Asne Seierstad
Norwegian journalist and author
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
Benjamin Ricketson Tuckerwas an American individualist anarchist and self-identified socialist. Tucker was the editor and publisher of the American individualist anarchist periodical Liberty (1881-1908).
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Benjamin Ricketson Tuckerwas an American individualist anarchist and self-identified socialist. Tucker was the editor and publisher of the American individualist anarchist periodical Liberty (1881-1908). Tucker described his form of anarchism as “consistent Manchesterism” and “unterrified Jeffersonianism”.
Tucker looked upon anarchism as a part of the broader socialist movement. Tucker harshly opposed state socialism and was a supporter of free-market socialism and libertarian socialism which he termed anarchist or anarchistic socialism. He connected the classical economics of Adam Smith and the Ricardian socialists as well as that of Josiah Warren, Karl Marx and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon to socialism. Some modern commentators have described Tucker as an anarcho-capitalist, although this has been disputed by others. During his lifetime, Tucker opposed capitalism and considered himself a socialist due to his belief in the labor theory of value and disputed many of the dictionary definitions of the term which he believed were inaccurate.
And capital punishment, however ineffective it may be and through whatever ignorance it may be resorted to, is a strictly defensive act, – at least in theory.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
I insist that there is nothing sacred in the life of an invader, and there is no valid principle of human society that forbids the invaded to protect themselves in whatever way they can.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
In the matter of the maintenance and rearing of children the Anarchists would neither institute the communistic nursery which the State Socialists favor nor keep the communistic school system which now prevails.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
Marx, as we have seen, solved it by declaring capital to be a different thing from product, and maintaining that it belonged to society and should be seized by society and employed for the benefit of all alike.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
The cost of justice can be justly paid only by the invader.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
The right of such control is already admitted by the State Socialists, though they maintain that, as a matter of fact, the individual would be allowed a much larger liberty than he now enjoys.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
But which is the State’s essential function, aggression or defence, few seem to know or care.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
For, just as it has been said that there is no half-way house between Rome and Reason, so it may be said that there is no half-way house between State Socialism and Anarchism.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
The exercise of authority over the same area by two States is a contradiction.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
Defence was an afterthought, prompted by necessity; and its introduction as a State function, though effected doubtless with a view to the strengthening of the State, was really and in principle the initiation of the State’s destruction.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
Socialism, on the contrary, extends its function to the description of society as it should be, and the discovery of the means of making it what it should be.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
One thing, however, is sure, – that in all cases the effort should be to impose all the cost of repairing the wrong upon the doer of the wrong. This alone is real justice, and of course such justice is necessarily free.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
The essence of government is control, or the attempt to control.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
Commanded love of all men indiscriminately is an obliteration of distinction between love and hate, and therefore is not love at all.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
Aggression is simply another name for government.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
Therefore coercion of the non-invasive, when justifiable at all, is to be justified on the ground that it secures, not a minimum of ‘ invasion, but a minimum of pain.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
I have also seen it stated that Capital punishment is murder in its worst form. I should like to know upon what principle of human society these assertions are based and justified.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
The moment that justice must be paid for by the victim of injustice it becomes itself injustice.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
But this is not to say that the society which inflicts capital punishment commits murder.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
The claim of the State Socialists, however, that this right would not be exercised in matters pertaining to the individual in the more intimate and private relations of his life is not borne out by the history of governments.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
Murder is an offensive act. The term cannot be applied legitimately to any defensive act.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
Almost the only persons who may be said to comprehend even approximately the significance, principles, and purposes of Socialism are the chief leaders of the extreme wings of the Socialistic forces, and perhaps a few of the money kings themselves.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
Such security is equal liberty. But it is not necessarily equality in the use of the earth.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
And this is the Anarchistic definition of the State: the embodiment of the principle of invasion in an individual, or a band of individuals, assuming to act as representatives or masters of the entire people within a given area.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
First, then, State Socialism, which may be described as the doctrine that all the affairs of men should be managed by the government, regardless of individual choice.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
Laissez Faire was very good sauce for the goose, labor, but was very poor sauce for the gander, capital.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
The two principles referred to are Authority and Liberty, and the names of the two schools of Socialistic thought which fully and unreservedly represent one or the other of them are, respectively, State Socialism and Anarchism.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
To force a man to pay for the violation of his own liberty is indeed an addition of insult to injury.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
The Anarchists answer that the abolition of the State will leave in existence a defensive association, resting no longer on a compulsory but on a voluntary basis, which will restrain invaders by any means that may prove necessary.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
This brings us to Anarchism, which may be described as the doctrine that all the affairs of men should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations, and that the State should be abolished.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)
We are here, on earth. Not one of us has any right to the earth.
American journalist and anarchist (1854-1939)