves to the necessities involved, and want to do what they like without taking into account the damage it could do to others, what happens if there is no government that determines and imposes social duties?
GIORGIO: If there is a government, the will of the rulers and of their party and associated interests will triumph - and the problem, which is how to satisfy the will of all, is not resolved. On the contrary, the difficulty is aggravated. The governing fraction can not only use its own resources to ignore or violate the will of others, but has at its disposal the strength of the whole society to impose its will. This is the case in our present society where the working class provides the government with the soldiers and the wealth to keep the workers slaves.
I think I have already told you: we want a society in which everyone has the means to live as they like, where no one can force others to work for them, where no one can compel another to submit to their will. Once two principles are put into practice, liberty for all and the instruments of production for all, everything else will follow naturally, through force of circumstances, and the new society will organize itself in the way that agrees best with the interests of all.
AMBROGIO: And if some want to impose themselves by crude force?
GIORGIO: Then they will be the government; or the candidates for government, and we will oppose them with force. You must understand that if today we want to make a revolution against the government, it is not in order to submit ourselves supinely to new oppressors. If such as these win, the revolution would be defeated, and it would have to be remade.
AMBROGIO: But, you would surely allow some ethical principles, superior to the wills and caprices of humanity, and to which everyone is obliged to conform... at least morally?
GIORGIO: What is this morality that is superior to the will of men? Who prescribed it? From whence does it derive?
Morals change according to the times, the countries, the classes, the circumstances. They express what people at given moments and in given circumstances, regard as the best conduct. In short, for each person good morals accord with what they like or what pleases them, for material or for emotional reasons.
For you morality enjoins respect for the law, that is, submission to the privileges enjoyed by your class; for us it demands a revolt against oppression and the search for the well being of everyone. For us all moral prescriptions are comprehended by love between people.
AMBROGIO: And the criminals? Will you respect their liberty?
GIORGIO: We believe that to act criminally means to violate the liberty of others. When the criminals are many and powerful and have organized their dominance on a stable basis, as is the case, today, with the owners and rulers, there needs to be a revolution to liberate oneself.
When, on the contrary, criminality is reduced to individual cases of unsuitable behavior or of illness, we will attempt to find the causes and to introduce them to appropriate remedies.
AMBROGIO: In the meantime? You will need a police force, a magistrature, a penal code, some jailers, etc…
GIORGIO: And therefore, you would say, the reconstitution of a government, the return to the state of oppression under which we live today.
In fact, the major damage caused by crime is not so much the single and transitory instance of the violation of the rights of a few individuals, but the danger that it will serve as an opportunity and pretext for the constitution of an authority that, with the outward appearance of defending society will subdue and oppress it.
We already know the purpose of the police and the magistrature, and how they are the cause rather than the remedy of innumerable crimes.
We need therefore to try to destroy crime by eliminating the causes; and when there remains a residue of criminals, the collective directly concerned should think of placing them in a position where they can do no harm, without delegating to anyone the specific function of persecuting criminals.
You do know the story of the horse which asked protection from a man, and allowed him to mount on its back?
AMBROGIO: All right. At this point I am only seeking some information and not a discussion.
Another thing. Seeing that in your society all are socially equal, all have a right to the same access to education and development, all have full liberty to choose their own life, how are you going to provide for the necessary tasks. There are pleasant and laborious jobs, healthy and unhealthy jobs. Naturally each person will choose the better jobs - who would do the others, that are often the most necessary?
And then there is the great division between intellectual and manual labor. Don't you think that everyone would like to be doctors, litterati, poets, and that no one would wish to cultivate the land, make shoes etc. etc. Well?
GIORGIO: You want to look forward to a future society, a society of equality, liberty and above all solidarity and free agreement, presuming the continuation of the moral and material conditions of today. Naturally the thing appears and is impossible.
When everybody has the means, everyone will reach the maximum material and intellectual development that their natural faculties will permit: everybody will be initiated into intellectual joys and into productive labor; the body and brain will develop harmoniously; at different levels, according to capacity and inclination, everybody will be scientists and litterati versed in literature and everybody will be workers.
What would happen then?
Imagine that a few thousand doctors, engineers, litterati, and artists, were to be transported to a vast and fertile island, provided with the instruments of work and left to themselves.
Do you think that they will let themselves die of hunger rather than working with their own hands, or that they would kill themselves rather than coming to an agreement and dividing work according to their inclinations and their capacities? If there were jobs that no one wanted to do, they would all do them in turn, and everyone would search for the means to make unhealthy and unpleasant jobs safe and enjoyable.
AMBROGIO: Enough, enough, I must have another thousand questions to put to you, but you wander in a total utopia and find imaginary ways to resolve all the problems.
I would prefer that you talk to me about the ways and means by which you propose to realize your dreams.
GIORGIO: With pleasure, so much so since as for as I am concerned, even though the ideal is useful and necessary as a way of indicating the final goal, the most urgent question is what must be done today and in the immediate future.
We will talk about it next time.