Chapter 29 : Two Lectures -------------------------------------------------------------------- 19081908 People : ---------------------------------- Author : Victor Serge Text : ---------------------------------- 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 Events : ---------------------------------- Chapter 29 -- Publication : November 30, 1907 Chapter 29 -- Added : January 11, 2021 About This Textfile : ---------------------------------- Text file generated from : http://revoltlib.com/