among the Western nations are now called "civilization," are nothing but monstrous results of the vanity of the upper, governing classes, such as were the productions of the Egyptian, Babylonian and Roman despots: the pyramids, temples and seraglios; or such as were the productions of the Russian serf-owners: palaces, serf-orchestras, private theatrical troupes, artificial lakes, lace, hunting packs and parks, which the slaves arranged for their lords.
It is said that if men cease to obey Governments and return to an agricultural life, all the industrial progress they have attained will be lost, and that, therefore, to give up obeying Government and to return to an agricultural life would be a bad thing. But there is no reason to suppose that a return to agricultural life, free from Government, would destroy such industries and achievements as are really useful to mankind, and do not require the enslavement of men. And if it stopped the production of that endless number of unnecessary, stupid and harmful things, on which a considerable portion of humanity is now employed, and rendered impossible the existence of the idle people who invent all the unnecessary and harmful things by which they justify their immoral lives, that does not mean that all that mankind has, worked out for its welfare would be destroyed. On the contrary the destruction of everything that is kept up by coercion, would evoke and promote an intensified production of all those useful and necessary technical improvements which, without turning men into machines and spoiling their lives, may ease the labour of the agriculturists and render their lives more pleasant.
The difference will only be, that when men are liberated from power and return to agricultural labour, the objects produced by art and industry will no longer aim at amusing the rich, satisfying idle curiosity, preparing for human slaughter, preserving useless and harmful lives at the cost of useful ones, or producing machines by which a small number of workmen can somehow produce a great number of things or cultivate a large tract of land; but they will aim at increasing the productiveness of the work of those
