The Kingdom of God is Within You

sical Violence-To be Able to Perform its Acts of Violence Authority Needs a Special Organization-The Army-Authority, that is, Violence, is the Principle which is Destroying the Social Conception of Li

vice-Universal Compulsory Service Destroys all the Advantages of Social Life, which Government is Intended to Preserve-Compulsory Service is the Furthest Limit of Submission, since in Name of the State it Requires Sacrifice of all that can be Preci

. But life, which goes on growing more complex, and developing in the same direction, and increases the inconsistencies and the sufferings

ulting increase of taxes and national debts, are a passing phenomenon, produced by the particular political situation of

onsistency inherent in the social conception of life, carried to its furthest lim

e transfer of the aim of life from the individual to groups

it has been, and still is, in fact, in certain groups, the distinction being that they are the most primitive forms of association in the family or tribe or race, or even in the patriarchal state. Through t

ve to attain their own aims at the public expense, and the more often it becomes necessary to restrain these insubordinate individuals by recourse to authority, that is, to violence. The

e in which the word is ordinarily understood, is a means of forcing a man to act in opposition to his desires. The man who submits to authority does not do as he chooses but as he is obliged by authority. Nothing can oblige a man to do

e is to have hands, ears, nose, or head cut off, or at the very least, the threat of these terrors. So it was under Nero and Ghenghis Khan, and so it is to-day, even under the most liberal government in the Republics of the United States or of France. If men submit to authority, it is only be

bands of armed men, submissive to a single will, are what constitute the army. The army has always been and still is the basis of power. Power is always in the hands of those who control the army, and all men i

the maintenance of authority, is what has introduced into the

ce lie in the restraint of those who aim at attaining their p

ety. On the contrary, having the power to do so at their disposal, they are more disposed than others to subordinate the public interests to their own. Whatever means men have devised for preven

e methods attains the aim either of intrusting power only to the incorruptible, or of preventing power from being abused. Everyone knows on the contrary that men in authority-be they emperors, ministers, governors, or police of

oon as there were individuals who would not voluntarily sacrifice their own interests, and authority, that is, violence, was needed to restrain them, t

ought only to be put into the hands of the impeccable, as it is supposed to be among the Chinese, and as it was supposed to be in the Middle Ages, and i

lways far from being saints, through the very fact of their possession

advantage, because the violence of government was less than the violence of individuals, one cannot but see that this advantage could not be lasting. As the disposition of indi

y of this gradual change of relation between the moral development of the

y, is how it ha

rge and on a small scale: man against man, family against family, tribe against tribe, race against race, and people against people. The larger and stronger groups c

ribes do not die like one man, but have a continuity of existence. Between the members of one state, subject to a

the benefits of such associations, as it is said to be in the story of the Varyagi. It was produc

rnal feud crushed by authority reappears in authority itself, which falls into the hands of men who, like the rest, are frequently or always ready to sacrifice the public welfare to their personal interest, with the difference that their subjects cannot resist them, and thus they are exposed to all the demoralizing influence of authority.

duces into the life of men fresh forms of violence, which tend to become grea

yed by members of society against one another, because it finds expression in submission, a

even the unconscious tendency of those in power will always be to reduce their subjects to the extre

it cannot go without killing the goose with the golden eggs. And if the goose lays no more eggs, like the Am

ition of the working classes of our epoch, who are in reality

day are kept down by the inflexible iron law by which they only get just what is barely necessary, so that they are forced to work witho

increasing strength of authority its advantages for

s and violence takes a cruder form; under constitutional monarchies and republics as in France and America authority is divided among a great number of oppressors and the forms assumed by violence is less crude, but its

simplicity that governments exist for their benefit; that they would be lost without a government; that the very idea of living without a government is a blasphemy wh

proof, that since all nations have hitherto developed in the form of states, that

governments-those who happened to be in power-have tried it, and are no

us effects of state violence is more and more penetrating into men's consciousness, things might have gone on in the same wa

tate from other states, in oblivion of the fact that armies are necessary, before all

ed communication between people of the same and of different nationalities. It has become particularly indispensable now in the face of communism,

assiduously conceals from the people. The reason to which he gave expression is essentially the same as that which made the French kings and the popes engage Swiss and Scotch guards, and makes the Russian authorities of to-day so carefully distribute the recruits, so that the regiments from the fro

nize it, that is, that the existing order of life is as it is, not, as would be natural and right, because the people wis

wealth produced by the labor of the working classes is not regarded as the property of all, but as the property of a few exceptional persons; if labor is taxed by authority and the taxes spent by a few on what they think fit; if strikes on the part of laborers are repressed, while on the part of capitalists they are encouraged; if certain persons appropriate the right of choosing the form of the educati

know that it is so at the first attempt at insubor

the present order, which, far from being the result of the people's needs, is often in

to be able to enjoy the fruits of their l

nt and carry off the fruits of the toil of its enslaved subjects. And so every government needs an army also to protect its booty from its neighbor brigands. Every government

efense against its subjects, becomes a source of danger for nei

ough the menace of danger from neighboring states, but principally through

o keep up a position with other states. One is the result of the other. The despotism of a government always increases with th

t means the greatest possible number of soldiers is obtained at the least possible expense. Germany first hit on this device. And directly one state adopted it the other

ce of the social conception of life consists in man's recognition of the barbarity of strife between individuals, and the transitoriness of personal life itself, and the transference of the aim of life to groups of persons. But with universal military service it comes to pass that men, after making every sacrifice to get rid of the

ce. But instead of doing that they expose the individuals to the same necessity of strife, substituting strife with individuals of ot

house who so surrounds it and fills it with props and buttresses and planks and scaffold

destroys all the benefits of the social ord

perty and labor and associated action for the improvement

parations absorb the greater part of the pro

ys the possibility of labor itself. The danger of war, ever ready

and that therefore it would be to his advantage to put up with some hardships to secure himself from these calamities, he might well believe it, seeing that the sacrifices he made to the state were only partial and gave him the hope

ot only apparent in that. The greatest manifestation of this contradiction consists in the fact that every citizen in being made a soldier becomes

needed principally against their subjects, and every man, under universal military service, becomes an ac

stributions of land, all the restrictions on labor-are either carried out directly by the military or by the police with the army at their back. Anyone who serves his time in the army shares the responsibility of all these things, about which he is, in some cases, dubious, while very often they are directly opposed to his conscience. People are unwilling to be turned out of the land they have cultivated for generations, or they are unwilling to

state organization, and it is the extreme limit to which submission on the part of the sub

ate to make these sacrifices, to renounce everything that can be precious to man-peace, family, security, and human dignity." What is this state, for whose sake such terrible sacrifices have to be made? And why is it so indispensably necessary? "The state," they tell us, "is indispensably needed, in the first place, because without it we should not be p

should be exposed to the attacks of ev

existence undisturbed. So that nowadays there are no special malefactors from whom the state could defend us. If by these evil-disposed persons is meant the men who are punished as criminals, we know very well that they are not a different kind of being like wild beasts among sheep, but are men just like ourselves, and no more naturally inclined to crimes than those against whom they commit them. We know now that threats and punishments cannot diminish their number; that that can only be done by change of environment and moral influence. S

of communication, and so on. Without the state men would not have been able to form the social i

omics, or education without the state as a center, this want of common action exists no longer. The great extension of means of communication and interchange of ideas has made men completely able to dispense with

torture, and of slavery, as well as with the establishment of the liberty of the press and the right of public meeting. In our day governments not only fail to encourage, but directly hinder every movement

rofess the same principles of liberty and fraternity, and therefore stand in no need of protection against one another. And if defense against barbarous nations is meant, one-thousandth part of the troops now under arms would be amply sufficient for that purpose. We see that it is really the very opposite of what we have been told. The power of the state, far from being a security against t

Even looking at it practically, weighing, that is to say, all the burdens laid on him by the state, no man can fail to see that for him pers

rocess practiced upon them. In submitting they simply yield to the suggestions given them as orders, without thought or effort of will. To resist would need independent thought and effort of

disadvantages of non-compliance will consist in my being brought to judgment for refusing to perform my duties to the state, and if I am lucky, being acquitted or, as is done in the case of the Mennonites in Russia, being set to work out my military service at some civil occu

than my own from corporal to field-marshal, shall be put through any bodily contortions at their pleasure, and after being kept from one to five years I shall have for ten years afterward to be in readiness to undertake all of it again at any minute. If I am unlucky I may, in addition, be sent to war, where I shall be forced to kill men of foreign nations who have done me no harm

s of compliance and non-c

uired of him, he may, if he escapes being killed, get a decoration of red or gold tinsel to stick on his clown's dress; he may, if he is v

ignity as a man, gaining the approbation of good men, and above all knowing th

s the advantages and disadvantages will be the same, but with a great increase of disadvantages. The disadvantages for the poor man who submits will be

ompliance or non-compliance with state demands, will decide the question of the continued existence or the abolition of government. This question will be finally decided beyond appeal by the