The theory by which men who have freed themselves from personal labour
justify themselves, is, in its simplest and most exact form, this: "We
men, having freed ourselves from work, and having by violence
appropriated the labour of others, we find ourselves better able to
benefit them." In other words, certain men, for doing the people a
palpable and comprehensible harm,--utilizing their labour by violence,
and thereby increasing the difficulty of their struggles with
nature,--do to them an impalpable and incomprehensible good. This is a
very strange proposition; but the men, both of former as well of modern
times, who have lived on the labour of workmen, believe it, and calm
their conscience by it.
Let us see in what way it is justified, in different classes of men who
have freed themselves from labour in our own days.
"I serve men by my activity in church or state,--as king, minister,
archbishop; I serve men by my trading or by industry; I serve men by my
activity in the departments of science or art. By our activities we are
all as necessary to the people as they are to us."
So say various men of to-day who have freed themselves from labour.
Let us consider _seriatim_ the principles upon which they base the
usefulness of their activity.
There are only two indications of the usefulness of any activity of one
man for another: (1) an exterior indication,--the acknowledgement of the
utility of the activity by those to whom it is applied; and (2) an
interior indication,--the desire to be of use to others lying at the
root of the activity of the one who is trying to be of use.
Statesmen (I include the Church dignitaries appointed by the government
in the category of statesmen) are, it is said, of use to those whom they
govern. The emperor, the king, the president of a republic, the prime
minister, the minister of justice, the minister of war, the minister of
public instruction, the bishop, and all under them who serve the state,
all live free from the struggle of mankind for existence, having laid
all the burden of this struggle on someone else, on the ground that
their non-activity compensates for this.
Let us apply the first indication to those for whose welfare the
activity of statesmen is bestowed. Do they, I ask, recognize the
usefulness of this activity?
Yes, it is recognized. Most men consider statesmanship necessary to
them. The majority recognize the usefulness of this activity in
principle; but in all its manifestations known to us, in all
_particular_ cases known to us, the usefulness of each of the
institutions and of each of the manifestations of this activity is not
only denied by those for whose advantage it is performed, but they
assert that it is even pernicious and hurtful. There is no state
function or social activity which is not considered by many men to be
hurtful: there is no institution which is not considered
pernicious,--courts of justice, banks, local self-government, police,
clergy. Every state activity, from the minister down to the policeman,
from the bishop to the sexton, is considered by some men to be useful
and by others to be pernicious. And this is the case not only in Russia
but throughout the world; in France as well as in America.
The activity of the republican party is considered pernicious by the
radical party, and _vice versa_: the activity of the radical party, if
the power is in their hands, is considered bad by the republican and
other parties. But not only is it a fact that the activity of statesmen
is never considered by all men to be useful, this activity has, besides,
this peculiarity, that it must always be carried out by violence, and
that, to attain its end, murders, executions, prisons, taxes raised by
force, and so on, became necessary.
It appears therefore that besides the fact that the usefulness of state
activity is not recognized by all men, and is always denied by one
portion of men, this usefulness has the peculiarity of vindicating
itself always by violence.
Therefore the usefulness of state activity cannot be confirmed by the
first indication,--i.e., the fact that it is recognized by those men for
whom it is said to be performed.
Let us apply the second test. Let us ask statesmen themselves, from the
Tsar down to the policeman, from the president to the secretary, from
the patriarch to the sexton, begging for a sincere answer, whether, in
occupying their respective positions they have in view the good which
they wish to do for men or something else. In their desire to fill the
situation of a Tsar, a president, a minister, a police-sergeant, a
sexton, a teacher, are they moved by the desire of being useful to men
or for their own personal advantage? And the answer of sincere men would
be that their chief motive is their own personal advantage.
So it appears that one class of men, who live by the labour of some
others who are perishing by these labours, compensate for this
indubitable evil by an activity which is always considered by a great
many men to be not only useless, but pernicious; which cannot be
accepted voluntarily, but to which men must always be compelled, and the
aim of which is not the benefit of others but the personal advantage of
the men who perform it.
What is it, then, that confirms the theory that state activity is useful
for humanity? Only the fact that the men who perform it firmly profess
to believe it to be useful, and that it has been always in existence.
But so some not only useless, but very pernicious institutions, like
slavery, prostitution, and wars, have always been in existence.
Business people (merchants, manufacturers, railway proprietors, bankers,
land-owners) believe that they do a good which compensates for the harm
undoubtedly done by them. On what grounds do they believe this? To the
question, By whom is the usefulness of their activity recognized? men in
church and in state are able to point to the thousands and millions of
working-people who in principle recognize the usefulness of state and
church activity. But to whom will bankers, distillers, manufacturers of
velvet, of bronzes, of looking-glasses, to say nothing of guns,--to whom
will they point when we ask them, Is their usefulness recognized by
public opinion?
If men can be found who recognize the usefulness of manufacturing
chintzes, rails, beer, and such like things, there will be found also a
still greater number of men who consider the manufacture of these
articles pernicious.
As for the merchants whose activity is confined to prices, and
land-owners, nobody would even attempt to justify them.
Besides, this activity is always associated with harm to working-people,
and with violence, which, if less direct than that of the state, is yet
just as cruel in its consequences. For the activities displayed in
industry and in trade are entirely based on taking advantage of the
wants of working-people in every form in order to compel them to hard
and hated labour; to buying cheap, and to selling necessaries at the
highest possible price and to raising the interest on money. From
whatever point we consider this activity we can see that the usefulness
of business-men is not recognised by those for whom it is expended,
neither generally nor in particular cases; and by the majority their
activity is considered to be directly pernicious.
If we were to apply the second test and to ask, What is the chief motive
of the activity of business-men? we should receive a still more
determinate answer than that on the activity of statesmen. If a
statesman says that besides a personal advantage he has in view the
common benefit, we cannot help believing him, and each of us knows such
men. But a business-man, from the very nature of his occupations cannot
have in view a common advantage, and would be ridiculous in the sight of
his fellows if he were in his business aiming at something besides
increasing his wealth and keeping it.
And, therefore, working-people do not consider the activity of
business-men of any advantage to them. Their activity is associated with
violence; and its object is not their good but always and only personal
advantage; and yet, strange to say, these business-men are so assured of
their own usefulness that they boldly, for the sake of their imaginary
good, do an undoubted, obvious harm to workmen by extricating themselves
from labour, and consuming the produce of the working-classes.
Scientists and artists have also freed themselves from labour by putting
it on others, and live with a quiet conscience believing that they bring
sufficient advantages to other men to compensate for it. On what is this
assurance based? Let us ask them as we have done statesmen and
business-men. Is the utility of the arts and sciences recognized by all,
or even by the majority, of working-people?
We shall receive a very sad answer. The activity of men in the State
Church and government offices is recognized to be useful in theory by
almost all, and in application by the majority of those for whom it is
performed. The activity of business-men is recognized only by those who
are engaged in it or who desire to practise it. Those who bear on their
shoulders all the labour of life and who feed and clothe the scientists
and artists cannot recognize the usefulness of the activity of these men
because they cannot even form an idea about an activity which always
appears to workmen useless and even depraving.
Thus, without any exception, working-people think the same about
universities, libraries, conservatories, picture and statue galleries,
and theatres, which are built at their expense.
A workman considers this activity so decidedly pernicious that he does
not send his children to be taught; and in order to compel people to
accept this activity it has everywhere been found necessary to introduce
a law compelling parents to send the children to school.
A workman always looks at this activity with ill-will, and only ceases
to look at it so when he ceases to be a workman, and through gain and
so-called education passes out of the class of working-people into the
class of men who live on the neck of others.
Notwithstanding the fact that the usefulness of the activity of
scientists and artists is not recognized and even cannot be recognized
by any workman, these men are, all the same, compelled to make
sacrifices for such an activity.
A statesman simply sends another to the guillotine or to prison; a
business-man, utilizing the labour of someone else, takes from him his
last resource, leaving him the alternative of starvation or labour
destructive to his health and life: but a man of science or of art
seemingly compels nobody to do anything; he merely offers the good he
has done to those who are willing to take it; but, to be able to make
his productions undesirable to the working-people, he takes away from
them by violence, through the statesmen, a great part of their labour
for the building and keeping open of academies, universities, colleges,
schools, museums, libraries, conservatories, and for the wages for
himself and his fellows.
But if we were to ask the scientists and artists the object which they
are pursuing in their activity, we should receive the most astonishing
replies.
A statesman would answer that his aim was the common welfare; and in his
answer, there would be an admixture of truth confirmed by public
opinion.
In the answer of the business-man, there would be less probability; but
we could admit even this also.
But the answer of the scientists and artists strikes one at once by its
want of proof and by its effrontery. Such men say, without bringing any
proofs (just as priests used to do in olden times) that their activity
is the most important of all, and that without it mankind would go to
ruin. They assert that it is so, notwithstanding the fact that nobody
except themselves either understands or acknowledges their activity, and
notwithstanding the fact that, according to their own definition, true
science and true art should not have a utilitarian aim.
These men are occupied with the matter they like, without troubling
themselves what advantage will come out of it to men; and they are
always assured that they are doing the most important and the most
necessary thing for all mankind.
So that while a sincere statesman, acknowledging that the chief motive
of his activity is a personal one, tries to be as useful as possible to
the working-people; while a business-man, acknowledging the egotism of
his activity, tries to give it an appearance of being one of universal
utility,--men of science and art do not consider it necessary even to
seem to shelter themselves under a pretence of usefulness, they deny
even the object of usefulness, so sure are they, not only of the
usefulness but even of the sacredness of their own business.
So it turns out that the third class of men who have freed themselves
from labour and laid it on others, are occupied with things which are
totally incomprehensible to the working-people, and which these people
consider trifles and often very pernicious trifles; and are occupied
with these things without any consideration of their usefulness but
merely for the gratification of their own pleasure: it turns out that
these men are, from some reason or other, quite assured that their
activity will always produce that without which the work-people would
never be able to exist.
Men have freed themselves from labouring for their living and have
thrown the work upon others who perish under it: they utilize this
labour and assert that their occupations, which are incomprehensible to
all other men, and which are not directed to useful aims, compensate for
all the evil they are doing to men by freeing themselves from the
trouble of earning their livelihood and by swallowing up the labour of
others.
The statesman, to compensate for the undoubted and obvious evil which he
does to man by freeing himself from the struggle with nature and by
appropriating the labour of others, does men another obvious and
undoubted harm by countenancing all sorts of violence.
The business-man, to compensate for the undoubted and obvious harm which
he does to men by using up their labour, tries to earn for himself as
much wealth as possible; that is, as much of other men's labour as
possible.
The man of science and art, in compensating for the same undoubted and
obvious harm which he does to working-people, is occupied with matters
to which he feels attracted and which are quite incomprehensible to
work-people, and which, according to his own assertion, in order to be
true, ought not to aim at usefulness.
Therefore, all these men are quite sure that their right of utilizing
other men's labour is secure. Yet it seems obvious that all those men
who have freed themselves from the labour of earning their livelihood
have no justification for doing so.
But, strange to say, these men firmly believe in their own
righteousness, and live as they do with an easy conscience.
There must be some plausible ground, some false belief, at the bottom of
such a profound error.