And it is just this fraud, by means of which a small number of unworthy people, called the government, have power over the people, and not only impoverish them, but do what is the most harmful of all actions-pervert whole generations from childhood upwards-just this terrible fraud which should be exposed, in order that the abolition of government and of the slavery that results from it may become possible.
The German writer Eugen Schmitt, in the newspaper Ohne Staat, that he published in Buda-Pesth, wrote an article that was profoundly true and bold, not only in expression, but in thought.In it he showed that governments, justifying their existence on the ground that they ensure a certain kind of safety to their subjects, are like the Calabrian robber-chief who collected a regular tax from all who wished to travel in safety along the highways.
Schmitt was committed for trial for that article, but was acquitted by the jury.
We are so hypnotised by the governments that such a comparison seems to us an exaggeration, a paradox, or a joke; but in reality it is not a paradox or a joke; the only inaccuracy in the comparison is that the activity of all the governments is many times more inhuman and, above all, more harmful than the activity of the Calabrian robber.
The robber generally plundered the rich, the governments generally plunder the poor and protect those rich who assist in their crimes.
The robber doing his work risked his life, while the governments risk nothing, but base their whole activity on lies and deception.The robber did not compel any one to join his band, the governments generally enrol their soldiers by force.All who paid the tax to the robber had equal security from danger.But in the state, the more any one takes part in the organised fraud the more he receives not merely of protection, but also of reward.Most of all, the emperors, kings and presidents are protected (with their perpetual body-guards), and they can spend the largest share of the money collected from the taxpaying subjects; next in the scale of participation in the governmental crimes come the commanders~in~chief, the ministers, the heads of police, governors, and so on, down to the policemen, who are least protected, and who receive the smallest salaries of all.
Those who do not take any part in the crimes of government, who refuse to serve, to pay taxes, or to go to law, are subjected to violence; as among the robbers.The robber does not intentionally vitiate people, but the governments, to accomplish their ends, vitiate whole generations from childhood to manhood with false religions and patriotic instruction.
Above all, not even the most cruel robber, no Stenka Razin* or Cartouche** can be compared for cruelty, pitilessness and ingenuity in torturing, I will not say with the villain kings notorious for tlleir cruelty-John the Terrible, Louis XI., the Elizabeths, etc.-but even with the present constitutional and liberal governments, with their solitary cells, disciplinary battalions, suppressions of revolts, and their massacres in war.
Towards governments, as towards churches, it is impossible to feel otherwise than with veneration or aversion.Until a man has understood what a government is and until he has understood what a church is he cannot but feel veneration towards those institutions.As long as he is guided by them his vanity makes it necessary for him to think that what guides him is something primal, great and holy; but as soon as he understands that what guides him is not something primal and holy, but that it is a fraud carried out by unworthy people, who, under the pretence of guiding him, make use of him for their own personal ends, he cannot but at once feel aversion towards these people, and the more important the side of his life that has been guided the more aversion will he feel.
People cannot but feel this when they have understood what governments are.
People must feel that their participation in the criminal activity of governments, whether by giving part of their work in the form of money, or by direct participation in military service, is not, as is generally supposed, an indifferent action, but, besides being harmful to one's s~f and to one's brothers, is a participation in the crimes unceasingly committed by all governments and a preparation for new crimes, which governments are always preparing by maintaining disciplined armies.
The age of veneration for governments, notwithstanding all the hypnotic influence they employ to maintain their position, is more and more passing away.And it is time for people to understand that governments not only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions, in which a self-respecting, honest man cannot and must not take part, and the advantages of which he cannot and should not enjoy.
And as soon as people clearly understand that, they will naturally cease to take part in such deeds-that is, cease to give the governments soldiers and money.And as soon as a majority of people ceases to do this the fraud which enslaves people will be abolished.Only in this way can people be freed from slavery.* The Cossack leader of a formidable insyirrection in the latter half of the seventeenth century.-Trans.
** The chief of a Paris band of robbers in the early years of the eighteenth century.-Trans.The Slavery of Our Times -- Ch 15 -- Leo TolstoyFrom The Slavery of Our Times by Leo Tolstoy
