Anarchists Never Surrender — Chapter 29 : Two Lectures

By Victor Serge (1908)

Entry 6115

Public

From: holdoffhunger [id: 1]
(holdoffhunger@gmail.com)

../ggcms/src/templates/revoltlib/view/display_grandchildof_anarchism.php

Untitled Anarchism Anarchists Never Surrender Chapter 29

Not Logged In: Login?

0
0
Comments (0)
Permalink
(1890 - 1947)

Victor Serge (French: [viktɔʁ sɛʁʒ]), born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich (Russian: Ви́ктор Льво́вич Киба́льчич; December 30, 1890 – November 17, 1947), was a Russian revolutionary and writer. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks five months after arriving in Petrograd in January 1919 and later worked for the Comintern as a journalist, editor and translator. He was critical of the Stalinist regime and remained a revolutionary Marxist until his death. He is best remembered for his Memoirs of a Revolutionary and series of seven "witness-novels" chronicling the lives of revolutionaries of the first half of the 20th century. (From: Wikipedia.org.)


On : of 0 Words

Chapter 29

Two Lectures

(Editor’s note: These are the outlines of two lectures Serge delivered in the heat of the Bonnot affair, just days before his arrest. The first was given within the framework of the Popular University, the second at the Causeries Populaires founded by Albert Libertad.)

The Individual against Society

January 28, 1912

1) It’s rather the contrary that should be said.

2) Society is the enemy of any individuality

An association is not a simple adding up of individuals; it has its own psychology and vitality. It thus wants to last, to live.

3) In order to live a society necessarily conforms to two laws

A—Law of social preservation; society preserves what created it

= traditional

= enemy of movement

B—Law of social conformism. It wants all individuals to act in consideration of this goal—be in conformity with a type—which it forges by force. Ex. The subject of monarchies, the citizen of democracies thus=enemy of originality individual independence.

4) In order to be (originally free)

The individual must thus struggle against society.

A. Against imposed social obligations.

Ex: military service

Wage labor

Respect of laws

Morality and respect of conventions.

B. and what is most difficult:

against the deformations produced in him by the social environment ex: hypocrisy

proprietary instinct (including sexual)

passivity

servility

authoritarianism, etc….

imposed solidarity

(Le Dantec’s book L’Hypocrisie Indispensable)

5) This was, this is. Will it always be?

Alas, yes.

The laws that preside over the lives of societies are natural laws.

Let us imagine a communist paradise:

– Where there will not be a state of society; the end of all industry, complete and perpetual war against individuals.

– Where there will be collective religiosity

  • Morality

  • economy

– Where in this the original will be at the very least frowned upon.

Moral constraint

6) Where then does social progress reside?

In a displacement of the field of struggle

We will perhaps no longer fight for bread

Constraint will no longer be physically violent

Even so!

7) But what is the utility of these conclusions?

A—We should have no illusions about the social future

B—We should be sociable without being the dupes of sociability; no spirit of the coterie.

Bandits

Current events offer us this subject

It’s a fact; criminality is on the rise.

People kill, steal, engage in fraud

Let us profit from this occasion to say what we think of this.

2) What do we think of this?

We think this is logical

ineluctable

necessary

The social organization produces crime

Everything is sold, everything is stolen

See how institutions and crimes are coordinated

Property—theft

Authority—rebellion

Law—fraud

Poverty—banditry

Repression—reprisals

On one hand society, on the other a few individuals

3) Among the criminals we distinguish

the unlucky, bourgeois souls

the clumsy, unemployed

and the rebels

draft dodgers, deserters, thieves

because unadapted to slavery

Are distinguished by daring

Resoluteness

As much as I despise the former,

that’s how much I love the latter.

4) Along with us, they are the only men who dare demand life.

From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org

(1890 - 1947)

Victor Serge (French: [viktɔʁ sɛʁʒ]), born Victor Lvovich Kibalchich (Russian: Ви́ктор Льво́вич Киба́льчич; December 30, 1890 – November 17, 1947), was a Russian revolutionary and writer. Originally an anarchist, he joined the Bolsheviks five months after arriving in Petrograd in January 1919 and later worked for the Comintern as a journalist, editor and translator. He was critical of the Stalinist regime and remained a revolutionary Marxist until his death. He is best remembered for his Memoirs of a Revolutionary and series of seven "witness-novels" chronicling the lives of revolutionaries of the first half of the 20th century. (From: Wikipedia.org.)

Chronology

Back to Top
An icon of a book resting on its back.
1908
Chapter 29 — Publication.

An icon of a news paper.
January 11, 2021; 4:39:33 PM (UTC)
Added to http://revoltlib.com.

An icon of a red pin for a bulletin board.
January 17, 2022; 6:38:15 PM (UTC)
Updated on http://revoltlib.com.

Comments

Back to Top

Login to Comment

0 Likes
0 Dislikes

No comments so far. You can be the first!

Navigation

Back to Top
<< Last Entry in Anarchists Never Surrender
Current Entry in Anarchists Never Surrender
Chapter 29
Next Entry in Anarchists Never Surrender >>
All Nearby Items in Anarchists Never Surrender
Home|About|Contact|Privacy Policy