The power of the governments has now for a long time ceased to be
based on force, as it was based in those times when one nationality
conquered another and by force of arms held it in subjection, or
when the rulers, amidst a defenceless people, maintained separate
armed troops of janissaries, opríchniks, or guardsmen. The power of
the governments has now for a long time been based on what is called
public opinion.
There exists a public opinion that patriotism is a great moral
sentiment, and that it is good and right to consider one's own
nation, one's own state, the best in the world, and from this there
naturally establishes itself a public opinion that it is necessary
to recognize the power of the government over ourselves and to
submit to it; that it is good and right to serve in the army and
to submit to discipline; that it is good and right to give up our
savings in the shape of taxes to the government; that it is good
and right to submit to the decisions of the courts; that it is good
and right to believe without verification in what is given out as a
divine truth by the men of the government.
Once such a public opinion exists, there establishes itself a mighty
power, which in our time has command of milliards of money, of an
organized mechanism of government, the post, the telegraphs, the
telephones, disciplined armies, courts, the police, a submissive
clergy, the school, even the press, and this power maintains in the
nations that public opinion which it needs.
The power of the governments is maintained through public opinion;
but, having the power, the governments by means of all their organs,
the officers of the courts, the school, the church, even the press,
are always able to keep up the public opinion which they need.
Public opinion produces power,--power produces public opinion. There
seems to be no way out from this situation.
Thus it would, indeed, be, if public opinion were something stable
and unchanging, and if the governments were able to produce the
public opinion which they need.
But fortunately this is not the case, and public opinion is, in the
first place, not something which is constant, unchanging, stable,
but, on the contrary, something eternally changing, moving together
with the motion of humanity; and, in the second, public opinion not
only cannot be produced by the will of the governments, but is that
which produces the governments and gives them power or takes it away
from them.
It may appear that public opinion remains immovable and now is such
as it was decades ago, and it may appear that public opinion wavers
in relation to certain special cases, as though going back, so that,
for example, it now destroys the republic, putting the monarchy in
its place, and now again destroys the monarchy, putting the republic
in its place; but that only seems so when we view the external
manifestations of that public opinion which is artificially produced
by the governments. We need only take public opinion in its relation
to the whole life of men, and we shall see that public opinion, just
like the time of the day or year, never stands in one place, but is
always in motion, always marching unrestrictedly ahead along the
path on which humanity proceeds, just as, in spite of retardations
and waverings, day or spring moves on unrestrictedly along the path
over which the sun travels.
Thus, though by the external signs the condition of the nations of
Europe in our time is nearly the same that it was fifty years ago,
the relation of the nations toward it is now entirely different
from what it was fifty years ago. Though there exist, even as fifty
years ago, the same rulers, armies, wars, taxes, luxury, and misery,
the same Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, these existed before
because the public opinion of the nations demanded them, but now
they all exist because the governments artificially maintain that
which formerly was a living public opinion.
If we frequently do not notice this motion of public opinion, as we
do not notice the motion of water in the river, with the current
of which we are swimming, this is due to the fact that those
imperceptible changes of public opinion which form its motion are
taking place in ourselves.
The property of public opinion is that of constant and unrestricted
motion. If it seems to us that it is standing in one place, this
is due to the fact that everywhere there are people who have
established an advantageous position for themselves at a certain
moment of public opinion, and so with all their strength try to
maintain it and not to admit the manifestation of the new, the
present public opinion which, though not yet fully expressed, is
living in the consciousness of men. Such people, who retain the
obsolete public opinion and conceal the new, are all those who at
the present time form the governments and the ruling classes, and
who profess patriotism as an indispensable condition of human life.
The means which are at the command of these people are enormous, but
since public opinion is something eternally flowing and increasing,
all their efforts cannot help but be vain: the old grows old, and
the youthful grows.
The longer the expression of the new public opinion shall be
retained, the more it will grow, and the greater will be the force
with which it will express itself. The government and the ruling
classes try with all their strength to retain that old public
opinion of patriotism, on which their power is based, and to retard
the manifestation of the new, which will destroy it. But it is
possible only within certain limits to retain the old and retard the
new, just as running water can be held back by a dam only within
certain limits.
No matter how much the governments may try to rouse in the nations
the past public opinion, now no longer characteristic of them,
concerning the dignity and virtue of patriotism, the men of our time
no longer believe in patriotism, but more and more believe in the
solidarity and brotherhood of the nations. Patriotism now presents
to men nothing but the most terrible future; but the brotherhood
of the nations forms that ideal which more and more grows to be
comprehensible and desirable for humanity. And so the transition
of men from the former obsolete public opinion to the new must
inevitably be accomplished. This transition is as inevitable as the
falling of the last sere leaves in autumn and the unfolding of the
young leaves in swelling buds.
The longer this transition is delayed, the more imperative does it
become, and the more obvious is its necessity.
Indeed, we need only recall what it is we are professing, as
Christians, and simply as men of our time, we need but recall
those moral bases which guide us in our public, domestic, and
private life, and that position in which we have placed ourselves
in the name of patriotism, in order that we may see what degree
of contradiction we have reached between our consciousness and
that which among us, thanks to the intensified influence of the
government in this respect, is regarded as our public opinion.
We need only reflect on those very usual demands of patriotism,
which present themselves to us as something very simple and
natural, in order that we may understand to what extent these
demands contradict that real public opinion which we all share now.
We all consider ourselves free, cultured, humane men, and even
Christians, and at the same time we are in such a position that
if to-morrow William takes umbrage at Alexander, or Mr. N---- writes
a clever article on the Eastern question, or some prince robs the
Bulgarians or the Servians, or some queen or empress takes offence
at something, we all, the cultured, humane Christians, must go out
to kill men, whom we do not know, and toward whom we are friendly
disposed, as toward all men. If this has not yet happened, we owe
this, as we are assured, to the peaceful mind of Alexander III., or
to this, that Nicholas Aleksándrovich is going to marry Victoria's
grandchild. But let another man be in the place of Alexander, or
let Alexander himself change his mood, or Nicholas Aleksándrovich
marry Amalia, and not Alice, and we shall throw ourselves like
bloodthirsty animals upon one another, to take out one another's
guts. Such is the supposed public opinion of our time. Such opinions
are calmly repeated in all the leading and liberal organs of the
press.
[Illustration: Alexander III.
_Photogravure from Photograph_]
If we, the Christians of one thousand years' standing, have not yet
cut one another's throats, it is because Alexander III. does not let
us do so.
This is, indeed, terrible.