The Kingdom of God Is Within You - Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy (best non fiction books of all time txt) 📗

of advantages and

disadvantages, but because they are induced by a kind of

hypnotizing process practiced upon them. In submitting they

simply yield to the suggestions given them as orders, without

thought or effort of will. To resist would need independent

thought and effort of which every man is not capable. Even apart

from the moral significance of compliance or non-compliance,

considering material advantage only, non-compliance will be more

advantageous in general.

 

Whoever I may be, whether I belong to the well-to-do class of the

oppressors, or the working class of the oppressed, in either case

the disadvantages of non-compliance are less and its advantages

greater than those of compliance. If I belong to the minority of

oppressors the disadvantages of non-compliance will consist in my

being brought to judgment for refusing to perform my duties to the

state, and if I am lucky, being acquitted or, as is done in the

case of the Mennonites in Russia, being set to work out my

military service at some civil occupation for the state; while if

I am unlucky, I may be condemned to exile or imprisonment for two

or three years (I judge by the cases that have occurred in

Russia), possibly to even longer imprisonment, or possibly to

death, though the probability of that latter is very remote.

 

So much for the disadvantages of non-compliance. The

disadvantages of compliance will be as follows: if I am lucky I

shall not be sent to murder my fellow-creatures, and shall not be

exposed to great danger of being maimed and killed, but shall only

be enrolled into military slavery. I shall be dressed up like a

clown, I shall be at the beck and call of every man of a higher

grade than my own from corporal to field-marshal, shall be put

through any bodily contortions at their pleasure, and after being

kept from one to five years I shall have for ten years afterward

to be in readiness to undertake all of it again at any minute. If

I am unlucky I may, in addition, be sent to war, where I shall be

forced to kill men of foreign nations who have done me no harm,

where I may be maimed or killed, or sent to certain destruction as

in the case of the garrison of Sevastopol, and other cases in

every war, or what would be most terrible of all, I may be sent

against my own compatriots and have to kill my own brothers for

some dynastic or other state interests which have absolutely

nothing to do with me. So much for the comparative disadvantages.

 

The comparative advantages of compliance and non-compliance are as

follows:

 

For the man who submits, the advantages will be that, after

exposing himself to all the humiliation and performing all the

barbarities required of him, he may, if he escapes being killed,

get a decoration of red or gold tinsel to stick on his clown’s

dress; he may, if he is very lucky, be put in command of hundreds

of thousands of others as brutalized as himself; be called a

field-marshal, and get a lot of money.

 

The advantages of the man who refuses to obey will consist in

preserving his dignity as a man, gaining the approbation of good

men, and above all knowing that he is doing the work of God, and

so undoubtedly doing good to his fellow-men.

 

So much for the advantages and disadvantages of both lines of

conduct for a man of the wealthy classes, an oppressor. For a man

of the poor working class the advantages and disadvantages will be

the same, but with a great increase of disadvantages. The

disadvantages for the poor man who submits will be aggravated by

the fact that he will by taking part in it, and, as it were,

assenting to it strengthen the state of subjection in which he is

held himself.

 

But no considerations as to how far the state is useful or

beneficial to the men who help to support it by serving in the

army, nor of the advantages or disadvantages for the individual of

compliance or non-compliance with state demands, will decide the

question of the continued existence or the abolition of

government. This question will be finally decided beyond appeal

by the religious consciousness or conscience of every man who is

forced, whether he will or no, through universal conscription, to

face the question whether the state is to continue to exist or

not.

 

CHAPTER VIII.

 

DOCTRINE OF NONRESISTANCE TO EVIL BY FORCE MUST INEVITABLY BE

ACCEPTED BY MEN OF THE PRESENT DAY.

 

Christianity is Not a System of Rules, but a New Conception of

Life, and therefore it was Not Obligatory and was Not Accepted

in its True Significance by All, but only by a Few—Christianity

is, Moreover, Prophetic of the Destruction of the Pagan Life,

and therefore of Necessity of the Acceptance of the Christian

Doctrines—Nonresistance of Evil by Force is One Aspect of the

Christian Doctrine, which must Inevitably in Our Times be

Accepted by Men—Two Methods of Deciding Every Quarrel—First

Method is to Find a Universal Definition of Evil, which All Must

Accept, and to Resist this Evil by Force—Second Method is the

Christian One of Complete Nonresistance by Force—Though the

Failure of the First Method was Recognized since the Early Days of

Christianity, it was Still Proposed, and only as Mankind has

Progressed it has Become More and More Evident that there Cannot

be any Universal Definition of Evil—This is Recognized by All at

the Present Day, and if Force is Still Used to Resist Evil, it is

Not Because it is Now Regarded as Right, but Because People Don’t

Know How to Avoid It—The Difficulty of Avoiding It is the Result

of the Subtle and Complex Character of the Government Use of

Force—Force is Used in Four Ways: Intimidation, Bribery,

Hypnotism, and Coercion by Force of Arms—State Violence Can Never

be Suppressed by the Forcible Overthrow of the Government—Men are

Led by the Sufferings of the Pagan Mode of Life to the Necessity

of Accepting Christ’s Teaching with its Doctrine of Nonresistance

by Force—The Consciousness of its Truth which is Diffused

Throughout Our Society, Will also Bring About its Acceptance—This

Consciousness is in Complete Contradiction with Our Life—This is

Specially Obvious in Compulsory Military Service, but Through

Habit and the Application of the Four Methods of Violence by the

State, Men do not See this Inconsistency of Christianity with Life

of a Soldier—They do Not even See It, though the Authorities

Themselves Show all the Immorality of a Soldier’s Duties with

Perfect Clearness—The Call to Military Service is the Supreme

Test for Every Man, when the Choice is Offered Him, between

Adopting the Christian Doctrine of Nonresistance, or Slavishly

Submitting to the Existing State Organization—Men Usually

Renounce All They Hold Sacred, and Submit to the Demands of

Government, Seeming to See No Other Course Open to Them—For Men

of the Pagan Conception of Life there is No Other Course Open, and

Never Will Be, in Spite of the Growing Horrors of War—Society,

Made Up of Such Men, Must Perish, and No Social Reorganization Can

Save It—Pagan Life Has Reached Its Extreme Limit, and Will

Annihilate Itself.

 

It is often said that if Christianity is a truth, it ought to have

been accepted by everyone directly it appeared, and ought to have

transformed men’s lives for the better. But this is like saying

that if the seed were ripe it ought at once to bring forth stalls,

flower, and fruit.

 

The Christian religion is not a legal system which, being imposed

by violence, may transform men’s lives. Christianity is a new and

higher conception of life. A new conception of life cannot be

imposed on men; it can only be freely assimilated. And it can

only be freely assimilated in two ways: one spiritual and

internal, the other experimental and external.

 

Some people—a minority—by a kind of prophetic instinct divine

the truth of the doctrine, surrender themselves to it and adopt

it. Others—the majority—only through a long course of mistakes,

experiments, and suffering are brought to recognize the truth of

the doctrine and the necessity of adopting it.

 

And by this experimental external method the majority of Christian

men have now been brought to this necessity of assimilating the

doctrine. One sometimes wonders what necessitated the corruption

of Christianity which is now the greatest obstacle to its

acceptance in its true significance.

 

If Christianity had been presented to men in its true, uncorrupted

form, it would not have been accepted by the majority, who would

have been as untouched by it as the nations of Asia are now. The

peoples who accepted it in its corrupt form were subjected to its

slow but certain influence, and by a long course of errors and

experiments and their resultant sufferings have now been brought

to the necessity of assimilating it in its true significance.

 

The corruption of Christianity and its acceptance in its corrupt

form by the majority of men was as necessary as it is that the

seed should remain hidden for a certain time in the earth in order

to germinate.

 

Christianity is at once a doctrine of truth and a prophecy.

Eighteen centuries ago Christianity revealed to men the truth in

which they ought to live, and at the same time foretold what human

life would become if men would not live by it but continued to

live by their previous principles, and what it would become if

they accepted the Christian doctrine and carried it out in their

lives.

 

Laying down in the Sermon on the Mount the principles by which to

guide men’s lives, Christ said: “Whosoever heareth these sayings

of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who

built his house upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the

floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it

fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that

heareth these sayings, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a

foolish man, who built his house upon the sand; and the rain

descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon

that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Matt. vii.

24-27).

 

And now after eighteen centuries the prophecy has been fulfilled.

Not having followed Christ’s teaching generally and its

application to social life in nonresistance to evil, men have

been brought in spite of themselves to the inevitable destruction

foretold by Christ for those who do not fulfill his teaching.

 

People often think the question of nonresistance to evil by force

is a theoretical one, which can be neglected. Yet this question

is presented by life itself to all men, and calls for some answer

from every thinking man. Ever since Christianity has been

outwardly professed, this question is for men in their social life

like the question which presents itself to a traveler when the

road on which he has been journeying divides into two branches.

He must go on and he cannot say: I will not think about it, but

will go on just as I did before. There was one road, now there

are two, and he must make his choice.

 

In the same way since Christ’s teaching has been known by men they

cannot say: I will live as before and will not decide the question

of resistance or nonresistance to evil by force. At every new,

struggle that arises one must inevitably decide; am I, or am I

not, to resist by force what I regard as evil.

 

The question of resistance or nonresistance to evil arose when

the first conflict between men took place, since every conflict is

nothing else than resistance by force to what each of