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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Anarchy</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01452a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="An absence of law"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="01452a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/a.htm">A</a> > Anarchy</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Anarchy</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>(<em>a</em> privative, and <em>arche</em>, rule)</p> <p>Anarchy means an absence of <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a>. Sociologically it is the modern theory which proposes to do away with all existing forms of government and to organize a <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> which will exercise all its functions without any controlling or directive <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">authority</a>. It assumes as its basis that every <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">man</a> has a natural right to develop all his powers, satisfy all his passions, and respond to all his <a href="../cathen/08050b.htm">instincts</a>. It insists that the individual is the best judge of his own capacity; that personal interest, well understood, tends to improve general conditions; that each one recognizes the advantage of <a href="../cathen/08571c.htm">justice</a> in <a href="../cathen/12213b.htm">economic</a> relations; and that <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">mankind</a>, in the man, is right in what it does. As a human being is a free, intelligent agent, any restraint from without is an invasion of his <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> and must be set down as tyranny. Proudhon (1809-65), whose writings are diffuse, obscure, and paradoxical, is regarded as the father of the system; but Diderot is claimed by some, and also the association of the <em>Enragés</em>, or <em>Hébertistes</em> of the <a href="../cathen/13009a.htm">French Revolution</a>. According to Proudhon, "anarchy is order" and, borrowing from J.J. Rousseau, <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">man</a> is naturally good, and only institutions are bad". Also according to him, "all <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a> is theft". As crime is mostly committed against <a href="../cathen/12462a.htm">property</a>, abolishing one is preventing the other. Criminals are not to be punished, but treated as lunatics, or sick <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">men</a>. There are to be no rulers in Church or State; no masters, no employers. Religion is to be eliminated, because it introduces <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> as the basis of <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">authority</a>, and degrades <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">man</a> by inculcating meekness and submission, thus making him a slave and robbing him of his natural dignity. Free <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> is to take the place of marriage, and <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> life, with its restraints, is to cease.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>To the objection that <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">men</a> cannot live together without <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a>, both because of the implied contradiction in such a claim, and because of the social <a href="../cathen/08050b.htm">instinct</a> in <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">man</a>, the answer is: We do not destroy <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a>, but exclude <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">authority</a> from it. Anarchy supposes an association of individual sovereigns acting independently of any central or coercive power. It aims at a <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> in which all the members are federated in free groups or corporations according to the professions, arts, trades, business, etc., which happen to suit the fancy of each, so that not only will all be co-proprietors of everything — land, mines, machines, instruments of labour, means of production, exchange, etc. — but every one will thus be able to follow his own individual bent. Moreover, as all are united in a harmony of interests, all will labour in unison to increase the general welfare, just as is done in business corporations, in which union is based on mutual advantage, and is free from all pressure from without.</p> <p>As to the means to be employed to bring about this ideal condition, opinion is divided, some holding for the evolutionary, some for the revolutionary method; the former proposing to realize their Utopia by the means now at their disposal, chiefly universal suffrage; while the latter are determined to effect it at once by violent methods. In this respect the first class shades off into <a href="../cathen/14062a.htm">collective socialism</a>, the second remaining pure anarchists. Both, however, differ from <a href="../cathen/14062a.htm">socialism</a> on one very important point. For while agreeing with anarchists in the desirability of abolishing all existing institutions, <a href="../cathen/14062a.htm">socialism</a> aims at what it calls "socialized <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a>". It postulates a central power which will assign occupations, distribute awards, and supervise and direct the collective interests. It absorbs the individual in favour of the State; anarchy does the very opposite. Generally speaking, also, <a href="../cathen/14062a.htm">socialism</a> reprobates violent methods and seeks its end by gradual evolution from present conditions. Its public alienation from anarchical methods is evidenced in its treatment of the Russian Bakounin, who was conspicuous for his activity in the French Revolution of 1848, and who, when handed over to <a href="../cathen/13231c.htm">Russia</a>, escaped from <a href="../cathen/13767b.htm">Siberia</a> and fomented the Russian disorders of 1869, chiefly through his agent Netschaïeff, and was finally associated with Cluseret and Richard in the <a href="../cathen/04168a.htm">atrocities of the French Commune</a> of 1871. In 1868 he had established the International Alliance of Social Democracy, and endeavoured to unite it with the International Association of Workingmen founded by the <a href="../cathen/14062a.htm">socialist</a> Marx in 1864. The coalition was of short duration. A violent <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schism</a> began at the Congress of the Hague, in 1872, and then the party of anarchy may be said to have begun as a distinct organization. Bakounin subsequently organized the <em>Fédération Jurassienne</em>. He issued a paper called the <em>Avant Garde</em>, but nothing much was done until the founding of <em>La Révolte</em> by Elisée Reclus and Kropotkin.</p> <p>The principles of anarchy were again repudiated in the Socialist Congress of <a href="../cathen/11480c.htm">Paris</a> in 1881 (from which the anarchists were expelled) and in congresses at <a href="../cathen/15770b.htm">Zurich</a>, in 1893, and at <a href="../cathen/07121b.htm">Hamburg</a> and <a href="../cathen/09341a.htm">London</a>, in 1897. It was in the sixth Congress of the Marxists, held in Geneva in 1863, that the distinctive term of <em>Anarchist</em> was applied to an autonomous section of that Convention. But how far the theories and practice of each run into those of the other is difficult to determine. For, independently of official pronouncements by the various congresses, the lines of demarcation between the two movements are not unfrequently obscure. Thus, according to some writers, anarchists may be classified first as extreme Individualists; those, namely, who regard the intervention of the State as a "nuisance" — such is the term employed — which is to be reduced as soon as possible to a minimum. This was the position of Herbert Spencer and Auberon Herbert, who would probably have resented being placed in the category of anarchists. Spencer's <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">doctrine</a> about the minimizing of <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">government authority</a> was borrowed from Goodwin's "Political Justice" (1793). A second class might be described as Expectants; those who are willing to admit a central control until public opinion is sufficiently <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">educated</a> to dispense with it. William Morris left the Social Democrats when he found himself drifting in that direction. Finally there are the Universal Negatives, or Nihilists, who <a href="../cathen/02408b.htm">believe</a> in the assassination of rulers and in other violent manifestations of <a href="../cathen/07149b.htm">hatred</a> of present conditions. The first so-called scientific exposition of this nihilistic anarchism seems to have been made by the eminent French geographer Elisée Reclus and the Russian Prince Kropotkin, who built it into a definite system, though a similar claim is made for Hess, who in 1843 published two volumes on "Philosophie der That und Sozialismus". Grün and Stern also formulated their theories about the same time. The publication of the <em>Révolte</em> by Reclus and Kropotkin was immediately followed by frightful acts committed by avowed anarchists, both in <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> and Amenca, not only the assassination of rulers — the <a href="../cathen/07441a.htm">murder</a> of McKinley is an instance — but the throwing of bombs in legislative halls, the wrecking of churches, the killing of the police, as in <a href="../cathen/03653a.htm">Chicago</a>, etc. This was the propaganda by acts which had been advocated by Bakounin; but both Reclus and Kropotkin protested that their conception of anarchy did not contemplate such excesses. Whether they spoke the <a href="../cathen/15073a.htm">truth</a> or feared public execration must be left to each one to judge. It was only after the attempted assassination of the Emperor William, in 1878, that the German Socialists, Bebel and Liebknecht, declared against anarchy. In <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>, at the present time, the party that has not only suppressed the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>, but is clamouring for the suppression of the army and preaching revolt to the soldiers, ridiculing the <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of patriotism and demanding the abolition of national frontiers, are anarchists, but at the same time they seem to affiliate with the Socialist party now in control of the Government. Whether it is sympathy or a design to let anarchy do the work of destruction on which <a href="../cathen/14062a.htm">socialism</a> is to build up its future State, is not a subject of controversy, at least among conservative <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">Frenchmen</a>. It is in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> that anarchy at the present time is showing its hand, and exercising the greatest power, though it is not known by its distinctive name. But as a matter of fact, where <a href="../cathen/14062a.htm">socialism</a> professes <a href="../cathen/02040a.htm">atheism</a> it is already anarchy.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Thus far the anarchists seem to have no central organization; but they publish 14 papers in French, though not all of them are printed in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a>; 2 in English, one in <a href="../cathen/09341a.htm">London</a>, and the other in New York; 3 in German; 10 in Italian; 4 in Spanish; 1 in Hebrew; 2 in Portuguese and <a href="../cathen/02612b.htm">Bohemian</a>; 1 in <a href="../cathen/10759a.htm">Dutch</a>. As there is no compact organization, and as their principles are often admitted by those who are not avowed anarchists, it is next to impossible to form an exact <a href="../cathen/07630a.htm">idea</a> of their actual numbers.</p> <p>The root of all this <a href="../cathen/05649a.htm">evil</a> is the apostasy from <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christianity</a>, so marked in some countries, and the acceptance, or influence, of <a href="../cathen/02040a.htm">atheism</a>. Once given that there is no <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, it immediately becomes <a href="../cathen/08010c.htm">unjust</a> and impossible for anyone to exact obedience and submission from anyone else. If there is no <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>, there can be no master. The anarchist conclusion is <a href="../cathen/09324a.htm">logical</a>. Likewise, all the <a href="../cathen/04153a.htm">commandments of God</a> are necessarily abrogated, and the claim that a <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">man</a> has a <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">right</a> to satisfy all his propensities and passions stands justified. There can be no <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a>, no State, no Church, no <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> of any kind. The individual is to be the centre and determining power of everything, and it is their cult of the individual, originating in the egoism of the <a href="../cathen/07192a.htm">philosophy of Hegel</a>, and perhaps culminating in Nietzsche, with his atrocious "superman", which has been the means of accelerating the spread of anarchical doctrines. The distorted conceptions of liberty of thought, liberty of the press, liberty of speech, liberty of <a href="../cathen/04268a.htm">conscience</a>, which are claimed as <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a>, and are regarded as essential in modern civilization, no matter to what extravagance they may be carried — even to the propagation of the most revolutionary and immoral doctrines — have magnified the importance and sacredness of the individual until he has become a <a href="../cathen/09053a.htm">law</a> unto himself in ethics and religion, and is practically persuaded of his absolute independence of his Creator in his conduct of life. In much of the literature of the day there exists almost an <a href="../cathen/07636a.htm">idolatry</a> of human power, no matter with how much crime it is associated. Again, the method of <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> in some countries, which absolutely debars even the mention of the name of <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a> from the <a href="../cathen/13554b.htm">schools</a>, and which admits no religious instruction, or only an <a href="../cathen/05556a.htm">ethical</a> code without sanction or <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">authority</a>, could not fail to develop a generation of anarchists. Their fathers have some memories of religion and a sense of <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a> clinging to them; the rising generation will have none. Finally, the excessive accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few by supposedly dishonest methods, and its alleged use in corrupting legislatures to perpetuate abuses, furnish material for unprincipled demagogues to arouse the worst passions of the multitude. Moreover, even if the condition of the poor is not as bad as formerly, the contrast with the luxury of the rich is sufficient to excite cupidity and <a href="../cathen/01489a.htm">anger</a>, while the absence of religious motives makes poverty and suffering not only insupportable, but, in the eyes of the victims, unnecessary and <a href="../cathen/08010c.htm">unjust</a>.</p> <p>The theory of anarchy is against all <a href="../cathen/12673b.htm">reason</a>. Apart from the fact that it runs counter to some of the most cherished <a href="../cathen/08050b.htm">instincts</a> of humanity, as, for instance, <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> life and <a href="../cathen/09397a.htm">love</a> of country, it is evident that <a href="../cathen/14074a.htm">society</a> without <a href="../cathen/02137c.htm">authority</a> could not stand for a moment. <a href="../cathen/09580c.htm">Men</a> whose only purpose would be to satisfy all their inclinations are by the very fact on the level of the animal creation. The methods they already employ in the prosecution of their designs show how the animal <a href="../cathen/08050b.htm">instincts</a> quickly assert themselves. The only remedy of the disorder is evidently a return to right <a href="../cathen/12673b.htm">reason</a> and the practice of religion; and, as a protection for the future, the inculcation of <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> morality in the <a href="../cathen/05295b.htm">education</a> of youth.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">BAKOUNIN, <em>Dieu et l'état</em> (Paris, 1895); PROUDHON, <em>&OElig;uvres</em> (Paris, 1851); HERZEN, <em>De l'autre rive;</em> TCHEMCHEWSKY, <em>L'économie politique jugée par la science;</em> ELISÉE RECLUS, <em>Evolution et Revolution</em> (Paris, 1891); SPENCER, <em>The Individual vs. the State;</em> EMILE GAUTIER, <em>Propos anarchistes; Heures de travail;</em> KROPOTKIN, <em>Aux jeunes gens; Parole d'un révolté;</em> TUCKER, <em>Instead of a Book</em> (New York, 1893); ELY, <em>The Labor Movement in America</em> (London, 1890); KERKUP, <em>A History of Socialism</em> (London, 1892); <em>Revue des Deux Mondes</em> (Nov. 15, 1893).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Campbell, T.</span> <span id="apayear">(1907).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Anarchy.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01452a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Campbell, Thomas.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Anarchy."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 1.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1907.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01452a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter.</span> <span id="dedication">Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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