Note 688 — Chapter V · : PROUDHON AND THE SOCIALISM OF 1848

In a letter written to Karl Marx on May 17, 1846 (Correspondance, vol. ii, p. 199), à propos the expression “at the moment of striking,” which Marx had employed, Proudhon takes the opportunity of declaring that he is opposed to all kinds of revolution. “You are perhaps still of opinion that no reform is possible without some kind of struggle or revolution, as it used to be called, but which is nothing more or less than a shock to society. That opinion I shared for a long time. I was always willing to discuss it, to explain it, and to defend it. But in my later studies I have completely changed my opinion. I think that it is not in the least necessary, and that consequently we ought not to consider revolution as a means of social reform. Revolution means an appeal to force, which is clearly in contradiction to every project of reform. I prefer to put the question in a different fashion, namely, How can we arrange the economic activities of society in such a fashion that the wealth which is at present lost to society may be retained for its use?” And in the Confessions d’un Révolutionnaire, p. 61: “A revolution is an explosion of organic forces, an evolution spreading from the heart of society through all its members. It can only be justified if it be spontaneous, peaceful, and gradual. It would be as tyrannous to try to suppress it as to bring it about through violence.” See M. Bourguin’s article on Proudhon and Karl Marx in the Revue d’Économie politique, 1893.