Page:Petr Kropotkin - Organised Vengeance Called 'Justice', Henry Glasse - The Superstition of Government (1902).djvu/13

Rh it was their policy to leave the principles of Government and Authority unchallenged, and to insist only upon the transfer of power to themselves, together with the privileges and perquisites of power, whilst promising the people as its share of the advantage gained some alleviation of its servitude, generally, in practice.

When, therefore, the Anarchist proposes the abolition of Government and the rejection of Authority, and claims that the affairs of society shall he arranged by mutual understanding of the people themselves, instead of being imposed on them by some external force, he finds that the minds of those he addresses never having been used to contemplate such a possibility, the suggestion bewilders them, and no clear corresponding idea is awakened. This is shown by the question almost invariably asked by those who for the first time hear of Anarchism: "How, then, will you regulate this, that, or the other, for us?" not grasping the fact that Anarchism (or Libertarianism, if you prefer the word) repudiates regulation and leaves the persons concerned to manage each matter for themselves by mutual agreement, compromise, or concession.

Moreover, so accustomed are people to regard those who propose political changes as candidates for political power, that when they hear that Anarchist propagandists do not desire power or place, and reject authority for themselves as well as for others, they are puzzled to conceive the motive which actuates them, used as they themselves have always been to regard the desire for personal advancement as inseparable from the role of an agitator; hence a suspicion is apt to affect them that there must be something hidden, something kept back in such an unusual proceeding as that of an individual championing an unpopular and persecuted cause and, at the same time, disclaiming any special personal advantage as his proposed reward.

There is, it seems to me, no other way of combating this prejudice—for prejudice, I think, it has been shown to be—than by patient reiteration of our principles and repeated