\ \ I of the· State ·was the monl!,rchjcalor aristocratic State of the 17th or 18w c~~tury, i~ ~ccondary stage was the capitalist 'liberal' state of tbe 19.thcenµizy, and its tertiary and fatal stage is the total State of the2oth century. The way in which .the power of the State has extended since· Kropotkin's day can be seen by a reference to the condition of the various peoples, such as Malays, Kabyles, etc., whom he mentions as. living in a manner based on the principles of mutual aid and opposite. to the life .of the great States of his day. These statements are· obsolete, but this very fact is a proof of his contentions, for the·. Malays, the l&byles, etc. no longer live this independent life becausethe spread of the various great European states has brought these: peoples more and more under the domination of colonial imperialism. and has in this way destroyed their independent communal ways of living. The new states spread their tentacles over the whole face of the earth, bringing within the orbits of their centralised power all races and kim;lsand spreading their oppression and interference with. person;1Iliberties into the remotest comers of the earth . . Where, however, Burnham and many others of his kind differ from Kropotkin and the anarchists is in their pessimistic acceptanceof the inevitability of the triumph of the State in its extreme form. The determinism that dominates their idea is, indeed, hardly tenableon any grounds of logic or social experience. Nothing is inevitable: in s_ociety,either managerial revolution or social revolution. Onlyt~dencies can be described, and the tendency towards the social. revolution is just as much alive to-day, if less apparent, as that towards. the final consummation of the State. The State may have gained control of all the power centres of society through the operation of the managers and the bureaucrats. But the real control rests, at the last resort, in the hands of the: workers who carry on industry, transport and other social functions. Without the co-operation of a section of the workers and the tacit. acquiescence of the majority, no industrial society can continue in its. existing form. If and when the workers become aware of this fact and 'decide to take their destiny into their own hands, without trusting: to leaders, then the total State will vanish just as the liberal State· and the old-style capitalism are vanishing to-day. The consolidation. of the State and the social death that will follow thereon will never be completed if the workers once become aware of their power and! kill the State by the paralysis of direct economic action, to which it will be more vulnerable than any society before. The struggle against the state is the great task of mankind to-day. A great controversy between the socialists and the anarchists in the past centred round the fact that the socialists declared capitalism to be the chief enemy of the workers whereas the anarchists declared 7· Biblioteca Gino Bianco
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