Thinking Men And Women The World Over

We Americans Claim To Be A Peace-loving People. We Hate Bloodshed; We Are Opposed To Violence. Yet We Go Into Spasms Of Joy Over The Possibility Of Projecting Dynamite Bombs From Flying Machines Upon Helpless Citizens. We Are Ready To Hang, Electrocute, Or Lynch Anyone, Who, From Economic Necessity, Will Risk His Own Life In The Attempt Upon That Of Some Industrial Magnate. Yet Our Hearts Swell With Pride At The Thought That America Is Becoming The Most Powerful Nation On Earth, And That She Will Eventually Plant Her Iron Foot On The Necks Of All Other Nations. Such Is The Logic Of Patriotism.

What I Prized Most Was Freedom, Freedom To Do My Work, To Give Myself Spontaneously And Not Out Of Duty Or By Command. I Could Not Submit To Such Demands; Rather Would I Choose The Path Of A Homeless Wanderer; Yes, Even Go Without Love.

In The True Sense One's Native Land, With Its Background Of Tradition, Early Impressions, Reminiscences And Other Things Dear To One, Is Not Enough To Make Sensitive Human Beings Feel At Home.

Anarchism Asserts The Possibility Of An Organization Without Discipline, Fear, Or Punishment, And Without The Pressure Of Poverty: A New Social Organism Which Will Make An End To The Terrible Struggle For The Means Of Existence, --the Savage Struggle Which Undermines The Finest Qualities In Man, And Ever Widens The Social Abyss. In Short, Anarchism Strives Towards A Social Organization Which Will Establish Well-being For All.

The Individual Is The True Reality Of Life. A Cosmos In Himself, He Does Not Exist For The State, Nor For That Abstraction Called "society," Or The "nation," Which Is Only A Collection Of Individuals.