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Aaron Richert

Dr. Kokontis and Dr. Duplantier

Integrated Humanities III

14 February 2017

Its About Time To Act

Capitalist Industrialism is the scourge of modern day America, and has tainted

societies for as long as it has existed. It has created an impenetrable caste system even

in what is known as the free world. It limits upward mobility and creates a system in

which hard work is not valued as much as money and connections. Count Lev

Nikolayevich Tolstoy (known as Leo Tolstoy in English) proposed that society adopt a

form of Christian Anarchism. Tolstoy grew up in Russia raised by his Aunt after all

closer relatives and guardians passed away. After joining the military, he published a

trilogy about his childhood and became a rather popular writer. He wrote several more

fiction novels, but used his position as a popular author to reveal his political views

through his characters (he famously voiced his views through Konstantin Dmitrich Levin

in Anna Karenina). However, at age 50 his views shifted radically due to his conversion

to Christianity. He then became one of the leading figures in the Christian Anarchist

movement, writing texts such as The Kingdom of G[-]d is Within You and What I

Believe. Christian Anarchism seeks to abolish the government, and let the people

govern themselves through the love of G-d, often citing the Sermon on the Mount as

the essential piece of scripture with which to base their beliefs. Tolstoy proposed that

people truly love and trust each other, and that in order to restore this society of love
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and trust, we must flee from the cities and factories and return to nature and create our

own societies based on the love of G-d and our fellow man. Tolstoys idea of Christian

Anarchism provides a good base for a society, but I believe that the only way to fix

capitalist industrialism is to dismantle government control and dissolve the concept of

power through action.

Neo-liberalism is the system of a free market that values privatization and

deregulation, while also destroying the concept of the public good and glorifying

corporations. Milton Friedman, one of neo-liberalisms patron saints, helped create this

system through his rhetoric, once saying of the corporations, Corporations have no

social duty (except to those who own their stock). Corporations are amoral, because

corporate conscience is impossible. Corporations choose the rules, and a corporations

only job is to make the shareholders as much money as possible (Corporate Social

Responsibility). This system of corporations valuing money and showing indifference

toward anything else is toxic. It shows a basic disregard of human rights and values

greed over hard work and love. When Friedman was confronted with the fact that

neo-liberalism favors those who manipulate the system rather than those who display

virtue, Friedman responded that no functioning system in the world valued or rewarded

virtue. This idea, when applied to human nature in general, says that humans are, on

the whole, greedy people who only do things to further their own private health and

well-being. When this idea is widespread, it perpetuates the myth that the only way to

succeed in this world is to be greedy and align yourself with these toxic corporations.

These ideas are also wholly untrue, because when humans free themselves from
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corporate and governmental tethers, the societies they form themselves are just and

based on the love and trust that every human has inside themselves.

The only true way to achieve an anarchist society is to dismantle the government

systems of power and return power back to the people. Tolstoy believes that people

have strayed from G-ds light, and that when once they were full of love, they are now

corrupt and full of greed. I believe that the only way to fix this corruption is to fully

dismantle the current governments position of overarching power. Tolstoy speaks on

power, saying, In order to obtain and retain power, one must love it. But the effort after

power is not apt to be coupled with goodness, but with the opposite qualities, pride, craft

and cruelty. Without exalting self and abusing others, without hypocrisy, lying, prisons,

fortresses, penalties, killing, no power can arise or hold its own (The Kingdom Of God

Is Within You). Tolstoy speaks here on the corruption of power, saying that no one can

keep power without abusing others to keep it. Those who continue to hold power do not

do so innocently, for they must lie and cheat and punish the common people in order to

maintain it. Systems of punishment created by the state are simply methods to keep

those that have power in power. Simply put, continual power cannot exist without the

presence of a much deeper corruption. One could even argue that power as a concept,

even when not continual, is corrupt in essence, and must be stopped. Later, speaking

on government as whole, he states, The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed

not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens Henceforth, I shall never serve

any government anywhere (What I Believe). The government of any state that supports

capitalist industrialism exploits and corrupts its citizens, and that is why these
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governments must be dismantled. The capitalist industrialist system is designed to

reward greed, which only leads to further exploitation of the average worker, and allows

for little to no upward mobility. The state traps citizens in whatever caste they are in,

manipulating them into believing that they are not, and exploits their labor for the benefit

of the upper class, blinding the citizens to their true feelings of love and trust, and

ensuring that all the average citizen cares about is themselves.

To escape the brutality of capitalist industrialism, man should leave cities and the

factory hierarchy and return to nature and return to mans true nature of love and trust.

Tolstoy believed in the purity of nature, like a true romantic, and that nature was the true

key to all happiness. If man could return to nature and not taint it with greed and

corporate amoralism, the spirit of love and trust could flourish and create loving

societies that thrive on understanding and happiness of the common man. As Tolstoy

illustrates, The first condition essentially necessary for happiness has always been

admitted by all men to be a life in which the link between him and nature is not

destroyed that is, a life in the open air, in the sunshine, in communion with nature,

plants and animals (What I Believe). Tolstoy believed that the first step to rekindling

mans true happiness is to rediscover the connection that man has with nature. The only

way to cure the corruption found in this capitalist society is to return to the untainted and

pure world that is nature. Man was never meant to sever his ties with the untouched

scene that surrounded him, only hubris and greed caused man to leave nature. Tolstoy

proposes that we return, so as to find true happiness and rebuild ourselves in harmony

with what we find around us; not to think of humans as higher, intelligent beings, merely
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as beings that co-exist with their surroundings. Only through this can man free himself

from the capitalist chains with which he currently finds himself bound. However, while

Tolstoy states that corporations should be destroyed, he is not against working, as he

states in What I Believe, A second indubitable condition necessary for happiness is

labor congenial, free labor, physical labor, which gives a man a good appetite and

sound, invigorating sleep. And, again, the greater the prosperity a man has attained,

according to a worldly estimate, the further he is from this second condition, essentially

necessary for happiness. Tolstoy did not wish to end all labor, only to end the

exploitation of labor in the corporate systems. He goes on to say that free labor (truly

free labor for ones self) gives man a purpose in his life, even stating that it would give

him a sound, invigorating sleep. The value of free labor is inestimable, however, he

states, if a man is considered prosperous in the eyes of capitalism, he is straying

further and further from the true happiness given to man through this free labor. I

believe that the prosperous man should cast off his riches and return to the state of

nature and free labor that man was so intended for, and then he will find true happiness.

Pacifism cannot enact major change onto a society, the only way to truly achieve

these goals is to fight for them in every sense imaginable, including waging violent

warfare against the state. Tolstoys belief in pacifism, while well defended, confuses me

to no end. In Christianity and Patriotism, Tolstay states, In all history there is no war

which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the

interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful. Fiery

statements such as these speak deeply to the anarchist inside of me, they echo as a cry
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for change, but most importantly as a call to action. So my confusion should be palpable

when Tolstoy provides such text as, 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 revolution. To establish

Anarchy. Anarchy will be instituted. But it will be instituted only by there being more

and more people who do not require protection from governmental power, and by there

being more and more people who will be ashamed of applying this power (Christianity

and Patriotism). Such texts describe my main issue with Tolstoyan Christian Anarchy:

pacifism. Never have I encountered major change in a society occurring through a belief

in an ideal. All major upheavals of government that I have encountered have been

through fire and revolution. It is my belief that the only way to dismantle the corrupt

government and capitalist system we see in modern-day societies is through taking the

power away from the corrupt state and letting the concept of power dissolve. It is in this

way that I see Tolstoys pacifism as invalid: waiting for the guilty parties in power to feel

guilty for their wrongdoings will be nearly impossible, as Tolstoy has already

acknowledged that power comes from the love of power, and corruption does not phase

those who grasp that power. Pacifism allows for this philosophy to be spread and

acknowledged as peaceful and wise, perhaps allowing for its widespread acceptance

and support, but it does not allow for this philosophy to ever see an actualized reality.

Tolstoyan philosophy lays a base for a nearly utopian society, but to truly

dissolve the system in place, we must take action. I wish that I could see this philosophy
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come to fruition and reality, but as an American citizen, I acknowledge that it will be

most unlikely for me to see this day. I believe that it is possible that America has fallen

too far into the corrupt intertwined system of democracy and capitalist industrialism.

The damage capitalist industrialism has done to the working class citizen and to the

Earths environment is nearly irreversible. However, I do not wish to deal in these

absolute, nor do I wish to say the word never. If we wish to see a truly anarchical

society of love, trust, and free labor, we as a people of this nation must act now. We

must acknowledge as a people that the corporate government is a corrupt system that

profits off of exploitation of workers, and sets people into a strict hierarchy while

implanting them with false hope of upward mobility. We as a people must become

educated in these philosophies of anarchy and social change, and we must demand it

by force. The route of pacifism has long passed its time, and if we are to change the

modern world in which we live, we must make the most of the time we have and cry for

change. We must fight for the world we want and for the ideals that we believe. We

must dissolve corporations and their greed and move forward through a harmony with

nature and our fellow man. It is through this that the concept of power will be dissolved

and true happiness and public good will be restored to mankind. If we, as a people, truly

want to see change, now, more than ever, we must take action.
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Works Cited

ecker
Coleman, Thomas S., PhD. "Corporate Social Responsibility: Friedman's View." B

Friedman Institute. The University of Chicago, 16 Aug. 2013. Web.

Tolstoy, Lev Nikolayevich. The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy. London: J.M. Dent, 1904.

Print.

Tolstoy, Lev Nikolayevich. What I Believe. New York: Cosimo Classics, 2007. Print.