Moribund Society and Anarchy · Chapter
XX: The Experimental Method explained
The chapter defends anarchism as a scientific, experimental method applied to social hygiene, arguing that present society's evils stem from authority and property, and that piecemeal reforms are futile because they leave the root causes in
What happens
The chapter defends anarchism as a scientific, experimental method applied to social hygiene, arguing that present society's evils stem from authority and property, and that piecemeal reforms are futile because they leave the root causes intact. It counters objections that anarchism is untested by asserting that all new ideas require experimentation, and that the fear of revolution sacrificing progress is hypocritical when the masses suffer now. The author calls for direct action to destroy the causes of exploitation rather than palliating symptoms.
Themes in this chapter
Critique of Private Property
Property is identified as one of the two motors (with authority) that grind the masses; reforms that leave property intact are futile.
Negation of Authority
Authority is named as the other root cause of social disease; the chapter argues that any system based on authority necessarily produces evil effects.
Critique of Reformism
Reformers are dismissed as empiricists who treat symptoms while leaving causes intact; the chapter contrasts their approach with the anarchist 'experimental method'.
Human Nature and Society
The chapter refutes the objection that man's evil nature would lead to chaos under anarchy, arguing that such tendencies are products of the current social organization.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
Presents the anarchist argument as a scientific experimental method, contrasting it with reformist empiricism.
- The Anarchists
Portrayed as social hygienists who diagnose the causes of societal disease and prescribe the destruction of authority and property.
- Their Masters
Referenced as the class that exploits new inventions and reforms for its own benefit, worsening the condition of the workers.
- Anarchy
Presented as the ideal society that is possible if individuals choose to live freely, and as the goal of the anarchist method.
Key passages
“The evils from which you suffer flow from the vicious organization of society, authority and property are the motors of all this enginery which is crushing you; in vain will you change the wheels, replace them, alter them—their function is to grind you in their whirling teeth; you will be ground as long as you do not destroy them together with the principles whence they derive their strength, authority and property.”
Your suffering comes from society's flawed structure; authority and property are the mechanisms that crush you. Tinkering with reforms won't help—you must destroy those principles entirely.
Central anarchist diagnosis: root causes are authority and property, not surface issues.
“If you do not want progress to be stranded, or the marvels of science to disappear, stop opposing the claims of the disinherited; instead of...”
If you care about preserving progress and science, stop blocking the demands of the dispossessed.
Challenge to conservatives who fear revolution will set back civilization.
“We want to be free: so much the worse for the slaves who, trembling at the idea of losing their chains, rally around their masters; we need not listen to their lamentations, for after all they will be with us when we have become the stronger.”
We seek freedom; those who cling to their chains and side with their masters will eventually join us once we gain strength.
Dismisses the objection that people are not ready for anarchy, asserting that the liberated will lead.