A.B.C. OF ANARCHISM Independence, for instance, began with popular resentment in the Colonies against the injustice of taxation without representation. The Crusades continued for two hundred years in an effort to secure the Holy Land for the Christians. This religious ideal inspired six millions of men, even armies of children, to fare untold hardships, pestilence, and death in the name of right and justice. Even the late World War, capitalistic as it was in cause and result, was fought by millions of men in the fond belief that it was being waged for a just cause, for democracy and the termination of all wars. So all through history, past and modern, the sense of right and justice has inspired man, individually and collectively, to deeds of self-sacrifice and devotion, and raised him far above the mean drabness of his every-day existence. It is tragic, of course, that this idealism expressed itself in acts of persecution, violence, and slaughter. It was the viciousness and self-seeking of king, priest, and master., ignorance and fanaticism which determined those forms. But the spirit that filled them was that of right and justice. All past experience proves that tnis spirit is ever alive and that .it is a powerful and dominant factor in the whole scale of human life. - The conditions of our present-day existence weaken and vitiate this noblest trait of man, pervert its manifestation, and turn it into channels of intolerance, persecution, hatred, and strife. But once man is freed from the. corrupting influences of material interests, lifted out of ignorance and class antagonism, his innate ,spirit of right and justice would find new forms of expression, forms that would tend toward greater brotherhood and goodwill, toward individual peace and social harmony. Only under Anarchy could this spirit come into its full development. Liberated from the degrading and brutalizing struggle for our daily bread, all sharing in 'Jabour and well-being, the best qualities of man's heart and mind would have opportunity for growth and beneficial application. Man would indeed become the noble work of nature that he has till now visioned himself only in his dreams. It is for these reasons that Anarchy is the ideal not only of some particul.ar element or class, but of all humanity, because it would benefit, in the larger sense, all of us. For Anarchism is the formulation of a universal and perennial desire of mankind. Every man and woman, therefore, shou!d be vitally interested in helping to bring Anarchy about. They would surely do so if they but understood the beauty and justice of such a new life. Every human being who is not devoid of feeling and common sense is inclined to Anarchism. Every one who suffers from wrong and 26 B1blloteca Gino Bianco
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