POSITIVITY OF ANABCHISM not allowlng to themselves what they reprehend ln others, and by rejecting as a matter ot principle and practlce any appllcatlon ot double standards, anarchtsts vividly lllustrate and contlrm that law ot reciprocity which is the touchstone ot anything ethical. Anarchtsm and êthics colnctde. The negativity ot anarchism in tact is but the negatlvlty ot ethics. Ethics consists ot a string ot don't-s, such as «do not k1ll, do not steal, do not cheat, do not use a man as a tool or a woman as an objecb, and summing them all up: «do not do unto others what you would not want to be done unto you, do not do a.pything unto others which they do not consent to,. All ethtcal' commands have to be negative because they need to be unlversally valid, somethlng whlch positive commands cannot be, J1owever morally and otherwise pralseworthy. To every command there corresponds a rlght. But while I ma.y clalm lt a rlght for myselt not to be knocked on the head lt I consider lt my duty not to knock anybody's head elther, I cannot clalm thé rlght to be ted, to besheltered or to be medlcally attended when I am 111,not only because there mlght be nothlng to -tee:çl, shelter or cure me with, but also because, except perhaps tor my parents, there ls nobody in particular on whom such duties would incumb, the same as the duty cannot beincumbent upon me partlcularly to provide for all the starving, the homeless and the sick of the world. A duty which does not tan equally on everybody and each one ln particular is not an ethical--duty. «Do unto others as you would wlsh it to done unto you, is not an ethlcal commandment because people have dltterent tastes and standards, and may not llke it at all to have things done to them. which I would flnd delectable if done to me. Though cons1st1ng of proh1b1t1ons, ethics 1s far from being negatlve, elther in its motive or its effects. He alone finds it negative who moves against it. The word «ethicab 1s a ~1tlve one, whlle lts opposite, «unethicab, ls not, and ls invarlably connotated with disapproval. Because of thelr coincldence and compact, lt ethlcs 1s positive, so ls anarchlsm. The llfe of an organism depends on a very strict prohibition for each cell to develop dlsregarding or at the expense ot others. · Let this prohibition not be rlgorously observed, and the lite of the organism 1s lmpalred, and flnany brought to an end. Life 1s the epitome and condition of ail that 1s positive, and so each cell's refralnlng from doing harm to others ls positive, too. The prohibitions of ethics .are or a sirnilar nature and have analogous effects. They not only ensure the Ufe and health of 107
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