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Proposed Roads to Freedom by Bertrand Russell

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Proposed Roads to Freedom by Bertrand Russell Proposed Roads To Freedom by Bertrand Russell A Penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication Proposed Roads to Freedom by Bertrand Russell is a publication of the Pennsylvania State University. This Portable Document file is furnished free and without any charge of any kind. Any person using this document file, for any purpose, and in any way does so at his or her own risk. Neither the Pennsylvania State University nor Jim Manis, Faculty Editor, nor any- one associated with the Pennsylvania State University assumes any responsibility for the material contained within the document or for the file as an electronic transmission, in any way. Proposed Roads to Freedom by Bertrand Russell, the Pennsylvania State University, Electronic Classics Series, Jim Manis, Faculty Editor, Hazleton, PA 18202-1291 is a Portable Document File produced as part of an ongoing student publication project to bring classical works of literature, in English, to free and easy access of those wishing to make use of them. Cover Design: Jim Manis Copyright © 2002 The Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University is an equal opportunity university. Contents INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 SOCIALISM, ANARCHISM AND SYNDICALISM................................................................................................... 11 PART I HISTORICAL.................................................................................................................................................. 11 CHAPTER I MARX AND SOCIALIST DOCTRINE ................................................................................................. 11 CHAPTER II BAKUNIN AND ANARCHISM........................................................................................................... 29 CHAPTER III THE SYNDICALIST REVOLT............................................................................................................ 43 PART II PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE ................................................................................................................... 60 CHAPTER IV WORK AND PAY ................................................................................................................................ 60 CHAPTER V GOVERNMENT AND LAW ............................................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER VI INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ...................................................................................................... 92 CHAPTER VII SCIENCE AND ART UNDER SOCIALISM ................................................................................... 107 CHAPTER VIII THE WORLD AS IT COULD BE MADE ...................................................................................... 119 Proposed Roads to Freedom a man of force and vital energy—an urgent desire to lead men Proposed Roads to the realization of the good which inspires his creative vi- sion. It is this desire which has been the primary force mov- ing the pioneers of Socialism and Anarchism, as it moved the To Freedom inventors of ideal commonwealths in the past. In this there is by nothing new. What is new in Socialism and Anarchism, is Bertrand Russell that close relation of the ideal to the present sufferings of men, which has enabled powerful political movements to grow out of the hopes of solitary thinkers. It is this that makes INTRODUCTION Socialism and Anarchism important, and it is this that makes them dangerous to those who batten, consciously or uncon- HE ATTEMPT to conceive imaginatively a better or- sciously upon the evils of our present order of society. dering of human society than the destructive and The great majority of men and women, in ordinary times, cruel chaos in which mankind has hitherto existed T pass through life without ever contemplating or criticising, as is by no means modern: it is at least as old as Plato, whose a whole, either their own conditions or those of the world at “Republic” set the model for the Utopias of subsequent phi- large. They find themselves born into a certain place in soci- losophers. Whoever contemplates the world in the light of an ety, and they accept what each day brings forth, without any ideal—whether what he seeks be intellect, or art, or love, or effort of thought beyond what the immediate present requires. simple happiness, or all together—must feel a great sorrow in Almost as instinctively as the beasts of the field, they seek the the evils that men needlessly allow to continue, and—if he be satisfaction of the needs of the moment, without much fore- NOTE: The author’s footnotes appear in red and within thought, and without considering that by sufficient effort brackets within the text in this edition. – ed. 4 Bertrand Russell the whole conditions of their lives could be changed. A cer- among such classes any conscious, deliberate effort after gen- tain percentage, guided by personal ambition, make the ef- eral amelioration might have seemed a hopeless task, and in- fort of thought and will which is necessary to place them- deed in the past it has generally proved so. But the modern selves among the more fortunate members of the commu- world, by the increase of education and the rise in the stan- nity; but very few among these are seriously concerned to dard of comfort among wage-earners, has produced new con- secure for all the advantages which they seek for themselves. ditions, more favorable than ever before to the demand for It is only a few rare and exceptional men who have that kind radical reconstruction. It is above all the Socialists, and in a of love toward mankind at large that makes them unable to lesser degree the Anarchists (chiefly as the inspirers of Syndi- endure patiently the general mass of evil and suffering, re- calism), who have become the exponents of this demand. gardless of any relation it may have to their own lives. These What is perhaps most remarkable in regard to both Social- few, driven by sympathetic pain, will seek, first in thought ism and Anarchism is the association of a widespread popular and then in action, for some way of escape, some new system movement with ideals for a better world. The ideals have been of society by which life may become richer, more full of joy elaborated, in the first instance, by solitary writers of books, and less full of preventable evils than it is at present. But in and yet powerful sections of the wage-earning classes have the past such men have, as a rule, failed to interest the very accepted them as their guide in the practical affairs of the victims of the injustices which they wished to remedy. The world. In regard to Socialism this is evident; but in regard to more unfortunate sections of the population have been igno- Anarchism it is only true with some qualification. Anarchism rant, apathetic from excess of toil and weariness, timorous as such has never been a widespread creed, it is only in the through the imminent danger of immediate punishment by modified form of Syndicalism that it has achieved popular- the holders of power, and morally unreliable owing to the ity. Unlike Socialism and Anarchism, Syndicalism is prima- loss of self-respect resulting from their degradation. To create rily the outcome, not of an idea, but of an organization: the 5 Proposed Roads to Freedom fact of Trade Union organization came first, and the ideas of and to certain movements outside France which have some Syndicalism are those which seemed appropriate to this orga- affinity with Syndicalism—notably the I. W. W. in America nization in the opinion of the more advanced French Trade and Guild Socialism in England. From this historical survey Unions. But the ideas are, in the main, derived from Anar- we shall pass to the consideration of some of the more press- chism, and the men who gained acceptance for them were, ing problems of the future, and shall try to decide in what for the most part, Anarchists. Thus we may regard Syndical- respects the world would be happier if the aims of Socialists ism as the Anarchism of the market-place as opposed to the or Syndicalists were achieved. Anarchism of isolated individuals which had preserved a pre- My own opinion—which I may as well indicate at the out- carious life throughout the previous decades. Taking this view, set—is that pure Anarchism, though it should be the ulti- we find in Anarchist-Syndicalism the same combination of mate ideal, to which society should continually approximate, ideal and organization as we find in Socialist political parties. is for the present impossible, and would not survive more It is from this standpoint that our study of these movements than a year or two at most if it were adopted. On the other will be undertaken. hand, both Marxian Socialism and Syndicalism, in spite of Socialism and Anarchism, in their modern form, spring re- many drawbacks, seem to me calculated to give rise to a hap- spectively from two protagonists, Marx and Bakunin, who pier and better world than that in which we live. I do not, fought a lifelong battle, culminating in a split in the first In- however, regard either of them as the best practicable system. ternational. We shall begin our study with these two men— Marxian Socialism, I fear, would give far too much power to first their teaching, and then the organizations which they the State, while Syndicalism, which aims at abolishing the founded or inspired.
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