148
PARTISAN REVIEW
course of history prove that individual and social immorality have always been
the necessary consequence of bad public and private education , of the absence
and breakdown of public opinion . ... In order to moralise present-day
society, one must first embark on the outright destruction of that entire poli–
tical and social organisation which is based upon inequality , privilege, divine
authority anJcontempt for humanity ." The result will be , it seems , a society
governed by a properly educated public opinion , in which the threat of
expulsion is the ultimate sanction and in which anyone who refuses
to
accept
condemnation can declare "that he no longer wishes to be part of that
society ." But if he stays around, his fate will be a terrible one : he "shall be
liable to robbery, ill-treatment and even death without any cause for alarm.
Any person will be able to dispose of him like a dangerous animal. .. . "
Perhaps , as in the political thought ofProudhon, there is still a beast lurking
in the jungle of man 's nature even when , with the removal of corrupting
institutions , his true goodness should have revealed itself.
The picture of Bakunin which emerges from hiS writings is of a man of
violent passions and prejudices, an intellectual who hates the intelligen'tsia ,
with at the same time an almost childlike optimism and faith in human
nature . (He was described at the end of his life by an Italian friend as "a child,
a barbarian, and a scholar all at once .' ') He is consistent in his hatreds, s: arting
with God-"IfGod really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him"–
and going on to the State-"Church and State are my two
betes noires"–
and
to
those revolutionaries "who , even before today's monarchic ,
aristocratic and bourgeois states are destroyed are already longing
to
create
new revolutionary states just as centralist and despotic as those we already
know ." If he is less consistent in his positive ideals than in his hatreds, this is
because-unlike, for example, William Godwin-he was not concerned with
the creation ofa detailed utopian vision of the future but rather with an attack
on the present and with finding forms of immediate revolutionary action
which would not prejudice the nature of post-revolutionary society.
This selection of his writings confirms, as Arthur Lel:ning has always
maintained , that the publication of Bakunin's works would show that
Bakunin is worth reading as a revolutionary soc.ial theorist as well :..s studying
as a revolutionary personality . He will remain a critic whom Marxists will have
to
continue to answer, while liberals who share his concern for individual
liberty will do well to study his ideas . They will perhaps feel a twinge of guilt
when they see themselves through his eyes: "They never answer 'yes' or 'no' ;
they say 'To a certain extent you are right, but, yet . .. ' and, if they have
nothing left
to
say, they say : 'Yes, it is a curious thing.'" Yes, the lasting
influence of Bakunin remains a curious thing .
James Joll
