Anarchy: A social theory which regards the union of order with the absence of all direct government of man by man as the political ideal; absolute individual liberty. – Century Dictionary
Every man, they say, has a religion; my religion is Anarchism. In contemplating the future I see it radiant with the sunlight of universal liberty. I catch a vision of the days to come—the curtain rises upon a grand scene; I see before me a glorious panorama. The hideous nightmare of government—the subjection of man to man—is gone, and I hear the happy sound of many voices of men and women singing of liberty; and mingled with it the laughter of children. I see a grand civilization dawning upon the world—a new heaven on a new earth, in which every man and woman shall be a sovereign with his or her own individuality for an empire; in which authority shall have no place, and in which national boundaries shall be blotted from the map and the flags of all nations shall be merged into the red emblem of universal brotherhood. I see the grim specter of war fade forever from the scene and over all spread the white pinions of peace. I see the jails turned into workshops, courthouses into institutions of learning, and where once fell the awful shadow of the gallows, I see the flowers bloom. No more is heard the wild blast of war, and where once the earth trembled with the martial tread, I behold the peaceful artisan at his work.
Such is the great hope, the grand ideal, the sublime dream of Anarchy.
Firebrand, October 13, 1895.
