READING THE WORDS OF THE
IMMORTAL GUSTAV LANDAUER ASSIDUOUSLY
"One can throw away a
chair and destroy a pane of glass; but those are idle talkers and credulous
idolaters of words who regard the state as such a thing or as a fetish that one
can smash in order to destroy it. The
State is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of
behavior; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving
differently toward one another – One day it will be realized that Socialism is
not the invention of anything new, but the discovery of something actually
present, of something that has grown…We are the state, and we shall continue
to be the state until we have created the institutions that form a real
community and society of men." – Gustav Landauer
"Schwache
Stattsmanner, Schwacheres
Volk!"
Der Sozialist, June, 1910
"…The realization of Socialism is always possible if a
sufficient number of people want it. The
realization depends not on the technological state of things, although Socialism
when realized will of course look differently and develop differently according
to the state of technics; it depends on people and
on their spirit…Socialism is possible and impossible at all times; it is
possible when the right people are there to will it and to do it; it is
impossible when people either don't will it or only supposedly will it, but are
not capable of doing it." – Gustav Landauer
"For Socialism", quoted in Martin Buber,
Paths in Utopia
Translated by R.F.C. Hull
We see no violent terms or
calls to take up arms against the state in the anarchy of Landauer.
He quite correctly understands the state as us, not as an imaginary
"them".
To try to smash a state is
as foolish as one who, gazing in a mirror, does not like the image she or he
sees, and so smashes the mirror.
Notice the use of the term
'fetish' in Landauer's first quote above. Landauer's command of language was exquisite. The Transderivational
Morphology in his choice of the term 'fetish' is wholly intentional and
masterfully applied.
It is not only, and perhaps
not even principally, in our economic behavior that will, gradually, transform
society, but also by way of our spiritual and sexual behavior, as determined by
our Moral/Spiritual development.
While our interactions with
one another as members of the same guilds and unions is very important, it is
far more in our faults, failings and foibles as Human beings and in our common
need to grow as people that we connect on the profoundest levels.
Alcoholics, for instance,
feel a far greater affinity for their fellows in Alcoholics Anonymous than they
do for their coworkers who are not recovering alcoholics. Indeed, many express
the feeling that other AA members are more their family than their biological families
are.
The same may be said, of
course, for people engaged in other common struggles with ongoing and complex
personal issues and problems. Such people are kindred spirits. They are
united in sharing a common problem and are interdependent given the fact that
they must create the solutions to their problems together, as other members of
society are often woefully unequipped to deal with their problems, or even the
proximate cause of their problems.
While "leftists"
have always concentrated on considering Human being primarily in their
capacities as workers, intentionally ignoring the intangible aspects of Human
make-up, it will ultimately be in our recognizing our common Humanity in our
personal, and even very personal lives, that will determine the shape our
societies take on. The hope for a society that responds to our physical needs
in a humane manner rests with our being compassionate toward one another on the
more rarified levels of our existence.
The overall form society
takes on is a function of how we, all of us, interact with those who we
recognize as being our kindred spirits and upon our ability to recognize that
we all need maximum succor from society, on the spiritual, intellectual,
emotional and physical planes of our existence in order to evolve without
suffering.
It is far more efficacious
to go gently and serenely about the business of improving our interrelations
with one another than to bother ourselves with "resistance",
"struggle", "overthrow" and the like. Such an approach is, necessarily,
counterproductive, as we are doing nothing but waging battle against ourselves
in so doing and rendering ourselves incapable of entering into intimate
community with others.
"We are the state,
and we shall continue to be the state until we have created the institutions
that form a real community and society of men."
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan,