Page:Enrico Malatesta - Anarchy - James F. Morton - Is It All a Dream (1900).pdf/48

 46 be reckoned with j but it is not an insurmountable barrier to the accomplishment of great social changes. What can be conceived by man, can be effected by him. The only question is whether the result is worth the effort.

The conception of full human liberty is by far the grandest social generalization that has ever entered into the mind of man. It is in full harmony with the trend of history and the conclusions of science. It does not, as is often superficially objected, presuppose a superhuman race of beings, but appeals to the fundamental traits of average human nature. It demands no exalted self-sacrifice from individuals, but appeals to motives of intelligent self-interest. When we talk of brotherhood, we do not appeal to a mawkish sentimeuta1ity~ We merely state a fact in, nature, on the recognition of which social ~arinotiy and the happiness of the individual alike depend.

To the thoughtful student (If life, it becomes increasingly evident that the method of living, by which alone the common aim of happiness can be attained, is through the fullest development of all the faculties. Man is a complex being, with multifarious wants and desires. No cut and dried system cart fully satisfy his present needs, and leave ample margin for the constant shifting of conditions inseparable from growth. Flexibility, above all, is an imperative necessity in the more advanced stages of social association. With the disappearance of authority, and the setting free of natural resources, all monopoly must vanish, and with it the power of a few to hold the many in economic subjection. Rent, profit, interest, taxes, and all other forms of veiled robbery, cannot, co-exist with equality of opportunity. A free people, meeting on equal terms, is capable of making whatever economic arrangments best subserve the interests of the individuals concerned, and of readjusting these arrangements as often as may be required, with the least possible friction. No elaborate machinery, no continual dependence on a stupid majority, no waiting for the often unsatisfactory decisions of a "Central Committee," no cringing to political bosses, no party organization, no authorization by officials or legislative assemblies, will any longer be necessary. Individual initiative