WILL COMMUNIST ANARCHISM_ WORK? The authority of the past and of the present dictates not only our oehaviour but dominates our very minds and ~~ls, ani;l.iscontinually at work to stifle every symptom of nonconformity, of independent attitude and unorthodox opinion. The whol{weight of social condemnation comes down upon the head. of the: man or woman who dares defy conveptional codes.. Rutq]ess ~~ngean.ce is wreaked upon the protestant who refuses to follow the beaten track, or upon the heretic who disbelieves in the accepted formulas. In science and art in literature, poetry, and painting this spirit compels adaptation and adjustment! res~lting in imitation_ of the established ~nd approved, in uniformity and sameness, m stereotyped expression. But more terrible still is punished nonconformity in actual life, in our every-day relationships and behaviour. The painter and writer may occasionally be forgiven for defiance of custom and precedence, because, after all, their rebellion is limited to paper or canvas : it affects only a comparatively small circle. They may be disregarded or labelled cranks who can do little harm, but not so with the man of action who carries his challenge of accepted standards into social life. Not harmless he. He is dangerous by che power of example, by his very presence. His infraction of social r.anons can be neither ignored nor forgiven. He will be denounced ,is an enemy- of society. It is for this reason that revolutionary feeling or thought expressed in exotic poetry or marked in high-brow philosophic dissertations may be condone~ may pass the official and unofficial censor, because it is neither accessible to nor understood by the public at large. But give voice to the same dissenting attitude in a popular manner, and immediately you will face the frothing denunciation of l.tllthe forces that stand for the preservation of the established. · More vicious and deadening is compulsory compliance than the most virulent poison. Throughout the ages it has been the greatest {mpediment to man's advance, hedging him in with a thousand prohibi!ions. and taboos, weighting his mind and heart down with outlived canons and codes, thwarting his will with imperatives of thoug~t and feeling, with . " thou shalt" and " thou shalt not" ot behaviour and action. Life, the art of living, has become a dull formula, flat and inert. Yet so strong is the innate diversity of man's nature that centurie~ of_t!1is ~tultification have not succeeded in entirely eradicating his ?'1gmahty and uniqueness. True, the great majority have fallen mto ruts so deepened by countless feet that they cannot get back to the broad spaces. But some do break away from the beaten track and find the open road where new vistas of beauty and inspiration Bibhoteca G ro B1a'lco 37
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