. ' WHAT IS ANARCHISM? If they really would, 7!1hY would they ? Would they do 1t 3ust for the pleasure of it or t:i~cau_soef certain reasons ? Maybe if we examine their reasons, we d discover the cure for them. Suppose you and I and a score of others had suffered shipwreck and found ourselves on an island rich with fruit of every kind. Of course we'd get to work to gather the food. But suppose one of our n~mber should declare that it all belongs to him, and that no one shall have a single morsel unless he first pays him tribute for it. We would be indignant, wouldn't we? We'd laugh at his. pretensions. If he'd try to make trouble about it, we might throw him into the sea, and it would serve him right, would it not ? Suppose, further, that we ourselves and our forefathers had cultivated the island and stocked it with everything needed for life and comfort, and that some one should arrive and claim it all as his. What \.\'Ouldwe say ? We'd ignore him, wouldn't we ? We might tell him. that he could share with us and join us in our work. But suppose that he insists on his ownership and that he produces a slip of paper and says that it proves that everything belongs to him ?' We'd tell him he's crazy and we'd go about our business. But if he should have a government back of him, he would appeal to it for the protection of " his rights," and the government would send police and soldiers who would evict us and put the " lawful owner in possession." That is the function of government; that is wha,t government" exists for and-what it is doing all the time. Now, do you still think that without this thing called government we should rob and murder each other ? Is it not rather true that w.i~h government we rob and murder ?' Because goyernment does not secure us in our rightful possessions, but on the contrary takes them away for the benefit of those who· have no right to them, as we have seen in previous chapters.* , . If you should wake up to-morrow morning and learn that there· •1s no government any more, would your first thought be to rush into lthe street and kill some one ? No, you know that is nonsense. We spea½ ?f sane, normal men. The insane man belongs to the care of phys1c1ans and alienists ; they should be placed in hospitals to be· treated for their malady. . The_chances are that if you or Johnson should awaken to find that there 1s no government, you would get busy arranging your lifeunder the new conditions. It is very likely, of course, that if you should then see people·· •·i.e. in Part I of Berkman's original book: see bibliogra,phical note. B!bhoteca G r6 Bianco 19
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