[What is Property? by P. J. Proudhon]@TWC D-Link bookWhat is Property? PART SECOND 5/323
A final illustration will make these facts still clearer. If to the blind but convergent and harmonious instincts of a swarm of bees should be suddenly added reflection and judgment, the little society could not long exist.
In the first place, the bees would not fail to try some new industrial process; for instance, that of making their cells round or square.
All sorts of systems and inventions would be tried, until long experience, aided by geometry, should show them that the hexagonal shape is the best.
Then insurrections would occur. The drones would be told to provide for themselves, and the queens to labor; jealousy would spread among the laborers; discords would burst forth; soon each one would want to produce on his own account; and finally the hive would be abandoned, and the bees would perish.
Evil would be introduced into the honey-producing republic by the power of reflection,--the very faculty which ought to constitute its glory. Thus, moral evil, or, in this case, disorder in society, is naturally explained by our power of reflection.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|