Begins:
from a Novel
Where Anarchy
Dialogue
....
NICCOLO TUCCI
ME,
AN ANARCHIST?" shouted Tiburzio in the face of his
American nephew, while his wife was closing the window to keep
people in the street from overhearing
him.
"Of course, of course, you would call me an anarchist. You
should
call me an anarchist, in fact you should, for otherwise there
would be something wrong with you. But let me tell you tlus: I agree
that there must be a limit to all things. There was a limit even to
the patience of Jesus Christ. One nice day He, too, the symbol of
Infinite Love and Meekness, had to stop talking love and meekness
and grab the whip. It is only natural. Everything knows a linUt: love,
sacrifice, liberty, just everything. Agreed?"
"Yes.... "
"Now wait. According to the totalitarian mind, and also, one
should add, according to the unheroic, fearful bourgeois, there is only
ONE exception. That exception is order. Yes, order, for the protection
of the individual. Why in hell such people as heroic totalitarians and
peace-loving bourgeois should be the only ones in the world to be
geared to the Infinite, I cannot understand. But they are; they are,
more than Christ. They love mankind so much that they tremble at
the mere thought of mankind getting hurt for lack of sufficient order
.in the world. Jesus Christ was practical, but they are such idealists
that their love knows no limits. Sleepless are their nights and anguished
their dreams: they are always thinking of us, their beloved flock.
Then, absentmindedly, in the hours that others devote to playing,
they grab n1illions and wage nice little imperialist wars. The indus–
trialists, who also Jove order for our sake, have other diversions: in
the few hours of respite from the love of mankind that devours them,
they absentmindedly manufacture automobiles, airplanes, iceboxes
and other harmless gadgets: that is their favorite little game, poor
darlings. Now tell me, What will these lovers of mankind do upon
discovering that the individual is better protected than anywhere else
