POSITIVITY OF ANARCHISM practical preoccupations. They are more contemplative and less affected by wm, which 1s conditioned by individual peculiarltles and purposes, however hldden or dlsguised. Ethics lndeed draws its substance from human wm, and human wlll 1s the object of the norms it prescrlbes. Though a rational construction, its material and driving force 1s pre-rational. Before being a rational construction, ethics 1s a factual reaUty, namely that of the operation of instincts globally known as social, whose active presence among animals other than man Darwin and Kropotkin slgnally underscored. Ethlcs ls thus a cocUfication and generallzation of man's sociabllity. More than that, lt ls the defence of thls soclab111tyagalnst other instincts, against any sophisticated and calculated will either to disrupt lt or to make lt one-slded. More than that, lt 1s ·the assertion that the human race is but one great society; it is an endeavo\\r to .Jmock down all the barrlers whlch Umlt the operatlon of social instincts and their cultural refinements to one particullar soclety, ·church, clrcle or class. Because social instincts and their refinements are such a fact of everyday llfe, ethics ls often brushed aside as unnecessarlly superlmposed. For the same reason all the posltiveness of anarchlsm 1s so obvlous and uncontroverslal that many have pains to understand why lt should be glven a special ·name and blown lnto a politlcal doctrine. In contrast wlth the lack of interest for the anarchist emphasls on social instincts and soclalness ln general, there 1s a wldespread dlffldence and downrtght host111tyto lts special message, which is the full extension of ethlcal rules and the removal of power structures. The dlffldence cornes, paradoxically enough, from a keen appreciation of those bene!lts of man's being a social animal which anarchists vindicate. Because those benefits are so precious, people feel they must be de!ended, and they firmly believe that the Btaie, govemment, and power in general, are there pre- . clsely to de!end them. or course, lt ls in the interest of people ln govemment and power to make sure that this belief 1s entertalned. Thàt 1s what State education 1s there for. But to be fair to the man in the street who mistrusts anarchlsm, it must be sald that there ls not a single mode!, either ln h1s persona! experlence or general knowledge, of what an anarchist society 1s. AU socleties he knows of are power-hamassed. Take power away, he feels, and all antisocial instincts will run amock. Take power away from one society and let no antisocial instincts run amock, that society wm be subjugated by a nelghbouring one that keeps its power. Take power away from one society,. 109
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