The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-06-07
THE ATTAINMENT of ANARCHY

Count Leo Tostoi says in recent letter that all
governments are tyrannles. He states that
should be obliged to pay taxes unless he wishes,
and that no should be compelled to take any
part in the support of government of which he
does not fully approve. He claims that the tyranny
OF the majority in the United States is lust as cruel
and unjust as the tyranny of the Gar in Russia.
In other words he believes that government with
the consent of the governed does not exist in any
country to-day. In his last premise the distn-
gushed Russian is right. The very meaning of the
word govern implies that one will is subject to
another, it implies that some one must give up his
ideas and impulses TO the control of some other
The Supreme Being has seemed in measure to
sanction state of anarchy. He laid down certain
great natural laws and gave to the world that awful
sentence ':The wages of sin is death, but aside
from these lnjunctions He left us with free will
and the absolute power for good or evil.
/ Anarchy is then the natural state of man and it
is the state to which the world will return when
the millennium comes. If men were not disposed to
evil there would be no need for government, but
such is the case, there is necessity for the better
element to protect itself against from those eviv
inclined and out of this grows government Like
any other engine of human construction, perfect
government mas never O6en attained. 1t tyr
amy and always will be- The extent of the tyr
amy is the only question involved The tyranny
of the majority is less CALLING than other FORMS for
one feels that he has had opportunity and may have
opportunity again to reverse the ruling if he
persuade sufficient number that he is in the right
The American people have learned quietly to sub
NIT to the tyranny of the majority, but at the same
time they resent amy fictitious aid or any force
which gives to a minority the power of majority
For instance, we would have no quarrel with the
South because it is democratic it not that the
supposed majority does not exist in fact, and that
the minority is kept in power by force and intimi-
dation. Every law is tyranny, but the tyranny
OF just law is no hardship to the man who does
right. We do not wonder that Tolstoi resents the
unjust and unfounded tyranny of the Gar and of
the Greek church, but his doctrine is dangerous if
applied generally and distinction is made be-
tween Just and necessary tyranny and that which is
unjust and unnecessary. The first form of TYRANNY
was that OF brute force, this form of tyranny is
copied from the brutes and is to large extent the
foundation of such forms of government as that of
Russia Gradually mind overcame matter and we
find the tyranny of mind asserting itself over and
commngling with the tyranny of force 1t is sad
commentary upon the progress of man that the
tyranny of force is SO often appealed to.
There is that in man which often rebels from the
tyrannies of life His emotions, his passions often
his conscience, urge rebellion He simply desires
however to impose the tyranny Of his will for the
tyranny of others and in the long run the world
would be no better, and he himself would be no
better for the change. The best way to work
against the tyranny of law is to make law unneces-
sary, to elevate the standard of men and morals SO
that they may need no restraining power Then.
just certain laws have become sdead letters be-
cause they no longer needed government will
become dead fetter and the ideal of Individual
liberty will be reached. We should strive there
FORE not against the tyranny of law and govern.
ment, but ag inst the depravty of man which
makes law and government necessary.