Page:Leo Tolstoy - The Russian Revolution (1907).djvu/43

 26 and Revolutionary violence, begin (in the persons of their worst representatives) to take part in the violence, and seem to be preparing to follow the road to destruction along which the Western nations have travelled.

Why is this so?

What has caused, and still causes, this surprising phenomenon that people suffering from the abuse of power which they themselves tolerate and support, do not free themselves in the most simple and easy way from all the disasters brought about by power; that is to say, do not simply cease obeying it? And not only do not act thus, but go on doing the very things that deprive them of physical and mental well-being; that is to say, either continue to obey the existing power, or establish another similar force-using power, and obey that?

Why is this so? People feel that their unhappy position is the result of violence, and are dimly aware that to get rid of their misery they need freedom; but, strange to say, to get rid of violence and gain freedom, they seek, invent and use all sorts of measures; mutiny, change of rulers, alterations of Government all kinds of Constitutions, new arrangements between different States, Colonial policies, enrolment of the unemployed, trusts, social organisations—everything but the one thing that would most simply, easily, and surely free them from all their distresses; the refusal to submit to power.

One might think that it must be quite clear to people not deprived of reason, that violence breeds violence; that the only means of deliverance from violence lies in not taking part in it. This method, one would think, is quite obvious. It is evident that a great majority of men can be enslaved by a small minority only if the enslaved themselves take part in their own enslavement.