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Reform orators and politicians, who hope to gain control through appeals to the down-trodden, find great opportunity to exercise their powers and further their schemes by playing upon this phrase; but clear thinking people know full well that popular government, like all other forms of government, is the relentless foe of liberty and must cease to exist before we can be free to live up to our highest ideal.
Political Action.
Many well meaning and conscientious people hope for relief from the present conditions through political action.
Is there any ground for such hope? Have we any reason to believe that relief can be obtained by such methods?
The old man described in the "Old Curiosity Shop" always lost at cards, but always thought that he would win next time. Reformers have constantly failed of their purpose through political action, but still continue to believe that they will succeed "next time." The case is analogous. The old man could not win, for he knew not the tricks of the card shark. Neither can the reformer accomplish his purpose, for he is unacquainted with the tricks of the politician. Should he become aware of the futility of political action without adopting the methods of the politician, he will either quit trying to accomplish anything through politics, or sink to the level of the schemer and corruptionist, thus disqualifying anything of a reformatory character.
The revolutionist may think: "Capture the government and hold the infernal machine still until the people take possession of the earth," as G. C. Clemens puts it. But can a revolutionist with courage enough to "hold the infernal machine still" be elected? If the people are revolutionary enough to elect a full set of revolutionary officers they are unquestionably revolutionary enough to take possession without running the risk of electing some men who can be bought, bribed, cajoled or scared into acting as other officers do.
Governments, since their earliest inception, have always been the protectors of the privileged classes and the oppressors of the wealth-producers. Never, in all the history of the world, can an instance be pointed out of government being anything else than organized force, bent upon plundering the useful people in the name of tribute, tithes and taxes. Government is organized tyranny, systemized, so as to make its power the more potent, and its designs more irresistible. Many guileless individuals, seeing the tremendous power of government, think to turn this power into production rather than to destruction; into blessing rather than harm, forgetting, that its very organization makes such things impossible. As well might they try to gather oranges from the cactus or try to induce the hyena to lead a useful and sociable life.
Wendell Phillipps tells us: "Government commenced in usurpation and oppression; liberty and civilization, at present, are nothing else than the fragments of rights which the scaffold and stake have wrung from the strong hands of the usurpers. Every step in progress the world has made has been from scaffold to scaffold and from stake to stake. It would hardly be exaggeration to say that all the great truths relating to society and government have first been heard in the solemn protest of murdered patriotism, or the loud cries of crushed and starving labor. The law has always been wrong. Government began in tyranny and force, began in the feudalism of the soldier and bigotry of priest; and the ideas of justice and humanity have been fighting their way like a thunderstorm against the organized selfishness of human nature. It is no argument to my mind, therefore, that the old social fabric of the past is against us."
This statement is unquestionably correct. That being the case, what hope can any candid thinker have of gaining better conditions through political action?
