To most Americans of the classes which consider themselves significant the war [World War II brought a sense of the sanctity of the State which, if they had had time to think about it, would have seemed a sudden and surprising alteration in their habits of thought. In times of peace, we usually ignore the State in favor of partisan political controversies, or personal struggles for office, or the pursuit of party policies. It is the Government rather than the State with which the politically minded are concerned. The State is reduced to a shadowy emblem which comes to consciousness only on occasions of patriotic holiday. Government is obviously composed of common and unsanctified men, and is thus a legitimate object of criticism and even co... (From : bopsecrets.org.)
Now and After: The ABC of Communist AnarchismWhat's to be done? How abolish poverty, oppression, and tyranny? How eliminate evil and injustice, weed out corruption, put an end to crime and murder? How do away with wage slavery? How secure liberty and well-being, joy and sunshine for every one? 'Turn to God,' commands the church; 'only a Christian life can save the world.' 'Let us pass a new law,' says the reformer; 'man must be compelled to be good" 'Vote for me!' says the politician; 'I'll look after your interests.' 'The Trade Union,' advises your labor friend; 'that's your hope.' 'Only Socialism can abolish capitalism and do away with wage slavery,' insists the Socialist. 'I'm a Bolshevik,' announces another; 'only the dictatorship of the proletariat will free the workers.' 'We'll remain slaves as long as we have rulers and masters,' says the Anarchist; 'only liberty can make us free.' The Protectionist and the Free Trader, the Single...
IV PROPERTY AMONG the many gloomy novelists of the realistic school, perhaps the most full of gloom is Gissing. In common with all his characters, he lives under the weight of a great oppression: the power of the fearful and yet adored idol of Money. One of his typical stories is "Eve's Ransom," where the heroine, with various discreditable subterfuges, throws over the poor man whom she loves in order to marry the rich man whose income she loves still better. The poor man, finding that the rich man's income has given her a fuller life and a better character than the poor man's love could have given her, decides that she has done quite right, and that he deserves to be punished for his lack of money. In this story, as in his other books, Gissing has set forth, quite accurately, the actual dominion of money, and the impersonal worship which it exacts from the great majority of civilized mankind. Gissing's facts are undeniable, and yet his attitu...