Anarchy 31/Randolph Bourne vs. the State

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Randolph Bourne vs. the State

H. W. MORTON

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“War is the health of the State.” Had Randolph Bourne never written another line he would have earned immor­tal­ity from those words alone. “War is the health of the State,” he an­nounced, and went on to explain:

  “It auto­matic­ally sets in motion through­out society those irres­ist­ible forces for uni­form­ity, for pas­sion­ate co-

opera­tion with the Govern­ment in coer­cing into obedi­ence the minor­ity groups and indi­vidu­als which lack the larger herd sense. The ma­chinery of Govern­ment sets and en­forces the drastic penal­ties; the minor­ities are either intim­id­ated into silence, or brought slowly around by a subtle process of per­sua­sion which may seem to them really to be con­vert­ing them. Of course the ideal of perfect loyalty, perfect uni­form­ity is never really at­tained. The classes upon whom the amateur work of coer­cion falls are un­wearied in their zeal, but often their agita­tion instead of con­vert­ing, merely serves to stiffen their resist­ance. Minor­ities are rendered sullen, and some intel­lec­tual opinion bitter and satir­ical. But in general, the nation in war-time attains a uni­form­ity of feeling, a hier­archy of values cul­minat­ing at the undis­puted apex of the State ideal, which could not possibly be pro­duced through any other agency than war.”

  Randolph Bourne, a bril­liant cripple, was born in New Jersey in that singu­larly radical year 1886, and died in New York City in 1918. A gradu­ate of Columbia University, and a member of that nebu­lous clique of Green­wich Village Bohemi­ans, he was a fre­quent con­trib­utor to The New Repub­lic, The At­lantic Monthly, The Seven Arts and The Dial. Most of his writing, however, would be of little in­terest to anar­chists—I found “The History of a Liter­ary Radical & Other Papers” (New York, Russell, 1956) so uni­formly innoc­uous that I didn’t even finish it. On the other hand, had this col­lec­tion in­cluded “The State” is the health­iest of Randolph Bourne.

  “The State”, an un­fin­ished essay written at the time of World War I, had long been out of print. It has re­cently been re­issued—in time for World War III—by the Greater New York Society for the Pre­ven­tion of Cruelty to the Human Animal, 150 Nassau Street, New York 38, N.Y. It is well worth the $1.00 price despite a rather bizarre format

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(28 inches wide, 8 inches high when open).