Most assuredly what we have just said in the preceding chapter is contrary to all the language of political parties, which promise mountains and marvels, whose meanest reform is bound to bring an Edenic period to those that shall have supported it. But we who have no personal expectations to realize from the infatuation of the masses, we who want them to be able to guide themselves, we do not need to seek for means to delude them. To give more force to our thoughts, more direction to our acts, we must see our way clearly, warding off all illusions, freeing ourselves from every prejudice which might lead us astray. Our ideas can only be rendered applicable through the energy exerted in spreading and diffusing them by those who understand them. Success depends upon the strength we shall put into the service of the revolution; but since we cannot exert this strength immediately, since we cannot at once pass from theory to practice, it must be admitted that there are obstacles in the way. Were our ideas immediately realizable we should be altogether inexcusable in not attempting the solution without further delay. Now, whatever these difficulties may be, they are the things we must find out in order to surmount rather than deny them. And moreover that we do make propaganda is exactly in order to be able to put our ideas into practice, for if they were immediately realizable, the force of circumstances alone would suffice. We must get used to looking at things coldly, and not persist in regarding the object of our desires through magnifying glasses, and the thing to be dreaded through the little end of the lorgnette. It is the truth alone that we are seeking. If we deceive ourselves we also deceive others, and the revolution thus brought about would have to be begun all over again.

Generally it is only when they are at the end of their arguments, that our opponents advance the objection of the impracticability of our ideas; and we must admit that this objection is always embarrassing⁠—not in reality but in appearance; for in our present society our ideas do indeed appear utopian. It is very hard for a person who has never looked beyond existing arrangements to be able to understand how people could live without government, laws, judges, policemen, or rod of any sort, without money or any representative of values, seeing we have so much trouble to get along in the world now, when the laws are supposed to aim at simplifying relations. We cannot answer this objection with facts, because what we desire is still theory. We may instance the tendencies which are carrying humanity along, enumerate the attempts which society has made on a small scale; but what value can these have for the biased mind whose aspirations never go beyond the amelioration of that which is?

Deny the force of the objection? That would be acting like the ostrich; the objection would still be there!⁠—Answer with sophistry? We should be driven into a corner from which it would be impossible to get out, except by more sophistries. And our principles could never gain anything by such tricks. Since we wish to elucidate our ideas, to be able to answer every objection, we must search for all the arguments which can be brought against us, bring them up ourselves even, in order to answer them as best we can. But above all we must seek to be clear and exact, and not to be afraid of the “true” truth, since it is that we are seeking. We assert that our ideas rest upon the truth, and we must prove it by searching for that truth anywhere and everywhere.

We are bound to admit that such a declaration is not likely to attract the crowd nor stir up the masses; and some of our comrades may accuse us of wanting to cast discouragement and despair among our ranks, because we do not conceal the weak points in our theory. These reproaches can proceed only from a remnant of the education received from political parties. Why promise what is not in our power to keep, and as a consequence create in advance a reaction which would turn against our ideal? If we were a political party anxious to get into power, we might make a lot of promises to people in order to get ourselves carried to the top; but it is a different thing with Anarchy; we have nothing to promise, nothing to ask, nothing to give. And when after having pointed out the facts which demonstrate the tendency of humanity towards this ideal, our opponents object that our ideas are impossible, nothing remains to us but to come back to the proofs of the abuses proceeding from all our institutions, the falsity of the bases upon which these rest, the emptiness of these reforms by which charlatans would divert the people’s attention, and to remind them of the alternative open to them⁠—either to continue to submit to exploitation or to revolt⁠—at the same time demonstrating to them that the success of this revolution will depend upon the energy with which they “will” the realization of what they know to be good. This is our task: the rest depends on others, not on us.

For our own part we are not exactly partisans of a propaganda accomplished by means of sonorous or sentimental phrases; their effect is to make people hope for an immediate triumph, which is impossible. They enter the movement, all fire, imagining the end will be reached tomorrow morning; then one by cue they disappear, and no more is heard of them. How many have we seen join the groups during the last dozen years who could talk of nothing but “overthrowing, like Sampson, the pillars of the temple!” Where are they today?

Our ideal is to fulfill a less brilliant and grandiose task, but a more lasting one. Instead of confining our efforts to capturing people through sentiment, we seek above all to win them through logic and reason. We certainly do not want to underrate those whose ability consists in winning people through an appeal to feeling. To each his task, according to his temperament and his conceptions. But for ourselves we prefer securing conviction rather than belief. All those who take part in the propaganda should know what difficulties await them, that they may be ready to meet them and not be discouraged by the first obstacle in the way. Long and arduous it stretches out before our gaze; and before girding one’s loins for the march it would be well to consult one’s powers of endurance; for there will be victims whose blood will dye the rugged places and the turnings of the road, and corpses will mark its stages. Let those whose courage is weak remain behind; they can only be a hindrance to the advancing column.

Another very generally accepted prejudice among Anarchists is to consider the masses as plastic dough, which may be moulded at will and about which there is no necessity of troubling oneself. This notion comes from the fact that, having made one step in advance of the rest, these people consider themselves in a way as prophets, and as much more intelligent than common mortals. “We shall make the masses do so-and-so,” “we shall lead them at our backs,” etc. Verily a dictator would not talk differently. This way of regarding the masses is an inheritance from our authoritarian past. Not that we wish to deny the influence of minorities upon the crowd; it is because we are convinced of such influence that we are so concerned. But we think that, in the time of revolution, the only weight the Anarchists can have with the masses will be through action: putting our ideas in practice, preaching by example; by this means only can the crowd be led. Yet we should be thoroughly aware that, in spite of all, these acts will have no effect upon the masses unless their understanding has been thoroughly prepared by a clear and well-defined propaganda, unless they themselves stand on their own feet, prompted by ideas previously received. Now, if we shall succeed in disseminating our ideas, their influence will make itself felt; and it is only on condition that we know how to explain and render them comprehensible that we shall have any chance of sharing in the social transformation. Hence we need not be afraid of not obtaining followers, but rather to be on the watch for hindrance from those who consider themselves leaders.

In times of revolution its precursors are always outdone by the masses. Let us spread our ideas, explain them, elucidate them, remodel them if necessary. Let us not fear to look the truth in the face. And this propaganda, far from alienating the adherents of our cause, cannot but help to attract thereto all who thirst after justice and liberty.