Anarchy 85/Meliorism—a reply

83

  By “melio­rism” I under­stand a certain kind of social acti­vity or beha­viour—a kind of acti­vity which is dis­tin­guished from other kinds of acti­vity, not so much by any quality or style of the acti­vity itself, but by its having certain ends or aims. Melio­rist acti­vity is that acti­vity which has as its end, or is aimed at, some social im­prove­ment. This account of what melio­rism is agrees, I think, sub­stan­tial­ly with that of Molnar’s.

  It might, however, be queried by some liber­tari­ans. They would argue that melio­rist acti­vity has a certain style—it in­volves a certain mode of beha­viour, it has a certain in­trin­sic cha­rac­ter. The adjec­tives “servile”, “con­for­mist”, “devious”, etc., spring to mind as ways that liber­tari­ans hae cha­rac­ter­ised what they take to be the in­trin­sic cha­rac­ter of melio­rism. However, to define melio­rism as acti­vity carried out in this manner would be to beg the ques­tion against those who claim that one can achieve worth­while results in the social sphere without, as it were, sacri­fi­cing one’s personal integ­rity in the process. And it does seem to be an empi­rical ques­tion which we should not pre-judge whether or not melio­rism is always accom­pa­nied by a certain cha­rac­teris­tic style of beha­viour. It seems best, there­fore, to adopt as a star­ting point a general cha­rac­teri­sa­tion of melio­rism as that acti­vity direc­ted towards the end of social im­prove­ment.

  Liber­tari­ans have in the past been averse to taking part in melio­rist acti­vity; they have usually, though not always, been content to air their grie­van­ces without trying to remedy them. Molnar has argued for a sub­stan­tial modi­fica­tion of this atti­tude. He has based his posi­tion on an exa­mina­tion and criti­cism of certain argu­ments which he takes to be used as support for the liber­ta­rian atti­tude, and which he claims do not in fact support that atti­tude.

  I agree with Molnar to this extent: if the liber­ta­rian oppo­si­tion to melio­rism is based on the argu­ments that he consi­ders, then that oppo­si­tion is not jus­ti­fied. To the extent that liber­tari­ans have defen­ded their anti-melio­rism by resor­ting to these consi­dera­tions, then their defence has been an in­ade­quate one. But, against this, I want to argue that the liber­ta­rian aver­sion to melio­rism is based on consi­dera­tions which Molnar ignores, and that these are crucial for an under­stan­ding of the liber­ta­rian atti­tude. I will further suggest that these consi­dera­tions are basic to liber­tari­anism—basic in the sense that if one were to reject them one would cease to be a liber­ta­rian. As a conse­quence of this, where Molnar sug­gests that liber­tari­anism and melio­rism—albeit of a res­trained and selec­tive kind—are compa­tible, I will argue that they are incom­pa­tible. Where Molnar asks that we reject the general

84

ques­tion “What is wrong with melio­rism?”, I think we should accept it, and try to answer it.

  This will involve going oer some pretty fami­liar mate­rial. Still, it seems worth going over if just to give it a certain empha­sis which might be missed. It is also neces­sary because it seems that it is just this fami­liar mate­rial that Molnar has chosen to ignore.

  Liberta­rians, as we know, are anar­chists, though admit­ted­ly anar­chists of a rather strange breeed. Before we get into those ele­ments in liber­ta­rian thin­king which dis­tin­guish them from other anar­chists, it will be as well to stress at least one element in liber­ta­rian thin­king which they share with clas­sical anar­chists. This is, of course, the enor­mous, perhaps inor­di­nate, stress on freedom—freedom, that set of condi­tions in which human acti­vity can be carried on unhin­dered, and in which indi­vi­dual and group inte­rests can be ex­pressed without barrier. Toge­ther with this is the corre­la­tive oppo­si­tion to those forces and insti­tu­tions which limit that freedom. Whereas other poli­tical anar­chists and liber­tari­ans hae held out in the name of complete freedom, and have main­tained, or tried to main­tain, an uncom­promi­sing atti­tude towards those forces that stand in the way of that freedom.

  It is because liber­tari­ans try to main­tain this posi­tion that they are anar­chists; if they ceased to hold this posi­tion they would cease to be anar­chists—they would be ratbags of a diffe­rent kind. What I want to stress is that this atti­tude is basic to liber­tari­anism, and because it is an atti­tude it is not, as such, subject to argu­ment or proof. Liber­tari­ans just have this atti­tude: it is their star­ting point. It is not the con­clu­sion of an argu­ment, nor a ter­mi­nus arrived at from the consi­dera­tion of pre­mi­ses.

  Given that liber­tari­ans qualify as anar­chists because of this basic common ground, we can now point out how liber­tari­ans differ from most other anar­chists, cer­tain­ly from those in the clas­sical tradi­tion. Liber­tari­ans believe that the a­chieve­ment of a society in which this ideal of freedom is rea­lised is impos­sible; they believe that no amount of propa­ganda, edu­ca­tion, or poli­tical strug­gle will bring about a society even re­mote­ly resem­bling the anar­chist utopia. (I don’t want to con­si­der ques­tions as to how this belief is justi­fied. I think it is justi­fied, though I think that the justi­fica­tion is not quite as straight­for­ward a matter as liber­tari­ans have tended to believe. But this is by the way.) The point is that it is this belief that dis­tin­gui­shes liber­tari­ans from other anar­chists, just as it is the uncom­promi­sing atti­tude towards freedom that dis­tin­gui­shes liber­tari­ans and anar­chists from other poli­tical creeds.

  Years ago, Molnar himself pointed out (Libertarian No. I (1957), p. 12) that the clas­sical anar­chists were not just utopian dream­ers, but that there was another strand in their thought. On occa­sion, they stressed the reality of the present and actual en­gage­ment with autho­rity, of the im­medi­ate strug­gle for eman­cipa­tion, rather than the far distant, perhaps illu­sory, utopia, which they con­ceived to be the outcome of that strug­gle. It was in this mood that Bakunin Bakunin wrote: “to think of the future is cri­mi­nal”. And it is this strain in anar­chist thin­king which

85

is at­trac­tive to liber­tari­ans. But with an impor­tant diffe­rence. The anar­chists usually thought of their acti­vity as a means to a certain end—the estab­lish­ment of a free society. Liber­tari­ans, al­though they believe that that end is impos­sible, never­the­less con­tinue with acti­vity which is similar in kind to that of the anar­chists because they see that acti­vity as an end in itself.

  Liber­tari­ans are con­cerned with the content of their acti­vity, i.e., its quality as such, and are not con­cerned with the ends that it may or may not achieve. Liber­tari­ans see certain sorts of action as ex­pres­sive of their belief in freedom; being free is, in a sense, acting in a certain way. They are con­cerned with the acti­vity, not for what it is hoped that it will bring about, but because they think that it is worth doing for its own sake. That is, I believe, the content, or an impor­tant part of the content, of the notion of perma­nent protest.

  Of course, this does not apply, nor is it meant to apply, to all acti­vity under­taken by liber­tari­ans. It does not, for in­stance, apply to that acti­vity which is con­cerned just with the mundane task of living, e.g., drin­king, eating, etc. But it cer­tain­ly does apply to acti­vity in the socio-poli­tical sphere. There may well be diffi­cul­ties in demar­ca­ting this area pre­cise­ly, but perhaps it will be suf­fi­cient in this context to say that it is just that area in which we are being invited to parti­ci­pate in “res­trained and selec­tive” melio­rism.

<references>