Moribund Society and Anarchy · Chapter
XI: “The Country” explained
This chapter deconstructs the concept of 'the country' as a bourgeois construct used to maintain authority and exploit workers.
What happens
This chapter deconstructs the concept of 'the country' as a bourgeois construct used to maintain authority and exploit workers. It argues that patriotism and national borders serve only the interests of the ruling class, while workers have no stake in wars fought for capitalist profit. The text calls for international solidarity among workers against their true enemies: authority and capital.
Themes in this chapter
Militarism and the State
The chapter argues that the military caste and standing armies are tools for preserving bourgeois authority, and that wars are fought for capitalist profit.
Critique of Private Property
The text asserts that wars are enterprises for the profit of exploiters, and that the bourgeoisie uses patriotism to protect their property and privileges.
Individualism and Solidarity
The chapter calls for workers to unite across borders against authority and capital, emphasizing international brotherhood over national divisions.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
Presents the anarchist critique of patriotism and war, arguing that workers should not fight for bourgeois interests.
- The Workman
Implied as the worker who is exploited and sent to war, with no real stake in national conflicts.
- Their Masters
Identified as the bourgeoisie and ruling class who benefit from war and patriotism.
- The Anarchists
Referenced as those who logically oppose participation in war, as wars serve only exploiters.
- Anarchy
Mentioned in the context of not prescribing conduct for Anarchists in war, but treating the question logically.
Key passages
“Our enemy is the master , no matter to what nationality he belongs!”
The true enemy of the worker is the ruling class, regardless of their nationality.
Highlights the core anarchist principle of class solidarity over national loyalty.
“There is no 'country' for the man truly worthy of the name; or at least there is but one—that in which he struggles for true right, in which he lives and has his affections; but it may extend over the whole earth!”
A person of integrity recognizes no artificial nation; their only country is the global struggle for justice and human connection.
Emphasizes the rejection of national borders in favor of universal brotherhood.
“Instead of going on cutting each other’s throats, as they have done up to the present, they ought to stretch out their hands across the frontiers and unite all their efforts in making war upon their real, their only, enemies: authority and capital.”
Workers should stop fighting each other in national wars and instead join forces against their common oppressors: authority and capital.
Calls for international working-class unity against the ruling class.