THE GENESIS OF ANARCHY.

Waikato Times, Volume XLII, Issue 3424, 9 June 1894, Page 10

THE GENESIS OF ANARCHY.

The probability is that very few 'persons -who read tho daily cablegrams that chronicle for us the doiugs and sayings of Anarchists ever inquire what manner of mail an anarchistic If directly asked the, question the ordinary reader would, pronounce him simply to boa criminal; and, having pronounced him

•such, he .would conclude that, the treatment meet for him is simply the ordinary .treatment accorded to ■.criminals. If, however, there were signs which went to show that the treatment which the law -dealt out to criminals was likely to fall to Anarchists, the position would have to be .reconsidered, and 'the phenomena of Anarchism further studied. In most civi- . Jised countries tho lav is amply equipped ■for dealing" with the murderer, the burglar, and the thief, Their numbers bear an almost fixed proportion to the rest of ste community. They inspire no entibusiasm in others. They are silent when at work, have a haug-dog air when caught, and regard the vengeance of the ■ law, whether it takes the form of death or imprisonment, with a natural and healthy feorror; The Ai.aichist is different. He ia equally silent when i.t work ; but be bathes glories in being caught, and would jike to go to prison the longest way round so that he could bawl his catch; words and . attract attention on the roai He also iikeß to make a display in court and a speech on the scaffold, and is generally gratified to think< that he will be talked about a good deal after lie has gone. Here, then, we have two distinct varieties of criminals warring against society. . Both are classed under- the general terra •ofAnarchists'- because both are using the same weapon for the same fell pur■gjosc. The ordinary criminal has always , been with us, and has united his forces to the new variety; simply because that variety led the way .to anewkiudof iCriine. He is probably, however, in the minority. The majority is made up of tho new material that has been so much in evidence of late, Where did this new variety come from ? let us endeavour to answer that question. The study of mental pathology lias 1 revealed the fact that a certain proportion of the, human race are born with what has been called " the insane neurosis." They a: e not madmen, and ihey are not by any means simpletons, Kit merely persons of a- more or lesa defective mental and physical organiea* tion. Som times they develop into : liabitual criminals, and pass under the cogiiisaace of the police. Frequently, • however, they lead, a shiftless, aimless, inconsistent s)rt of existence 1 ,. Jrifting n'fci.uately in middle' life or later, into fchs various lunatic asylums of a country.. A striking feature is often a morbid love of 'notoriety ; and when a morbid love of notoriety is associated with a weak brain and defective moral sense it is a mere question of degree whether the unhappy being gives way to the absuidest forms of eccentricity or to the perpetration, of appalling crimes. Crime appears to be a, soit of outlet, by which, morbid tendencies find relief J as a fit gives relief to the epileptic by the discharge of unhealthy pent-up euergy, When the strong and healthy mind ie fired with ambition it will set all its energies to gfct its qualities! legitimately recognised. When, on the, other hand, the; weak, aohealthy biain .is:overcome with the lave of notoriety it will impel its unhappy owner to shoot a king, or a president, or a millionaire, or blow up a theatre, a cafe, or any other kildihg where human beings were congregated.' The' precise nature of the crime depends upon the fms given by accidental' circumstances. JK the neurotic subject fail in his design,, fee will be happy in the notoriety he has achieved; The dibcovery, of new and deadly explosives has exercised an un--5 paralleled attraction for a certain class of the neurotic. Heuce the Auarehists, Thf th'ory is not without a certain comfortable-assuratfee of its own. The £uperfici;'l obai'vyer and the timid indiyioual.might easily work themselves - auto i*, s-tate of considerable alarm about Anarchism. '' Here is a deadly propaganda which might make su h Headway as in a little time would enable it to : destroy our entire civilisation." The fear ie a vain one. The material of which the Anarchist is made is,like the common* s!a,ce criminal, strictly limited; and bears a very small proportion to the healthy elements of the human race. Beyond £bat limit the creed has no room for exclusion. Go to an ordinary man, even cf the moat unintelligent stamp, and say flahim: "Whynot blow up some hun 4ceds of your fellow-men,"'.and what would he reply? He would say : "Why fifoould I do that? If I had the blood of , even one on my conscience,! should not lie able to sleep. I might go to the < lunatic, asylum," Itwou'd be like reojminending.a man to become a gtnius or add a cunit to his stature. Thesim- • jplc ; aud conclude answer is: " I can't," Avery small number of A'nrchista may, l course, do a vast deal of dest-uction -with the weapons at present in their ftands. But the power of expansion is limited to the. material, arid the material as but small. : A moral, and therefore, a healthy, idea, will grow, because the great majority of the'' rice are healthy, immoral and the unhealthy have tpo much in human nature to overcome to «<rer assume the character of. an epidemic liord Byron -not himself the healthiest ct mortals—as he drew his fingers idly along his digger, wondered how a man * felt who had committed a murder. The •trecy curiosity implied. that the experiment would be a terrible one to try, , Es there, then, no lemedy forAn&r* .fblsti. but'sueivas we apply to murder and to crime generally ? Professor Cbeaare Lombroso, one of the most eminent authorities of the day on morbid A'cafctal in a Paris

journal to say that violence arid cruel repressive measures are the- worst of - all remedies. History, he says, teaches us that fanatics cannot be cured by'force. Recognising, apparently, the curious vanity underlying the character of the Anarchist, and the extent to which it ia fed by notoriety, he recommends ridicule as the proper weapon for the Anarchist cause, on the ground- that "ridiculous people are always friendless "; and a quiet and unostentatious removal to an asylum is hinted at as the best, way of dealing with those who , show welldeveloped signs of anarchical fanaticism, But whether remedy or palliative ; be adopted—for after all the true remedy is to be found only in the restriction of the marriage of certain unhealthy subjects to which recourse civilisation may yet be driveil—it is clear that the first step is to put an end to the fuss, excitement, and comment which, Ul together, provide the notoriety in which the Anarchist delights and thrives,— Dunedin Star.