8,,liberty0 ,,pamphlets4 ,price ,one ,penny4 ,illustration3 ,,liberty ,,press ,common-,sense ,country4 ,,by ,l4 ,s4 ,,bevington4 ,illustration ,,london3 ,,printed ,,and ,,published ,,by ,,james ,,tochatti1 8,,liberty0 ,,press1 #fj1 ,,grove ,,park ,,terrace1 ,,chiswick4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,liberty ,pamphlets4 ,,in ,,the ,,press4 ,socialism in ,danger4 ,part ,,ii4 ,,by ,e4 ,,domela ,,nieuwenhuis4 ,translated by ,r4 ,,grierson4 ,parliamentary ,politics in the ,socialist ,movement4 ,,by ,,errico ,,malatesta4 #af pp41 #hvo41 printed on toned paper1 ,price ,,one ,,penny4 ,jones' ,boy3 ,dialogues on ,social ,questions ,between an #8,enfant ,terrible' and his ,father4 ,by 8,spokeshave40 ,liberty ,lyrics1 ,,by ,l4 ,s4 ,,bevington4 ,the ,ideal and ,youth4 ,,by ,,elis,e ,,reclus4 ,an ,anarchist on ,anarchy1 ,,by ,,elis,e ,,reclus4 ,in ,defence of ,emma ,goldmann and the ,right of ,expropriation4 ,,by ,,voltairine ,,de ,,cleyre4 ,,first ,,series4 ,the ,why ,i ,ams3 ,why ,i ,am a ,socialist and an ,atheist1 by ,conrad ,naewiger2 ,why ,i ,am a ,social ,democrat1 by ,g4 ,bernard ,shaw2 ,why ,i ,am an ,individualist ,anarchist1 by ,j4 ,armsden4 ,,second ,,series4 ,the ,why ,i ,ams3 ,why ,i ,am a ,communist1 by ,william ,morris2 ,why ,i ,am an ,expropriationist1 by ,l4 ,s4 ,bevington4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,liberty3 ,a ,,journal ,,of ,,anarchist ,,communism4 ,published ,monthly4 ,price ,one ,penny4 ,,the ,,contributors ,,include ,,louise ,,michel1 ,a4 ,,hamon1 ,w4 ,,morris1 ,p4 ,,kropotkin1 ,,errico ,,malatesta1 ,,elis,e ,,reclus1 ,g4 ,b4 ,,shaw1 ,l4 ,s4 ,,bevington1 ,j4 ,,glen1 ,,touzeau ,,parris1 ,,and ,,all ,,the ,,best ,,writers ,,and ,,thinkers ,,in ,,the ,,socialist ,,movement4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,common-,sense ,country4 ,illustration ,there was a country where ,common-sense had somehow got the upper hand4 ,in that country sense was as common as lunacy is in a madhouse4 ,there was a place for everything1 and everything was either in that place1 or else was on the direct way there--the shortest way1 the easiest way1 the cheapest way4 ,in that country everybody was brought up with the notion that the simplest plan in everything served everybody's turn best1 even the clever people's2 and it was taken as a matter of course that if things did not go wrong people wouldn't4 ,they read in their books of history and comparative sociology that in countries were things do go wrong1 people go wrong too1 in the blind1 blundering attempt to straighten things back a bit4 ,but in ,common-sense ,country it was always said when things went wrong that there had been some nonsense--that is1 empty word-play--in the heads or habits of the people1 which had diverted attention from realities1 and caused the people to let things wander out of the way4 ,in ,common-sense ,country all the commodities and goods1 all the instruments1 utensils1 and appliances--in short1 all the 8things0--had very simple and unadventurous biographies1 and1 if they could have spoken1 they would not have had much harrowing information to impart about the ravages of their tissues and textures caused by moth and rust1 nor yet of vicissitudes incurred at the hands of thieves breaking through to steal4 8,i was needed3 ,i was made3 ,i was conveyed3 ,i was applied3 ,i was consumed40 ,that would have summed up the history of a thing in the country where things went right3 only five short chapters4 ,in most countries1 of course1 all sorts of distressing and distracting other chapters intervene4 ,thus3 8,i was coveted3 ,i was done without3 ,i was lied for3 ,i was hated for3 ,i was speculated in3 ,i was adulterated3 ,i was advertised4 ,i was legislated about3 ,i was sold 7and my buyer with me73 ,i was squandered3 ,i was hoarded3 ,i was quarrelled over3 ,i was fought for3 ,i was burgled3 ,i was bombed40 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,in ,common-sense ,country there was a job for everyone1 and everyone was merrily1 ardently1 or placidly doing that job4 ,no one was doing mere 8business0 and calling it work4 ,no one was doing real work and feeling it 8toil04 ,dull jobs were done in short spells by an immense number of people2 delightful jobs were worked at for the pleasure of the thing1 in longer spells1 and by a fewer number of people4 ,it fell out so1 naturally1 and because of common sense2 nobody had to be at the trouble of enforcing the arrangement4 ,the man with the dullest or most fatiguing job1 as a matter of course1 got the longest leisure for re-creation of his naturally flagging zest for the job4 ,the man with the pleasurable and healthy job hardly knew leisure from job4 ,the kindliest and most able-bodied and jolliest of the people had common-sense reasons for attending to the least appetizing tasks4 ,everybody knew they wanted doing2 and these kindly1 vigorous1 and jolly folks were those who cared most about getting them done1 and cared least about minor disagreeables4 ,they also liked the peculiar way in which other people shook hands with them for it1 and more than made it good to them in the way of respect and hospitality wherever they went4 ,you never saw any feet without shoes in cold weather in ,common-sense ,country4 ,and you never saw any shoes heaped up thousands thick in warehouses with no feet to put into them4 ,common-sense citizens had grave objections1 not only to cold1 discomfort1 and disease1 but also grave objections to the enormous expense of thought1 time1 material1 and goodwill1 necessarily involved in any and every measure for keeping empty shoes warm indoors1 and human feet cold outside in the street4 ,you never came to a place in any ,common-sense city where1 by turning your head to the right1 you could see one horn of a dilemma in the shape of a lot of grain or fish being destroyed on the lunatic excuse that it could not be sold for more than it cost1 while by turning your head to the left the other horn of the dilemma became visible in the shape of men and women 7with their children7 hungry1 worried1 and constantly at their wits' end1 only because they could not buy back the comestibles they had ploughed1 reaped1 milled1 fished1 and otherwise laboured to bring within human reach4 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,in ,common-sense ,country there were no jerry built houses1 because people could not see any reason for making insecure and unhealthy dwellings4 ,there were no ground landlords to make it disadvantageous to any builder to build honestly2 no builders so hard pressed1 therefore1 that they were obliged to cause the masons to scamp work1 use limeless mortar1 or unseasoned wood4 ,no builder or mason1 moreover1 had 7in the name of common-sense7 any object whatever in view so immediately as the supplying of buildings wanted for use4 ,he built houses for bakers1 clothiers1 artists1 and all sorts of other useful persons2 and these lived in the houses and produced food1 clothing1 works of art1 and all sorts of other useful things for the builder in exchange4 ,there was no waste of any energy or of any talent in ,common-sense ,country4 ,there were no churches and temples made with hands2 because hands had better things to do than build prisons to shut up souls in4 ,also because in strict common sense the sky was holy enough to 8sit under10 and even to sing spiritual songs under4 ,besides1 ,common-senseites had discovered that you could not get the sun and fixed stars and all their lesser lights into the biggest of temples ever made with hands4 ,in ,common-sense ,country people liked daylight for their minds and morals as well as for their bodies2 and found it cheapest in the long run4 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,there were next to no shipwrecks on the coasts of ,common-sense ,country2 no one raced any ships to port in all weathers for the nonsensical reason of getting in before other ships4 ,people on shore could always afford to wait a day or so for the weather1 better than they could afford to kill men1 sink ships1 and spoil cargoes through running amuck at nature's meteorological arrangements4 ,it did not matter a jot to any one which ship got in first1 since all ships were full of supplies1 and sure to drop in1 in natural order1 as fast as needed4 ,what sense of hurry there was1 founded of course on experience of the inconvenience of waiting1 led to all possible improvements in the art and science of ship-building and engine-building1 so that wind-and-wave difficulties had been reduced to a minimum4 ,so there was no colliding in fogs1 no bursting of boilers1 no over-lading1 and no un-seaworthy craft2 also no 8,lloyd's0 agencies1 to speculate on anyone's want of common-sense1 and to live as parasites on the low moral vitality of the public1 making profit at its expense4 ,when folk talked of 8insuring0 in that country1 they always meant making as sure as possible against chances of mishap4 ,to insure a ship was to build her well1 fit her well1 man her well1 to steer clear of shoals1 and keep her in sound repair4 ,likewise with the insurance of houses4 ,and to insure your life1 you had only to eat1 drink1 and clothe yourself on hygienic principles1 to avoid the indolence or the over-taxing of any of your faculties1 and to act fairly by every one of your fellow-creatures with whom you had to do4 ,in common-sense language1 insuring your life or property never meant to make it worth anyone's while to destroy either one or the other4 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,no visible teacher taught common-sense in that country4 ,children were born with it ready-made4 ,it lay in their human nature4 ,it taught itself4 ,it 8growed0 7like ,topsy7 because neither 8business0 nor 8policy0 existed to check or warp it--indeed neither the policy of business nor the business of policy were known at all1 except as queer1 sad1 old superstitions1 suffered through and done with ages ago1 during the time when human generations were paying a big price in the purgatory of civilization1 for the privilege of having beaten other creatures in the dangerous matter of language4 ,children in ,common-sense ,country were never taught to be 8wise and prudent10 because that was the way to prevent anything of any interest or beauty or high import from being 8revealed40 ,their little1 honest1 ignorant1 simple questions received honest1 accurate1 and simple answers1 in language which they could understand1 and which they never needed to unlearn afterwards4 ,and this alike on all subjects4 ,every young man and young woman grew up with as much common-sense in his or her head or expectations as the elders could help them to4 ,and each young man or young woman went on from a common-sense starting point to use his or her faculties as individual endowment suggested1 so that each generation kept on fearlessly adding to real knowledge by experimenting in new directions as common-sense prompted2 while the elders loved to have it so1 and felt rewarded for their good faith to the children1 and were sometimes in their own turn listeners1 questioners1 learners4 ,common-sense citizens never said 8,time is money40 ,they said that money-minting1 money-managing1 and money-protecting entail endless waste of time and trouble2 that they are an abuse of human faculty1 resulting in a great deal of death--bodily1 intellectual1 moral1 and spiritual4 ,also it was said these and like employments were as nonsensical in their objects as they were vicious in their effects4 ,money in ,common-sense ,country had no meaning1 any more than it has in a beehive4 ,no one said 8,money is power40 ,sometimes it was said 8,money is weakness40 ,that was when ,common-senseites were speaking of the doings and miseries of the inhabitants of ,lunatic ,land4 7,by the way1 the word used was not money but mammon47 ,one objection they had to money1 beyond its nonsensicalness1 was its tendency--in proportion to the degree of its accumulation in a man's hand--to sap away his 8soul10 his moral individuality1 his character4 ,they said1 8,what can it profit a man to lose his soul1 and become a moral paralytic80 ,they observed also that wherever in ,lunatic ,land mammon had accumulated in a man's hand1 it had a tendency to put into his other hand a sceptre1 a truncheon1 a gatling gun1 or some other preposterous implement1 making of that moral paralytic a lord over two1 or five1 or ten cities1 or markets1 or communities--as the case might be4 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,as there was no mammon1 there were none of those dismal things which are eternal essentials where mammon reigns4 ,there were no arsenals1 no armies1 no police1 no spies3 no banks1 no prisons1 no poorhouses3 no brothels1 no divorce courts1 no nunneries1 no confessionals3 no 8rings10 no strikes1 no infernal machines1 no gallows4 ,common-sense found no sort of use in any of these queer things4 ,common-sense knew by hearsay that mammon could not reign without them2 but then common sense found no reason whatever for putting up with mammon1 or paying its expenses4 ,there were many stores and depots where anyone who wanted anything for wear1 or consumption1 or instruction1 or pleasure1 or any other use1 could go1 or send and get it1 or get it made4 ,he never had to ask 8,what's the damage80 because in ,common-sense ,country damage was objected to4 ,everyone knew that no one had got what he did not want1 because nobody was so insane as to cumber himself with the custody of anything that was of no use or pleasure to him2 so that to ask him to give up what was of direct use or pleasure to him would damage him4 ,no one was short of anything1 because the world is very fruitful1 and human beings are very numerous1 very ingenious1 and very industrious1 and are able and eager to make it more and more fruitful4 ,wealth in ,common-sense ,country increased even faster than the population1 so that there was more leisure for every new generation born4 ,whatever was not of direct use to the individuals who produced it1 it was to the convenience of these individuals to place in care1 and outside custody altogether1 so that those to whom it was not superfluous might choose their own time and put it to their own uses4 ,it is only in ,lunatic ,land that everybody 7willingly or not7 makes a practice of fining everybody else for the privilege of living alongside of him on the same planet4 ,it takes a hereditary lunatic of many generations' standing to go shamming about in the roundabout1 nonsensically solemn effort to convert man's natural home into a penal colony1 by means of a cunningly devised system of fines all round for being alive and active and wanting to stop so4 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,in ,common-sense ,country there were born ninety-five per cent4 fewer idiots1 cripples1 and otherwise afflicted mortals than are born elsewhere4 ,the few there were1 were not felt as a burden2 for those of tender hearts found a natural pleasure in doing what could be done to make life tolerable for these sad and ever diminishing exceptions2 and of course they were no expense in a land of plenty1 where access was free to whatever was wanted1 without money and without price4 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,in ,common-sense ,country words were true1 and purposes single2 even newspapers expressed real opinions1 and conveyed real information2 fun abounded1 and nobody preached4 ,every shade of individuality was respected and made welcome1 variety being suggestive as well as interesting4 ,no one wheedled1 no one canted1 no one flattered1 or equivocated1 or slandered2 because none of these were necessary expedients4 ,there was never anything to fear from either honesty or generosity in that land4 ,people could have food1 friends1 fun1 and freedom without little abject servilities4 ,every individual was1 as a matter of course1 left perfectly free on his capable side1 while being courteously and gladly aided1 by custom and common consent1 on his weak side4 ,so that there was nothing to prevent his voluntarily and naturally making common cause with others in the overcoming of common difficulties1 and in the acquirement1 production1 and distribution of all good things4 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,there was no schism in that country1 because there was no ,church4 ,there was a great deal of religion1 because ,common-senseites had time to try their best powers of life and mind on everything1 and the more they knew1 the deeper depths of sheer wonderfulness did they find beneath the new-won knowledge4 ,they found that life1 love1 liberty1 peace1 progress1 and everything worth having came as the reward of adherence to certain inexorable1 universal laws1 inherent in everything2 laws in which there was no variableness1 nor shadow of turning2 and also no respect of persons4 ,they had the intensest interest and zest in getting hold of these laws1 and in falling in with them as fast as they became visible2 and they never dreamt of making cheap and nasty substitutes for laws in places or cases where none appeared of their own accord4 ,as neither the ignorance nor superstition of their fellows served anyone's turn in a country where citizens were free and trusted one another1 no people in black were kept to purvey either the one or the other1 not even to women or to the little children4 ,all black arts were forgotten1 and not missed4 ,on the other hand ,common-sense ,country was rich in prophets1 or poets1 of the variety known as 8born not made40 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,there was no sedition1 because there was no ,state4 ,instead1 there was every where a most beautiful order2 for common-sense1 left to itself1 saw no use in a public muddle1 or in a private scramble2 such as exists everywhere and all the while in ,lunatic ,land4 ,it was moreover found that there were a thousand simpler1 cheaper1 and surer 7because more natural7 ways of forestalling and discouraging any atavistic aggressiveness on the part of individuals1 than bribing a number of strangers beforehand to be in readiness to retaliate by proxy4 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,there was no swindling because there was no competition4 ,instead1 there was endless emulation4 ,the results of doing anything well1 usefully1 or admirably were wholly pleasant4 ,the social results of doing any thing that wanted doing better and more easily and swiftly than it had been done before1 were so exceptionally pleasant that all the most energetic and able people aspired and endeavoured to experience those results at first hand4 ,no man-imposed restriction thwarted or impeded any experiment1 and in the end the community learnt something useful by every mistake made4 ,general goodwill and prosperity were immense2 because there were no reasons at all for tricking anybody--quite the reverse4 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,human nature was never made a butt for satire1 or a subject of regret1 in ,common-sense ,country4 ,no mud1 no rotten eggs1 no printers' ink were thrown at it4 ,no one made a 8living0 by undertaking to convince others of their unsuspected depravity1 with promise of cure for it in exchange for cash down and vows of allegiance4 ,no one made any name or fame for himself by undertaking to keep human nature in others in order1 by means of penal and restrictive regulations invented and imposed by human nature in himself or his set4 ,common-senseites saw that human nature was a branch of nature at large1 and that to divide it against itself was the surest way to get it out of gear4 ,whenever a proclivity was found to be universal amongst humans1 common-sense put the natural interpretation on the fact1 and respected the proclivity1 however superficially inconvenient in minor respects or exceptional cases4 ,they respected it as due to some instinct1 implanted and developed by the law of ,lifewardness1 and which it was therefore dangerous and disastrous systematically to nullify and oppose4 ,their endeavour was1 instead1 to become better acquainted with it4 ,illustration3 -ooo- ,the great pleasure of trustful1 unchecked sympathy1 and of spontaneous glowing kindliness1 was enjoyed nowhere to such a degree as in ,common-sense ,country4 ,the old people1 the little children1 the animals and birds had a happy time of it2 and there was free exchange of friendship and affection between the dumb and the human sharers of earthly life4 ,and in the healthy1 breathable1 moral atmosphere of habitual good faith1 fearless thinking1 true speech1 and sincere dealing which 7by dint of simple good sense7 people had gradually instituted1 the necessary love of self1 which takes such crude forms in ,lunatic ,land1 had overflowed at every point1 and become indistinguishable from the delicious1 zest-giving1 and inexhaustible pleasure of love for those around4 ,there was ,peace in ,common-sense ,country1 and ,goodwill among men2 and ,happiness and ,fullness of ,life had become the ,natural ,order of the day4 ,printed by ,james ,tochatti1 at #fj1 ,grove ,park ,terrace1 ,chiswick1 ,w4 ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,transcriber',s ,,notes #a4 ,silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling4 #b4 ,anachronistic1 non-standard1 and uncertain spellings retained as printed4 #c4 ,enclosed italics font in underscores4 #d4 ,enclosed bold font in equals4