Note 234 — Chapter XXI · Fundamental Laws of Socialistic Society.

“If one had to choose between Communism with all its chances and the present social order with all its suffering and injustice; if it were a necessary result of private property that the products of labor should be divided as we see them to-day, almost in a reverse ratio to the work performed—that the largest shares fall to those who have never worked at all, the next largest to those whose work is almost nominal, and so on along the line, the remuneration becoming smaller as the work becomes more difficult and disagreeable, until at last the most wearing and exhausting labor cannot even be certain of earning the most needful means of existence; if, we say, the alternative would be: this or Communism, all scruples in regard to Communism, both great and small, would be like chaff in the scales.”—John Stuart Mill—Political Economy. Mill has honestly tried to “reform” bourgeois society and to “make it listen to reason;” of course, in vain; and thus like every rational human being capable of recognizing the true nature of conditions, he finally became a Socialist. He did not dare to confess to this during his life-time, but caused his autobiography, containing his socialistic confession of faith, to be published after his death. His position was similar to Darwin’s, who did not wish to be regarded as an atheist during his life-time. Bourgeois society drives thousands to such hypocrisy. The bourgeoisie feigns loyalty, piety and submission to authority, because their rule depends upon the recognition of these virtues by the masses, but inwardly they jeer at them.