[What is Property? by P. J. Proudhon]@TWC D-Link bookWhat is Property? PART SECOND 16/323
The union of the two remainders will give us the true form of human association. % 2 .-- Characteristics of Communism and of Property. I.I ought not to conceal the fact that property and communism have been considered always the only possible forms of society.
This deplorable error has been the life of property.
The disadvantages of communism are so obvious that its critics never have needed to employ much eloquence to thoroughly disgust men with it.
The irreparability of the injustice which it causes, the violence which it does to attractions and repulsions, the yoke of iron which it fastens upon the will, the moral torture to which it subjects the conscience, the debilitating effect which it has upon society; and, to sum it all up, the pious and stupid uniformity which it enforces upon the free, active, reasoning, unsubmissive personality of man, have shocked common sense, and condemned communism by an irrevocable decree. The authorities and examples cited in its favor disprove it.
The communistic republic of Plato involved slavery; that of Lycurgus employed Helots, whose duty it was to produce for their masters, thus enabling the latter to devote themselves exclusively to athletic sports and to war.
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