Mental Slavery

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 7, 1 August 1913, Page 1

Mental Slavery

Recent happenings in this most democratic country furnished a local demonstration of how aggressively active the governing powers can be in the interests of the exploiting class. It is, however, where Capitalism . has most developed that the real function of the state is most apparent. In the United States the powers of judiciary, police, and military are constantly used to break strikes. During the recent coal strike in West Virginia the treatment accorded the miners and their families by the civil and military authorities far eclipsed the events at Waihi.

Pa ges could be written to show wliat ready instruments of oppression are the judges, police, and soldiers of every country. And yet, after all, they play but a minor part in the subjection of the Working Class. Their punitive power is only directed against the few militant, rebellious wageslaves, and would be ineffective without the consent of the other wage-slaves, who are so hypnotised that they serve the capitalists faithfully without coercion. What the workers have to recognise and fight against is the power which makes them consent to their mili taut section being bludgeoned into submission and which makes them indifferent to the fact that they are robbed by the Capitalist Class. Capitalism does not rule by force, but by fooling, the workers It has hytnotised them, made them slavish in disposition, and almost without power to think or act in their own interest. This spellbinding has an economic base. The capitalists control the means of life, hence it follows that those wdio take part in the intellectual life of the world —historians, writers, journalists, teachers. lecturers, college professors, scientists —have a bread and butter inducement to bolster up the present system True, there are noble exceptions who sacrifice their material interests by telling the truth. Besides this prostitution of the intellectual life of the world, Capitalism has created a vast army of hangerson, men who gain a good 1 ' livelihood by means which would be impossible under a sane system of production; military officers, government officials, lawyers, land agents, etc. These tools of the Capitalist Class —all “ useful people”—mould the environment of the Working Class. The wage-slave has to suf-

(By J. W. P.)

fer their evil influence from childhood to old age. Their sophisms sink in during childhood’s unsuspecting hours. Before he goes U< school his playthings, top cannon, to3 r soldiers, etc., put the first kink in his mind At school, history is falsified to inculcate in him a bigoted, narrow nationalism. His reading lessons are faked up to glorify contentment, honesty (respect for the robber’s property), thrift and other slave virtues. Saluting the flag, singing patriotic songs ,free trips to see worships, etc., are all part of his school education.

Later, he comes under the influence of the capitalist press —the greatest liar and spellbinder of all the ages. Day after day and yPar after year its lies and sophistries darken his mind and wear away his resistance to oppression as the constant drip of water will wear away a stone. When we realise the number of channels through which flows the impure stream of capitalist morality, can we wonder that so many workers think it wrong to commit sabotage when fighting the boss, or think it Avould be wrong for the worker to seize the means of induction and work them for themselves ? These workers, aaTio wouldn’t be so wicked as to touch the Bosses’ property, would be quite willing to murder the workers of another country if the boss Avislied it. Some would even murder their fel-low-countrymen rather than the boss should suffer harm.

The enlightened worker, however, should not too harshly judge those who are thus hypnotised. All that is wrong with them is that they are gulled, and there is much evidence of an awakening. Slowly, but surely, the mask of hypocrisy is being torn from present-day society. Its rottenness is becoming more and more apparent, in spite of the efforts of its apologists. The use of police and military to crush the workers is in itself a factor in freeing the working class mind from,-the powers that now enslave. Once free mentally the working class is not going to trouble about legal and constitutional means to achieve its emancipation. To be free mentally is to know: THAT ALONE IS RIGHT WHICH SERVES THE INTERESTS OF THE WORKING CLASS, AND THAT ALONE IS WRONG WHICH DEFEATS THE INTERESTS OF THAT CLASS.