Religion is not anything good, except only as it is a synonym of such morality, and this is equally true of politics.
War shortens much life and fills more with misery, hence it is utterly immoral, and this is equally true of poverty and slavery.
In what I say here and in some other places about war being essentially evil, the wars referred to are those by which the world has been cursed through all the ages--wars between different groups of owners with conflicting interests, not the war between owners and workers which is now on. This war will bless, not curse, the world, because it is for the emanc.i.p.ation of the slave cla.s.s, not for the enrichment of one group of the masters at the expense of another group, at the cost of increased misery to all the slaves on both sides.
If there is any truth in the representation that real religion and real politics alike consist in desiring and endeavoring to make terrestrial life (there is no celestial life of which aught is known) long and happy, the advocate of war is the worst of heretics against Christianism and the worst of traitors against Americanism.
War is a necessary characteristic of vegetables and animals, because they cannot make and operate machines for the supplying of their needs.
Peace is the necessary characteristic of humans, because they can make and operate machines for the supplying of their needs.
Wars between capitalists are inevitabilities, as much so as the wars between two hungry dogs, when one has a bone upon which the lives of both depend. The only difference between capitalists and dogs is, that dogs do their own fighting, whereas capitalists first rob the laborers who produce their commodities, and then persuade or compel them to fight their battles with fellow capitalists in their compet.i.tive efforts to distribute them.
On the one hand it is true that a few capitalists do lose money in wars, and still fewer their lives, but on the other hand it is equally true that the majority of them are made richer and that producing and distributing laborers ultimately bear every cent of the enormous financial burden, and that for every machine owning master who is killed or wounded there are a hundred wage earning slaves.
Yet neither the making nor operating of machines const.i.tutes a man a human. It is co-operation which does this. Nor will co-operation in itself suffice. Bees and ants co-operate and even capitalists do so, yet with all their co-operating bees and ants remain animals and so do capitalists. The co-operation which converts animals into humans is the one which is purposely inaugurated and sustained with the view of securing to each one the fruits of his labor while at the same time increasing them for all--that deliberate co-operation which consists in conscious living, letting live and helping to live.
It is this co-operation which const.i.tutes the most essential difference between the animal and the human. Only animalism can exist and flourish on a compet.i.tive basis, yet this is the basis upon which men who falsely claim to be humans are living.
Until mankind begins the construction of a civilization on a foundation of co-operation in the production and distribution of the necessities of life, it should not set up a claim to humanism for itself, because meantime it cannot sustain such a claim.
It is perfectly natural and absolutely necessary for dogs to have belligerent contentions for bones, because they cannot peacefully co-operate in the making of them; and yet men who can do this are more fierce by far in their compet.i.tive struggles for the bones which are necessities to their lives.
Revolutionary socialists of the Marxian or Bolshevikian type offer the only solution of the two great questions of the world at this time: (1) how to save it from its intermittent and lesser h.e.l.l of suffering by the b.l.o.o.d.y wars between rival sets of capitalists, and (2) how to save it from its perpetual and greater h.e.l.l of suffering by the bloodless wars between the machine owning masters and the machine operating slaves, which wars, if less excruciating, are yet more destructive of both life and happiness.
1. As to the b.l.o.o.d.y wars, a league of nations could prevent them only while the dogs are sleeping off their exhaustion.
Nor could government ownership be depended upon for protection. It would increase the armies and navies, making it next to impossible that more than a decade or two should pa.s.s before our children must suffer as much as, or more than, we have by the recent war between the bull dog and the blood hound.
We are not at all indebted to the victory of the bull dog (England) over the blood hound (Germany) for what we have in the way of a guarantee against future wars, but wholly to the presumption of the Newfoundland dog (Russia) which has quietly walked off with the bone of contention while the belligerents were sc.r.a.pping over it.
Notwithstanding all appearances and impressions to the contrary, this bone never was really Paris or Berlin, but first one and then another country--the Balkan States, Mexico, Persia, Morocco and Russia.
Of late Russia has been the chief bone of contention. Hence all the snarling against Russian Bolshevism, one of a large litter of puppies born to the Newfoundland since the beginning of the war, representatives of which have already made their way to several countries of Europe, and the prospects are that they or their offspring will soon be in evidence everywhere throughout the world.
When all these Bolsheviki are grown-ups, they will make the world safe for democracy sure enough--not the compet.i.tive democracy of the bull dogs and blood hounds, but the co-operative democracy of the Newfoundland dog. Then, and not before, will the world be safe against war.
Since the beginning of the armistice there has been, every now and then, a widespread fear that it might not be permanent, because of a successful effort on the part of the bull dog to put over another war on account of the Russian bone; but for many this fear has now been almost quieted by the total collapse of the Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenich and Wrangel uprisings from within, which were strongly supported by the Allies; and by the repulsion of the Polish invasion which had England, France and the United States behind it.
An astonishing ill.u.s.tration of the truth of the Marxian theory concerning the materialistic or economic determination of history, is furnished by the melancholy fact that the representatives of big business in the allied countries would gladly respond to Gen.
Ludendorff"s call to join the junkers, against whom they so recently fought, in a war against Russia, of which war Germany would be the battle field. A concerted effort was made to organize such a war, but the wisdom learned in the school of the world war by the working-men of all the countries to which the call was made and their consequent opposition to the effort caused it to fail.
2. But great as the suffering of the world is on account of the b.l.o.o.d.y wars of capitalists with each other, it is but a drop in the bucket of sorrow as compared with its suffering on account of the bloodless wars between masters and slaves--between the machine owners and operators.
When this bloodless war ceases, as it will with the triumph of international socialism, the b.l.o.o.d.y wars will cease and not until then.
Under the capitalist system every inst.i.tution (state, church, school, legislature, court, business, yes, even charity) is necessarily a robbing instrumentality by which a small cla.s.s of non-producers, fat masters, rob a large cla.s.s of producers, lean slaves, and rob them twice, each time thrice:
1. The master non-producers rob the slave producers of the three great necessities of physical (body) life--food, clothing and houses.
Even in the United States of America, "the land of plenty," at this time and at all times, seventy-five out of every one hundred are insufficiently fed, clothed and housed.
2. The master non-producers rob the slave producers of the necessities of psychical (soul) life--the liberty to learn the facts of nature, the liberty to humanly interpret and live them and the liberty to teach their discoveries and interpretations.
Even in the United States of America, "the home of political and religious freedom," there is not one who can learn, live and teach the truth without danger of being put out of a synagogue and into a penitentiary; and this will continue until imperialistic capitalism and supernaturalistic Christianism, the father and mother of the whole brood of robbers, liars, persecutors and warriors, have been dethroned.
The G.o.ds of the capitalistic interpretations of politics and the G.o.ds of the supernaturalistic interpretations of religion, symbolize the same reality, parasitic robbery.
Yet within the religious realm the trouble is not with the Jehovahs any more than within the political realm it is with the Sams, but only with what they symbolize.
For one I should feel that both the religious and political realms, which are but halves of the same realm--religion the ideal half, and politics the practical half--would be poorer without their respective Jehovahs and Sams, even as the realm of childhood would be without its Santa Claus.
If symbols are not absolute necessities to the religious and political realms, nevertheless they always have been, now are and probably ever shall be ornaments of them; I hope for their continuance, but as subjectivities, not objectivities.
All the imperialistic interpretations of politics and all the supernaturalistic interpretations of religion must be overthrown, else the world will be lost. The omnipotent, omnipresent saviour who can and will deliver us from them is already in the world. His name is International Communism, the greatest and holiest name which has ever been framed and p.r.o.nounced; and the gospel of this saviour as it is translated by Thomas Carlyle is written on every wall so that it may be read by all:
Understand that well, it is the deep commandment, dimmer or clearer, of our whole being, to be freed. Freedom is the one purpose, wisely aimed at, or unwisely, of all man"s struggles, toilings, and sufferings, on this earth.
Morality is the greatest thing in the world because without it human life would not be worth the living, or even possible; but, paradoxical as the a.s.sertion may seem, freedom or liberty is greater because without it morality would be an impossibility.
One can attain to the very highest standard of morality, religion and sainthood without the least necessity of the slightest reference to what the G.o.ds of the supernaturalistic religions said or did, and this is quite as true of Jesus as of any other among such G.o.ds, but no man can reach even the lowest standard of morality, and so of course not of religion or sainthood, without constant reference to the G.o.d of truth.
Yet there is a difference between a law and a truth. The law is a doing or act of nature, and as such it is a fact or revelation. There are no other facts or revelations.
According to the traditional superst.i.tious conception, a truth is the revelation of the will of a G.o.d, involving a service to be rendered directly or indirectly to him, and morality consists in a fulfillment of it.
According to the modern scientific conception, a truth is the interpretation of a fact involving a service to be rendered to men. On the scientific theory each man must have what truth he has, either by his own interpretation or by the adoption for himself of another"s interpretation.
No man can live the moral part of his psychical (soul) life on the truth of another any more than he can live his physical (body) life on the meals of another. Every one must have his own truths, even as he must have his own meals.
Hence the necessity of freedom to morality. Hence, too, the impossibility of the moral life under restraint, such as is imposed by orthodox churches in their official dogmas, and such as is imposed by belligerent states in their espionage laws.
Capitalism is essentially compet.i.tive and therefore necessarily belligerent in character: hence a complete, an ideal moral life is an utter impossibility under it, but even the little of moral life which otherwise might be possible is lessened to one-half by official dogmas and espionage laws; if, then, the governments of churches and nations have any regard for the morality of their memberships and citizenships they will at once repeal them, and never enact others.
The democracy which means freedom to learn the laws of the physical realm of nature and to interpret them into laws for the regulation of human life (a democracy which will secure to each one the longest and happiest life which, under the most favorable of conditions, would be within the range of possibilities for him) must wait until the compet.i.tive system of capitalism for the production and distribution of the necessities has been universally and completely supplanted by the co-operative system of socialism.
The conclusion of the whole matter, as it is well put by an able contributor to the excellent Proletarian, is this:
What is needed is a complete revolution of the economic system.
Private ownership of the tools of wealth production stands in the way of further peaceful social development and private ownership must be eliminated. The capitalists themselves will not eliminate it. That is certain. It remains for the working cla.s.s to do so. In order to accomplish this task it will be necessary for the workers to take control of the inst.i.tution by which the capitalists maintain their ownership of the tools of production--the political state. That is the historic mission of the working cla.s.s. The mission of the Socialist is to organize and train the workers for this "conquest of political power."
Among the signs of the times which unmistakably point to the great day of the happy consummation of the movement towards the proletarian revolution, and the glorious sky is full of them, is the fact that the world has recently learned from the great war that man must work out his own salvation without the least help from the G.o.ds of the supernaturalistic interpretations of religion:
And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky, Whereunder crawling coop"d we live and die, Lift not your hands to It for help--for It As impotently moves as you or I.
--Omar.
Yes, and a G.o.d moves more impotently than a man; for, whereas the G.o.d is driven hither and thither by the laws of matter and force, according to which they co-exist and co-operate through evolutionary processes to the making of the universe what it is, and the G.o.d cannot help himself by making it or conditioning himself otherwise, the man, if only he will learn those laws, may combine, guide and ride them to almost any predetermined destination, even out of the cla.s.s h.e.l.l of compet.i.tive capitalism to the cla.s.sless heaven of co-operative socialism.