Part 06, Chapter 03 : 
The Method of Anarchy
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18971897

People :
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Author : Benjamin R. Tucker

Text :
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The Method of Anarchy.



[Liberty, June 18, 1887.]

To the editor of the San Francisco People Anarchism is evidently a new and
puzzling doctrine. It having been propounded by an Anarchist from a public
platform in that city that Anarchism must come about by peaceful methods
and that physical force is never justifiable except in self-defense, the
People declares that, except physical force, it can see but two methods of
settling the labor question: one the voluntary surrender of privileges by
the privileged class, which it thinks ridiculous, and the other the ballot,
which it rightly describes as another form of force. Therefore the People,
supposing itself forced to choose between persuasion, the ballot, and
direct physical force, selects the last. If I were forced to the
alternative of leaving a question unsettled or attempting one of three
ineffectual means of settling it, I think I should leave it unsettled. It
would seem the wiser course to accept the situation. But the situation is
not so hopeless. There is a fourth method of settling the difficulty, of
which the People seems never to have heard,—the method of passive
resistance, the most potent weapon ever wielded by man against oppression.
Power feeds on its spoils, and dies when its victims refuse to be
despoiled. They can’t persuade it to death; they can’t vote it to
death; they can’t shoot it to death; but they can always starve it to
death. When a determined body of people, sufficiently strong in numbers and
force of character to command respect and make it unsafe to imprison them,
shall agree to quietly close their doors in the faces of the tax-collector
and the rent-collector, and shall, by issuing their own money in defiance
of legal prohibition, at the same time cease paying tribute to the
money-lord, government, with all the privileges which it grants and the
monopolies which it sustains, will go by the board. Does the People think
this impracticable? I call its attention, then, to the vast work that was
done six years ago in Ireland by the old Irish Land League, in defiance of
perhaps the most powerful government on earth, simply by shutting the door
in the face of the rent-collector alone. Within a few short months from the
inauguration of the No-Rent policy landlordry found itself upon the verge
of dissolution. It was at its wits’ end. Confronted by this intangible
power, it knew not what to do. It wanted nothing so much as to madden the
stubborn peasantry into becoming an actively belligerent mob which could be
mowed down with Gatling guns. But, barring a paltry outbreak here and
there, it was impossible to goad the farmers out of their quiescence, and
the grip of the landlords grew weaker every day.(137 ¶ 1)
 
Ah! but the movement failed, I can hear the People reply. Yes, it did fail;
and why? Because the peasants were acting, not intelligently in obedience
to their wisdom, but blindly in obedience to leaders who betrayed them at
the critical moment. Thrown into jail by the government, these leaders, to
secure their release, withdrew the No-Rent Manifesto, which they had issued
in the first place not with any intention of freeing the peasants from the
burden of an immoral tax, but simply to make them the tools of their
political advancement. Had the people realized the power they were
exercising and understood the economic situation, they would not have
resumed the payment of rent at Parnell’s bidding, and to-day they might
have been free. The Anarchists do not propose to repeat their mistake. That
is why they are devoting themselves entirely to the inculcation of
principles, especially of economic principles. In steadfastly pursuing this
course regardless of clamor, they alone are laying a sure foundation for
the success of the revolution, though to the People of San Francisco, and
to all people who are in such a devil of a hurry that they can’t stop to
think, they seem to be doing nothing at all.(137 ¶ 2)





     From : fair-use.org

Events :
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     Part 06, Chapter 03 -- Publication : November 30, 1896

     Part 06, Chapter 03 -- Added : February 21, 2017

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