ENDS AND MEANS
government is a tyranny employing police espionage,
delation, legalized terrorismJand press censorship; that
the proper education for future freemen and peace-lovers
is that which was and is still being used by Prussian
militarists.
Our earth is round, and it is therefore possible to travel
from Paris to Rouen via Shanghai. Our history, on the
contrary, would seem to be flat. Those who wish to
reach a specific historical goal must advance directly
towards it; no amount of walking in the opposite direction
will bring them to their destination.
The goal of those who wish to change society for the
better is freedom, justice and peaceful co-operation between
non-attached, yet active and • responsible individuals. Is
there the smallest reason to suppose that such a goal can
be reached through police espionage, military slavery, the
centralization of power, the creation of an elaborate political
hierarchy, the suppression of free discussion and the
imposition of an authoritarian system of education?
Obviously and emphatically, the answer is No.
Marx believed that, after th§ revolution, the state would,
in due course, automatically wither away. This is a point
worth considering in some detail. In any given society,
as Marx himself pointed out, the state exists, among other
reasons, for the purpose of ensuring to the ruling class the
continuance of its privileges. Thus, in a feudal community
the state is the instrument by means of which the landed
nobility keeps itself in, power. Under capitalism, the state
is the instrument by means of which the bourgeoisie
retains its right to rule and to be rich. Similarly, under
a hierarchical system of state Socialism, the state is the
instrument by means' of which the ruling bureaucracy
defends the position to which it has climbed. The more
firmly you consolidate your hierarchy, the more tenaciously
will its members cling to their privileges. A highly
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