Monday, March 24, 2014

Leo Tolstoy on Anarchy

Leo Tolstoy, one of the most revered personalities of his era, author of classics like War and Peace and Anna Karenina, inspiration to Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., was a dedicated pacifist and anarchist who advocated non-violent resistance to all governments. In his collection of essays entitled "Government is Violence" he wrote an excellent piece called "On Anarchy" which I've posted below in it's entirety:

The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order and in the assertion that, without Authority there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that anarchy can be instituted by a violent revolution. But it will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require the protection of governmental power and by there being more and more people who will be ashamed of applying this power.

Marxist: “The capitalistic organization will pass into the hands of workers, and then there will be no more oppression of these workers, and no unequal distribution of earnings.”

Anarchist: “But who will establish the works; who will administer them?”

Marxist: “It will go on of its own accord; the workmen themselves will arrange everything.”

Anarchist: “But the capitalistic organization was established just because, for every practical affair, there is need for administrators furnished with power. If there be work, there will be leadership, administrators with power. And when there is power, there will be abuse of it — the very thing against which you are now striving.”

To the question, how to be without a State, without courts, armies, and so on, an answer cannot be given, because the question is badly formulated. The problem is not how to arrange a State after the pattern of today, or after a new pattern. Neither I, nor any of us, is appointed to settle that question.

But, though voluntarily, yet inevitably must we answer the question, how shall I act faced with the problem which ever arises before me? Am I to submit my conscience to the acts taking place around me, am I to proclaim myself in agreement with the Government, which hangs erring men, sends soldiers to murder, demoralizes nations with opium and spirits, and so on, or am I to submit my actions to conscience, i.e., not participate in Government, the actions of which are contrary to reason?

What will be the outcome of this, what kind of a Government there will be — of all this I know nothing; not that I don’t wish to know; but that I cannot. I only know that nothing evil can result from my following the higher guidance of wisdom and love, or wise love, which is implanted in me, just as nothing evil comes of the bee following the instinct implanted in her, and flying out of the hive with the swarm, we should say, to ruin. But, I repeat, I do not wish to and cannot judge about this.

In this precisely consists the power of Christ’s teaching and that not because Christ is God or a great man, but because His teaching is irrefutable. The merit of His teaching consists in the fact that it transferred the matter from the domain of eternal doubt and conjecture on to the ground of certainty. You are a man, a being rational and kind, and you know that today or tomorrow you will die, disappear. If there be a God then you will go to Him and He will ask of you an account of your actions, whether you have acted in accordance with His law, or, at least, with the higher qualities implanted in you. If there be no God, you regard reason and love as the highest qualities, and must submit to them your other inclinations, and not let them submit to your animal nature — to the cares about the commodities of life, to the fear of annoyance and material calamities.

The question is not, I repeat, which community will be the more secure, the better — the one which is defended by arms, cannons, gallows or the one that is not so safeguarded. But there is only one question for a man, and on it is impossible to evade: “Will you, a rational and good being, having for a moment appeared in this world, and at any moment liable to disappear — will you take part in the murder of erring men or men of a different race, will you participate in the extermination of whole nations of so-called savages, will you participate in the artificial deterioration of generations of men by means of opium and spirits for the sake of profit, will you participate in all these actions, or even be in agreement with those who permit them, or will you not?”

And there can be but one answer to this question for those to whom it has presented itself. As to what the outcome will be of it, I don’t know, because it is not given to me to know. But what should be done, I do unmistakably know. And if you ask: “What will happen?”, then I reply that good will certainly happen; because, acting in the way indicated by reason and love, I am acting in accordance with the highest law known to me. The situation of the majority of men, enlightened by true brotherly enlightenment, at present crushed by the deceit and cunning of usurpers, who are forcing them to ruin their own lives — this situation is terrible and appears hopeless.

Only two issues present themselves, and both are closed. One is to destroy violence by violence, by terrorism, dynamite bombs and daggers as our Nihilists and Anarchists have attempted to do, to destroy this conspiracy of Governments against nations, from without; the other is to come to an agreement with the Government, making concessions to it, participating in it, in order gradually to disentangle the net which is binding the people, and to set them free. Both these issues are closed. Dynamite and the dagger, as experience has already shown, only cause reaction, and destroy the most valuable power, the only one at our command, that of public opinion.

The other issue is closed, because Governments have already learnt how far they may allow the participation of men wishing to reform them. They admit only that which does not infringe, which is non-essential; and they are very sensitive concerning things harmful to them — sensitive because the matter concerns their own existence. They admit men who do not share their views, and who desire reform, not only in order to satisfy the demands of these men, but also in their own interest, in that of the Government. These men are dangerous to the Governments if they remain outside them and revolt against them — opposing to the Governments the only effective instrument the Governments possess — public opinion; they must therefore render these men harmless, attracting them by means of concessions, in order to render them innocuous (like cultivated microbes), and then make them serve the aims of the Governments, i.e., oppress and exploit the masses.

Both these issues being firmly closed and impregnable, what remains to be done? To use violence is impossible; it would only cause reaction. To join the ranks of the Government is also impossible — one would only become its instrument. One course therefore remains — to fight the Government by means of thought, speech, actions, life, neither yielding to Government nor joining its ranks and thereby increasing its power. This alone is needed, will certainly be successful. And this is the will of God, the teaching of Christ. There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man.

How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.

~Leo Tolstoy (1900)

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eric please check this out http://www.stankovuniversallaw.com

I only recently found that page and resonated with it on a high level I will be happy to learn what you think about it

Eric Dubay said...

I'm not big on any movement or website that takes so seriously the ideas of "Ascension," "Ascended Masters," "Fifth Dimension," "11:11," etc.

It all sounds like voodoo woo woo mystical ding dong tail chasing to me...

But maybe I'm wrong and on 11/11/11 we'll all follow Dr. Stankov, the "first ascended master" (says your website) to the 5th dimension of transgalactic civilization in crystalline DNA light bodies ;-) ... though I doubt it

Anonymous said...

How about changing the use of "man" and include "wo/man", not just by IMPLYING that woman might be included! as if we're not worth mentioning in the first place!

;)

that has bugged me since i could read!!!!

Anonymous said...

I was under the impression that you dont rule out things like ascension - the interesting thing about dr. stankov is that he as well as some other german scientists who did not publish in english actually have some really logical approaches you also might want to check out itzhak bentov and forget to look at the latest discoveries from cern - they found particles moving faster then light...

Lois said...

So much wisdom and passion -compassion too-, so beautifully written, what an exceptional man! thanks for posting this, Eric; what troubles me a little is that this could have been written today, I mean are we any closer to a better scenario like the one Leo talks about? ...I hope so.

robbie said...

thanx eric for sharing this beautiful work !! sadly the end question is so true ...yet this is the only way
peace
robbie
south africa

Anonymous said...

Very well said. Wish i could articulate as clear. Any lysander spooner articles to look forward to. What do you think of bill cooper?

Anonymous said...

Its like, where do you draw the line for all that heebie jeebie stuff ;)

It might even sound incredulous that the Pineal Gland has any sort of involvement in astral travel, or astral travel sounds too sci-fi...unless you have experienced it.

People who havent experienced deja vu dreams would probably think that its all nonsense.

People who havent seen somebody's eyes change all freaky shaped, then revert back to normal would think that Reptilians dont exist.

So I guess you would draw the line at where you havent experienced something "supernatural".

If they never found dinosaur bones, I would say some creature could never have existed that was THAT BIG.

Even today, nobody (except maybe David Wilcock) can explain how the pyra-mids were so precisely built with stone boulders that no machine today can move. Only the pyra-mids are tangible, but unexplainable.

Intangibles are simply written off as, heebie jeebie.

:)

Ta-Wan said...

I really like Tolstoy, he seems to say what I have attempted to say only in a much clearer and precise manner.

Eric Dubay said...

Thanks for the comments everyone. As you said, I "don't rule out things like ascension," but as another commenter said, "where do you draw the line for this stuff?"

We have to keep open-minds or else we'll never see the truth... but we also have to use keen discernment or else we'll never know the truth when we see it.

If we close ourselves to the infinite, then we only have finite possibilities... but if we stay completely open and never choose anything, then we only have infinite IMpossibilities.

It's a balancing beam act we must walk between open-mindedness and separating the wheat from the chaff.

I'm open to everything, so as I said perhaps Dr. Stankov really is the first ascended master and, as his website says, on 11/11/11 those who practice his methods will join transgalactic civilization and upgrade to 5th dimensional crystalline DNA light bodies... I simply said "I doubt it." That's the discernment part. But I'm certainly fallible, it's just my opinion, and you may be right.

How about this... on 11/12/11 you come back here and I'll tell you "I told you so," or you can come visit me fifth dimensionally in your transgalactic light body and telepathically tell me you told me so. Deal? :P

~Eric

P.S. I love Bill Cooper

Anonymous said...

Perhaps, a "key" to understanding ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=XPeU_h8FhX4

Anonymous said...

Actually, what I meant to say was-where do you ERASE the line.

The lines that divide the whole big picture...the 3D walls that partition the dimensions.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of dimensions, maybe a simple analogy might be how one looks at venetian blinds, or vertical blinds.

Where if you pull the drawstrings or turn that wand stick "key" will show either:
*the concave side (one dimension) of the blinds -or-
*the convex side (another dimension) of the blinds.

But if you never learned how to adjust the drawstrings or the wand stick, you will stay in the current dimension.

Eric Dubay said...

For Lois, I think though it's been over a century since Tolstoy wrote this, with the internet we are finally getting closer to a mass shift in public opinion. I've been getting more pessimistic about it lately, but regardless of "opti" or "pessi" isms on my part, exposing this information, standing up for what's right, living with honesty/integrity and in such a way as to end this manipulation and exploitation of the human race is becoming deeply ingrained in many of us and we will lead by example.

Stop voting, stop paying taxes, stand up for yourselves and others against the violent authority of the state. Educate yourselves about common law, the fraudulent court system, and become a freeman on the land. Become self-reliant, self-responsible, and self-sustainable by claiming right to your land, never paying another tax penny for it, then building your house and growing your garden. See your complicity in the slave system and find ways to free yourself from it and stand firmly on your own terms.

Thanks to the other Anonymous for the Lysander Spooner recommendation... I'll be checking out his stuff when I have a chance. And lastly to Andrew B. if you read this, I can't reply to your message... every time I try I get a postmaster deliver failure, so sorry about that, do you have another email address? Peace

~Eric

Eric Dubay said...

I like the "key" analogy and video you posted. So how do we enter these other dimensions? Psychedelics? Dreams? OBEs? After Death? What do you think this symbology in the Matrix etc. is pointing toward?

Anonymous said...

It really is ironic how my oriental-themed art paintings in the past "painted" many aspects of the illuminati--or should i say, orientalati.

i named my abstract paintings with such titles as Dragon Lord, Sun God, Moon Goddess, Opium Poppies, "8" or Infin8, venus' Orbit, Saturn's Orbit, Vortex, Imperial Gate, and after watching the video series (above, Youtube noreagaa)--i had named a painting set, Imperial Gatekeeper.

I even thought i created a cool logo for my art-- ~*~

i never heard about the illuminati, and thought i was painting oriental themed symbolisms. i had many many many buyers asking where i got my inspiration or how i named my paintings. to me, it was no big deal, i told them my best paintings are the ones where i'm not even thinking, i just go with whatever colors i feel like.
i name my paintings after i'm done, and the first word that pops into my head, that's it!

boy, now after researching on the illuminati heebie jeebie ;) stuff, i must have been channeling something.

i had also noticed i attracted some dark clientelle, even their user name online was darkangel.

hmmmmmmmm...........
but now i know why they were "drawn" to my art (lol).

Eric Dubay said...

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Was it you that left the great comment about standing up for yourself in school too? Could you send me your website again. I remember really enjoying your art and would like to see your new work. Thanks. Peace

Anonymous said...

This is digressing, but i came up with that blinds sided analogy because i kept thinking back about 1 year ago, researching late at night in our hotel condo in Hawaii on all this conspiracy stuff.

And i somehow came to Paul McCartney. And as an 11 yr old, i became a Beatles fanatic--reading everything i can about the group. because only when John Lennon died, the radio stations started playing all the Beatles songs, and I was like, many of the songs i liked were by THE BEATLES. Anyhow, i digress again. But I was researching that the real James Paul McCartney was, alas, killed back in 1965.
His friend, Sylvia Vartan, was also mysteriously "swapped" out.
And while i was listening to her songs to try to recognize her face (the real Sylvia) as her music played, the VERTICAL BLINDS in the room started vigorously rocking back and forth--but only from one end and only maybe like 4 panels. this continued rocking vigorously for about 10 minutes while i was emailing somebody (ingri :))

I was trying to keep my composure and not be freakied out. because all windows were closed (we rarely opened the patio door where the blinds were rocking), and the ac does not blow that hard.

i know that was a supernatural moment.

weird things happened in that hotel room to the point i slept with the light on thereafter.

another freaky thing would happen back when i was in elementary school, waiting for the schoolbus downstairs of our home, and i would swear i turned off the kitchen light, walked to wait by the front door, and the kitchen light would turn on. now, i was more attuned as a child and know my eyes did not betray me. i avoided the kitchen after i was done with breakfast.

ok, another very freaky thing happened when i was about 12 yrs old, and a loud banging sound woke me up. then i kept hearing footsteps of somebody walking around our house--even though we were all asleep. THEN, it was coming towards my room and i heard a "shhh". and i just about freaked my heebie jeebies out.

when the sun was coming up, i got up the nerve and called my uncle to come over and said we had prowlers in the house (this was pre cellphone time, pre cordless phone time)

i can go on about deja vus, its not fun seeing loved ones die, twice.

but maybe another time on this ;)

Eric Dubay said...

Those are some interesting heebie jeebie stories. I've had some deja vus and psychedelic experiences that completely shattered my previous conceptions of space/time. There is certainly much more to the "immaterial" or "spirit" world than is accepted by most.

I recommend Graham Hancock's "Supernatural," Michael Talbot's "The Holographic Universe," and Dean Radin's "Entagled Minds" for any staunch materialists out there.

david said...

Thanks Eric, i needed to read that today. I know you're not into "christianity" or any of that, but as Tolstoy says, we're all human, and there's good and bad. We all have a conscience, one of those great unspoken truths, we just don't all listen to it ;-)

peace and love to you and yours :)

Anonymous said...

My gut feeling says, Your Pineal Gland is the "key".

We have lived with fluoridated water here in California for quite a while, and just in the past year, I learned that buzzing thing in my head was my Pineal Gland--I experienced that buzzing plenty of times as a young child, but it has been probably over 2 decades since I've experienced it.

It buzzed for me again when we moved to a place without the fluoridated water, and that was a time when we had our electricity cutoff for a couple of months (I didnt know we had to pay a $300 deposit to start the electricity!), and we went grocery shopping a few times a week to replenish our raw fruits & veggies.

SO, my conclusion is to activate your Pineal Gland "key" is first & foremost
1. First & foremost ABSOLUTELY NO FLUORIDTED WATER (which calcifies your pineal gland -- google pictures to see how nasty a calcified fluoridated pineal gland looks like)

2. Fresh RAW fruits & veggies (eat light to be Light ;)) because raw contains photons of light. light=energy=god

3. Cut off the electricity. No currents in the walls to interfere.

I also found that if I crossed my legs during sleep, that seems to help bring on the buzz. My pineal buzzed like I havent felt it buzz since my childhood! During the time we stayed at the place, my body would feel like its vibrating all over--this was always during the night when I was sleeping only to be slightly awakened by it.
I sincerely think I would have astro traveled or transported because my whole body was buzzing, but my kids woke me up in the middle of it. Each time I was experiencing this intense body buzz, my kids would wake me up (usually around 2-3am).

Now, we have moved back to fluoridated water area, and my poor pineal is just sparking--like the rice krispies sparkle when you add the milk.

So, I truly believe the fluoridated water has been added for the past 50 years to keep us from fully experiencing the powers of our Pineal.

So PLEASE SIGN the petition to STOP FLUORIDATING OUR WATER!

http://www.naturalnews.com/033828_water_fluoridation_petition.html

Anonymous said...

Mind over Matter;
Matter undermined

http://www.youtube.com/user/davidwilcock333?blend=7&ob=5#p/u/0/nR-klTa1y54

;)

Anonymous said...

hey eric,

i havent painted anything new since 2008. my last series were mostly fluid type abstracts, basically mixing oil with water and let them paint themselves. see, i know how to make others work for me ;)

but i was pondering just now, about how i could have picked all those "illuminaughti" symbolisms--even stuff that wasnt (to my knowledge) from the chinese culture.

so i'm thinking that maybe its because i just dont "think" but just let my body kinetics from the brush strokes--or painting with sticks--or the walking around my canvasses placed on the floor (and down the driveway or in the barn...), visual stimulus coming from the colors and textures of the paint--may be the factors that "opened" up some gateway. maybe its like the key to some realm.

i also have some great ideas when i'm sitting on the toilet...

sorry for the visual, but i am an artiste.

Anonymous said...

Space-Time
::
Time-Space

Revvv 'er up! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kvZSR06lhE

Anonymous said...

I wish nothing more than to see a future where men and women work together in harmony for the good of all, without the repression of government. I also see hope in waking more and more people up, especially through internet but evenbeing a 16 year old who doesnt go to school but has educated himself very well on many matters and is a daily cannabis smoker and uses mushrooms about every three months i can see how hard the battle will be. The pressure to join the system is so immense, ive brought many people to this concern, and even though many of them see all these things quite clearly, how western society is heading down the wrong path, perphaps even a path to extinction, and we must fight and our greatest weapon is our voice and our lifestyle, they just dont see what lifestyle they can choose without suporting the capatalistic system. Ive always said that it doesnt matter what you think if your energy is being spent building the wrong pyramid. And although i have faith in my intinct and on higher guidence to be honest, i dont see a clear path ahead of me.The main problem is that were almost forced to enact the story western civilization is carrying out simply because if we dont, we cant eat.