In reality, the position in which men who live by other men's labour are
placed, is based not only on a certain belief but on an entire doctrine;
and not only on one doctrine but on three, which have grown one upon
another during centuries and are now fused together into an awful
deceit,--or humbug as the English call it,--which hides from men their
unrighteousness.
The oldest of these, which justifies the treason of men against the
fundamental duty of labour to earn their own living, was the
Church-Christian doctrine, which asserts that men by the will of God
differ one from another as the sun differs from the moon and the stars,
and as one star differs from another. Some men God has ordained to have
dominion over all, others to have power over many, others, still, over a
few, and the remainder are ordained by God to obey.
This doctrine, though already shaken to its foundations, still continues
to influence some men, so that many who do not accept it, who often even
ignore the existence of it, are, nevertheless, guided by it.
The second is what I cannot help terming the State-philosophical
doctrine. According to this, as fully developed by Hegel, everything
that exists is reasonable, and the established order of life is
constant, and is sustained not merely by men, but as the only possible
form of the manifestation of the spirit, or, generally, of the life of
mankind.
This doctrine, too, is no longer accepted by the men who direct social
opinion, and it holds its position only by the power of inertia.
The last doctrine, which is now ruling the minds of men and on which is
based the justification of leading statesmen, men of business, and
science and art, is a scientific one, not in the evident sense of the
word (meaning knowledge generally), but in the sense of a knowledge
peculiar in form as well as in matter, termed _Science_. On this new
doctrine, the justification of man's idleness and the hiding from him
his treason against his calling, is particularly based.
This doctrine appeared in Europe contemporaneously with a large class of
rich and idle people who served neither the church nor the state and who
were in want of a justification of their position.
Not very long ago, before the French revolution in Europe, all
non-working people, in order to have a right to utilize other men's
labour, were obliged to have some definite occupation,--to serve in the
church, the state, or the army.
The men who served the government, "governed the people"; those who
served the church, "taught the people divine truths"; and those who
served the army, "protected the people."
Only these three classes of men--the clergy, the statesmen, and the
military men--claimed for themselves the right of utilizing labour, and
they could always point out their services to the people: the remaining
rich men who had not this justification, were despised, and, feeling
their own want of right, were ashamed of their wealth and their
idleness. But as time went on, this class of rich people, who belonged
neither to the clergy, to the government, nor to the army, owing to the
vices of these other three classes, increased in number and became a
powerful party. They were in want of a justification of their position.
And one was invented for them. A century had not elapsed before the men
who served neither the State nor the Church and took no part whatever in
their affairs, received the same right to live on labour as the former
classes; and they not only left off being ashamed of their wealth and
idleness but began to consider their position quite justified. And the
number of such men has increased, and is still increasing in our days.
The most wonderful of all is this, that these men whose claims to be
freed from labour were unrecognized not long ago, now consider
themselves alone to be fully right and are attacking the former three
classes,--the servants of the Church, State, and Army,--alleging their
exemption from labour to be unjust and often even considering their
activity directly pernicious. What is still more wonderful is this, that
the former servants of Church, State, and Army, do not now lean on the
divinity of their calling, nor even on the philosophy which considers
the state necessary for individual development, but setting aside these
supports which have so long maintained them, they are now seeking the
same supports on which the new reigning class of men, who have found a
novel justification, stand, and at the head of which are the men of
Science and Art.
If a statesman now sometimes, appealing to old memories, justifies his
position by the fact that he was set in it by God, or by the fact that
the state is a form of the development of personality, he does it
because he is behind the age, and he feels that nobody believes him.
In order to justify himself effectually, he ought to find now neither
theological nor philosophical but new and scientific supports.
It is necessary to point to the principle of nationalities, or to that
of the development of an organism; and to gain over the ruling class, as
in the Middle Ages it was necessary to gain over the clergy; and as at
the end of the last century, it was necessary to obtain the sanction of
philosophers, as seen in the case of Frederick the Great and Catherine
of Russia. If now a rich man, after the old fashion, says sometimes that
it is God's providence which makes him rich, or if he points to the
importance of a nobility for the welfare of a state, he does it because
he is behind the times.
In order to justify himself completely he must point to the way he
furthers progress by improving the modes of production, by lowering the
prices of consumption, by establishing intercourse between nations. A
rich man must think and speak in scientific language, and, like the
clergy formerly, he must offer sacrifices to the ruling class: he must
publish magazines and books, provide himself with a picture-gallery, a
musical society, a kindergarten or technical school. The ruling class is
the class of learned men and artists of a definite character. They
possess the complete justification for having freed themselves from
labour; and on this justification (as in former times on the theological
justification, and afterwards on the philosophical one) everything is
based: and it is these men who now give the diploma of exemption to
other classes.
The class of men who now feel completely justified in freeing themselves
from labour, is that of men of science, and particularly of
experimental, positive, critical, evolutional science, and of artists
who develop their ideas according to the same tendency.
If a learned man or an artist of the old style speaks nowadays about
prophecy, revelation, or the manifestation of the spirit, he does so
because he is behind the age, and he will not succeed in justifying
himself: to stand firm he must try to associate his activity with
experimental, positive, critical science, and he must make this science
the fundamental principle of his activity. Only then will the science or
the art with which he is occupied appear true, and he will stand on firm
ground, and then there will be no doubt as to his usefulness to mankind.
The justification of all who have freed themselves from labour is now
based upon this experimental, critical, positive science.
The theological and philosophical explanations have had their day: now
they timidly and bashfully introduce themselves to notice and try to
humour their scientific usurper, who, however, boldly knocks down and
destroys the remnants of the past, everywhere taking its place, and,
assured of its own firmness, lifts aloft its head.
_The theological justification_ maintained that men are
predestined,--some to govern, others to obey; some to live sumptuously,
others to labour: and therefore those who believed in the revelation of
God could not doubt the lawfulness of the position of those men, who, by
the will of God, are called to govern and to be rich.
_The state-philosophical justification_ used to say, "The state with all
its institutions and differences of classes according to rights and
possessions, is that historical form which is necessary for the right
manifestation of the spirit in mankind; and therefore the situation
which everyone occupies in state and in society according to his rights
and to his possessions must be such as to ensure the sound life of
mankind."
_The scientific theory_ says, "All this is nonsense and superstition:
the one is the fruit of the theological period of thought, and the other
of the metaphysical period. To study the laws of the life of human
societies, there is only one sure method,--that of a positive,
experimental, critical science. It is only sociology, based on biology,
in its turn based on all the other positive sciences, which is able to
give us new laws for the life of mankind. Mankind, or human societies,
are organisms either already perfect, or in a state of development
subject to the laws of the evolution of organisms. One of the first of
these laws is the division of labour among the portions of the organs.
If some men govern and others obey, some live in opulence and others in
want, then this is so, neither according to the will of God nor because
the state is the form of the manifestation of personality, but because
in societies as in organisms a division of labour takes place which is
necessary for the life of the whole. Some men perform in societies the
muscular part of labour, and others, the mental."
On this doctrine is built the ruling excuse of the age.