Political Philosophy: Goldman, Malcolm X, and Rousseau

Emma Goldman on Anarchism, the Majority, and Minority Resistance

• Definition and Context of Anarchism:

  • Anarchism, strictly defined, is opposition to any and all forms of government.
  • Goldman's opponents labeled her an anarchist during the early 1900s to imply she was insane and that her views were unworthy of serious consideration.
  • Goldman intentionally embraced the label of anarchist to throw it back in the faces of her opponents.
  • Active primarily in the early 1900s until her death in 1940, Goldman published books, authored newspaper and magazine articles, delivered lectures across the United States, and actively organized political protests.
  • She advocated for views considered radical, politically unthinkable, or unreasonable at the time, including women's rights, fair labor treatment, and free public education prior to the existence of public school systems.

• Goldman's Technical Definition of the "Majority":

  • The term "majority" as used by Goldman does not refer to a demographic numerical majority of the population.
  • Goldman characterizes the majority as lacking originality and moral courage, dividing the concept into two technical components:
    1. Those Possessing Political Power: The specific group exercising political power within a society, regardless of their numerical size.
       • Greek Polis Example: In ancient Greek city-states, free Greek men of leisure held citizen status and exercised total political power. Excluded from power were all women, foreign men and women, enslaved men and women, and in many cases, poor men or wage laborers. Though numerically a small minority of the total population, these free men constituted a political majority because they possessed all available power.
       • United States Parallel: For much of American history, a small group of white men held exclusive political power. Numerically a minority of the total population, they constituted the political majority in terms of exercising power.
    2. Those Passively Approving of Power: The numerical majority of the population standing outside the political process who lack political power but personally approve of or accept the actions of those in power.
       • Nature of Approval: This approval is purely personal and politically uninfluential. In the Greek polis, the excluded masses performed labor (such as road maintenance or growing crops like alfalfa) without political input or consultation. Their thoughts held no political weight.
       • United States Parallel (Early 1900s): During Goldman's activism, white women lacked voting rights until the 19th Amendment in 1920; Black women were excluded until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (25 years after Goldman's death); and many Black men were disenfranchised. Thus, the numerical majority of the population existed entirely outside the political process.
  • Combined Definition: Goldman's critical target—the majority—combines those holding the majority of political power and the large, politically powerless population that passively sanctions their decisions.

• Goldman's Technical Definition of the "Minority":

  • The minority is not simply the mathematical remainder of the population when the political majority is subtracted.
  • Goldman excludes neutral individuals (referencing Machiavelli) who neither hold power nor approve of it.
  • Goldman excludes passive or secret disapprovers who harbor bitterness, grumble over weekend beers, or publish ineffective complaints without engaging in active resistance.
  • The True Minority: Consists exclusively of individuals who do not possess political power, do not approve of those in power, and actively resist or undermine existing power structures.
  • Informed Resistance: Active resistance must stem from an informed, conscientious recognition of government injustice rather than mental illness, ignorance, or random impulse (such as rolling dice to grab a pitchfork and torch to march on the Capitol).
  • Goldman seeks virtuous, intelligent, and capable individuals to engage in informed resistance, echoing the qualitative standards of Plato, Aristotle, and Rousseau.

The Four Core Conclusions of Emma Goldman

• Conclusion 1: The majority within any civil society is never the source of political progress.

  • Factor 1: Concentration of Wealth and Power: In 1910, Goldman wrote: "have not the few accumulated the wealth of the world in 1910? Are they not the masters, the absolute kings of the situation?"
  • Source of Mass Powerlessness: Exorbitant wealth and power held by the few are not due to ingenuity, creativity, or merit, but rather to "the inertia, the cravenness, the baseness, the moral immaturity, the utter submission of the mass."
  • Factor 2: Mass Awareness of Exploitation: Goldman notes: "The mass bleeds. That it is being robbed and exploited, I know as well as our vote baiters." Existing political institutions treat the majority unjustly, and rulers intentionally manipulate the masses into the illusion of political participation.
  • Obvious Corruption and Mass Consent: Goldman writes: "Never before did the corruption, the complete rottenness of our government stand so thoroughly exposed… Yet when the crimes of the United States government became so brazen that even the blind could see them, the majority nevertheless gave its consent."
  • Failure of Reasoning: The majority lacks judgment and reasoning capacity because bearing political responsibility is uncomfortable and hard work. Comfort is addictive, leading the majority to prefer suffering injustice over undertaking political action to end it.
  • Four Characteristics of the Majority: Politically immature; terrified of political responsibility; terrified of the burdens of political action for general justice; and terrified of political action even in the service of justice for itself.

• Conclusion 2: The majority within a given civil society wants to be ruled tyrannically.

  • The majority clings to its masters and "loves the whip," historically placing its destiny in the hands of rulers and following leaders "even unto destruction."
  • The majority actively defends decaying institutions: "the majority is the first to cry, crucify, the moment a protesting voice is raised against the sacredness of existing authority or any other decayed institution."
  • Unjust, illegitimate institutions survive strictly due to "the willingness of the mass to become soldiers, policemen, jailers, and hangmen."
  • The majority prefers unjust rule or total civil societal collapse over developing internal political-mindedness or moral maturity.
  • The majority forms a mass of cowards who are fundamentally terrified of one another, giving rise to pervasive prejudice and xenophobia.

• Conclusion 3: The minority within a given civil society is the only source of political progress.

  • Goldman writes: "the living vital truth of social and economic well-being will become a reality only through the zeal, courage, the noncompromising determination, and intelligent minorities."
  • Historically, political freedom required individual giants fighting "inch by inch against the power of kings and tyrants and other forms of injustice."
  • Historical Exemplars of the Minority:
    • John Ball: A priest excommunicated for supporting the poor and co-leading the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England.
    • Watt Tyler: Co-leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt comprising urban laborers, artisans, farm laborers, and the poor. The revolt was catalyzed by a universal poll tax and the 1351 Statute of Laborers, which capped wages during a severe labor shortage caused by the Black Death. The revolt was crushed through government treachery and murder of its leaders.
    • William Tell: Legendary defender of liberty.
    • Abolitionists vs. Abraham Lincoln: Goldman asserts that Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation only when abolition became an inescapable practical issue. The true patron saints of the enslaved were active fighters:
      • William Lloyd Garrison: Founder and writer for the abolitionist newspaper Liberator. Garrison argued the US Constitution was a slave owner's document, subtitling an article: "The US constitution is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell."
      • Wendell Phillips: Prominent abolitionist speaker and advocate.
      • Margaret Fuller: Child prodigy, author, journalist, and champion of women's rights in the early 1800s.
      • Theodore Parker: Pastor, theologian, abolitionist, advocate for women's rights, and prison reformer.
      • John Brown: A fierce abolitionist who bypassed legislation and killed slaveholders and traders, seizing a US military installment to build an army of whites and enslaved people to destroy slavery.
  • Properties of the Minority: Acts conscientiously for justice despite terrible odds, personal sacrifice, social ostracization, or the necessity of violence. The minority acts in advance of government institutions, compelling those institutions to wake up and reform.

• Conclusion 4: Political violence (the minority's sole tool) is strictly motivated by intolerable conditions.

  • Mass Misconception: The ignorant mass views violent protesters as a "wild beast, a cruel heartless monster whose joy is to destroy life and bathe in blood."
  • Sanborn Quote: Goldman quotes Sanborn to demonstrate the root of political violence: "the indisputable fact is that homicidal outrages have, from time immemorial, been the reply of goaded and desperate classes to wrongs from their fellow men, which they felt to be intolerable."
  • Allocation of Responsibility: Responsibility for violence, assassinations, bombs, assaults, and civil unrest lies not with the oppressed minority cornered into violence, but upon "everyone who intentionally or by cold indifference helps to keep up social conditions that drive human beings to despair."

Malcolm X and "The Ballot or the Bullet": Political Context and Civil Rights

• Speech Overview: Delivered by Malcolm X on April 3, 1964 (04/03/1964) in Cleveland, Ohio.
• Core Argument: Violence is necessary for the Black community to receive justice from the United States government when peaceful, political options are blocked.
• Theoretical Connections: Connects to Plato's analysis of democracy, Aristotle's criteria for citizenship, and John Locke's natural right of resistance and revolution against corrupt government.
• Historical and Legal Context (1954–1964):
  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954): The Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional. However, the ruling contained no enforcement mechanisms, metrics for racial integration, or timelines. Southern states openly defied the ruling, keeping schools segregated ten years later.
  • Definition and Impact of Segregation: Malcolm X argues segregated schools produce children with "crippled minds." Segregation is defined not merely as racial separation, but as a community where residents live while outsiders control the politics and economy. White areas control their own banks, schools, politics, and economy. In Black areas, state governments severely underfund and mismanage schools despite the efforts of dedicated Black teachers and administrators.
  • Voting Rights Disparities: The 15th Amendment (1870) granted Black men the right to vote, but Southern states illegally prevented them from exercising it. White women gained constitutional voting rights in 1920 (19th Amendment), while Black women were excluded until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  • Status of the Civil Rights Act in April 1964: A Civil Rights Bill was introduced to enforce school desegregation, facilitate Black male voting, and ban business discrimination. Having passed the House of Representatives, it was blocked in the Senate by a filibuster lasting over 50 days led by Southern senators. (The Senate eventually approved the bill on June 19, 1964, and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law on July 2, 1964). At the time of the speech, its passage was uncertain, creating extreme urgency.

The Three Meanings of "The Ballot or the Bullet"

• Meaning 1: Political Promises and Violence

  • Context: Malcolm X spoke to Black voters outside the South who could exercise their franchise.
  • Political Leverage: White voters are split evenly between candidates; Black voters hold the decisive tie-breaking vote ("determine who's going to sit in the White House and who's going to be in the doghouse").
  • Political Exploitation: Politicians ("white political crooks") make elaborate promises to secure the Black vote without intending to fulfill them. After winning with Black support, politicians offer "four years in office and just now getting around to some civil rights legislation" while engaging in a "giant con game that they call filibuster."
  • The "Con Game": Rulers divide into two factions: one pretends to support the Black community while the other openly opposes it. The friendly faction uses the hostile faction's opposition as an excuse for failing to deliver on promises.
  • Accountability: Elected officials who gain office through Black ballots and fail to fulfill promises must face political violence. Those unwilling to use violent resistance against a government operating against their interests remain complicit in their oppression ("get back in the cotton patch… alley").

• Meaning 2: Strategic Voting and Violence

  • Party Dynamics in 1964: The Democratic Party derived its national power from Southern Democratic congressmen known as "Dixiecrats."
  • Structural Conflict: Democrats promised civil rights legislation, but Dixiecrats filibustered the bill. Dixiecrats retained office because Black male voters in the South were illegally disenfranchised by white voters.
  • The Corporate Will of Dixiecrats: Enfranchising Southern Black men would cause Dixiecrats to lose their seats and cause the Democratic Party to lose control of Congress. Thus, national Democrats prioritized party power over Black civil rights.
  • Strategic Ballot Usage: Malcolm X urges the Black community to develop political maturity in the "big science of politics."
  • Targeted Voting: "Don't be throwing out any ballots or just any ballots. A ballot is like a bullet. You don't throw your ballots until you see a desirable target. And if that target is not within your reach, you keep your ballot in your pocket." Ballots must be saved for candidates who can deliver results or displace Dixiecrats.

• Meaning 3: Voting Rights and Violence (Primary Meaning)

  • Denial of Constitutional Rights: Preventing half the Black population in the South from voting invalidates the claim that the US is a democracy. Citing Rousseau, Malcolm X notes democracy fails when voters do not control government affairs.
  • Government Conspiracy: Systematic oppression is not merely a "segregationist conspiracy" by local racists, but a full "government conspiracy" maintained by federal indifference and failure to enforce constitutional amendments.
  • Tactical Pivot: Because existing political avenues have failed, peaceful demonstrations must give way to violent self-defense: "It'll be Molotov cocktails this next month. It'll be ballots or it'll be bullets. It'll be liberty or it will be death."

Malcolm X on State-Sanctioned Violence, Police Dogs, and Self-Defense

• Self-Defense vs. Random Violence: Malcolm X advocates self-defense against criminal government agents rather than random violence.
• State Criminality: Segregationists act criminally. Police officers using clubs and attack dogs against peaceful anti-segregation demonstrators commit criminal obstruction of justice.
• Police Dogs in the 1960s: Police departments specifically trained dogs to disperse Black public gatherings, inflicting severe puncture wounds and tearing clothes.
• Directive on Police Dogs: "Anytime you demonstrate against segregation and a man has the audacity to put a police dog on you, kill that dog. Kill him. I'm telling you, kill that dog."
• Moral Bankruptcy: The white power structure ("Uncle Sam") is morally bankrupt, making moral appeals futile. "So it's not necessary to change the white man's mind. We have to change our own mind." The Black community must develop unity, harmony, and political self-reliance to secure justice directly.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Structure of the State, the Magistrate, and Competing Wills

• Framework of Books III and IV of The Social Contract: Introduces concrete analysis of state structures, arguing political institutions must align with a population's character, geographic setting, and demographics.
• Separation of Powers: Distinguishes between Legislative Power (the Sovereign General Will in the Assembly) and Executive Power (the Government executing administration).
• Distinction Between State and Government:
  • The State: The total entity encompassing the entire population of citizens, legislative structures, government offices, and magistrates.
  • The Government: A specific body within the State handling day-to-day administrative functions (e.g., public drinking water safety, market food safety, judicial hearings, tax collection, road maintenance).
• Psychological Profile of the Magistrate:
  • A magistrate is any individual holding official governmental office or administrative responsibility.
  • The magistrate possesses three competing internal wills:
    1. Private Will: Seeks personal advantage and private benefit. (Psychologically the most concentrated and strongest will).
    2. Corporate Will: Seeks the advantage, preservation, and expansion of the government entity itself ("common will of the magistrates, uniquely related to the advantage of the prince"). (Second most concentrated and influential).
    3. General Will: Seeks the common good, equality, and public prosperity of all citizens. (Psychologically the weakest and least concentrated in the magistrate).
  • Subversion of Social Order: In executive operations, the magistrate acts first as himself, second as a magistrate, and third as a citizen—a hierarchy directly opposite to what a just social order requires.
• Technical Definition of "Prince": Used by Rousseau as a synonym for the whole government body, whether structured as a monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy.
• The Sovereign Assembly vs. Government Administration:
  • Citizens gather in the Assembly to exercise sovereign power, set overarching values (equality, prosperity), and pass general laws.
  • Upon adjournment, citizens return home to private lives. Magistrates move to executive buildings to administer laws.
  • Citizens vs. Magistrates: Sovereign citizens in the Assembly balance two wills (private and general). Magistrates balance three wills (private, corporate, and general) and perform administrative duties.

Rousseau's Analysis of Forms of Government and Democratic Conditions

• Monarchy:
  • Government concentrated in a single individual. The private and corporate wills are completely unified, yielding maximum executive force, speed, and efficiency.
  • Absolute Monarchy Illegitimacy: Absolute monarchical claims, such as King Louis XIV's statement "L'état, c'est moi" ("I am the state"), are illegitimate because sovereignty belongs strictly to the General Will of the people assembled, never to a ruler alone.
• Democracy:
  • Executive government is operated directly by the same citizens who sit in the sovereign Assembly ("sovereign is the same as prince, and accordingly, all the citizens are that many magistrates").
  • Dilution of Corporate Will: Diluting the corporate will across the entire populace makes executive action slow, complex, and spread thin. It represents the weakest form of government in terms of force, but is least susceptible to corporate corruption.
• Government Suitability and Demographics:
  • Large Populations: High population size creates cultural diversity, numerous factions, and conflicting moral outlooks. Factional conflict threatens civil society's collapse into the state of nature, requiring a strong, rapid, repressive government (Monarchy).
  • Small Populations: Small, culturally homogenous populations experience minimal factional conflict, making them suited for Democratic government.
• Rousseau's Conditions for True Democracy:
  • Rousseau asserts: "If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. So perfect a government is not suited to men."
  • Four Requirements for Effective Democracy:
    1. A very small state where citizens easily assemble and know one another personally.
    2. Great simplicity of mores (shared moral/political views) to prevent thorny public debates.
    3. High equality in social rank and economic fortunes.
    4. Little or no luxury (luxury arises from wealth or makes wealth necessary; wealth corrupts the rich through possession and the poor through covetousness).
• Critique of Representative Government (England):
  • Rousseau argues the English people are mistaken in believing they are free. They are free only during the election of Members of Parliament (MPs); once MPs are elected, the populace is enslaved and reduced to nothing, having merely selected their masters. (This critique applies equally to the United States).

Rousseau's State of Nature and the Social Contract

• Comparative Accounts of the State of Nature:
  • Thomas Hobbes: A violent state of war where life is solitary, nasty, brutish, and short, driven by human selfishness and unceasing lust for power.
  • John Locke: Initially peaceful, but devolves into property disputes and thievery due to the absence of impartial judges.
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A peaceful, solitary state characterized by abundant resources and minimal human contact. Vicious behaviors (violence, deception, exploitation) are not part of human nature, but are corrupt developments of modern civil society.
• War and Property in the State of Nature:
  • Natural Law dictates self-preservation, permitting individuals to take what they need to survive.
  • War requires constant human relationships and resource scarcity. In Rousseau's state of nature, abundant resources eliminate constant property and motives for war. Stealing or fighting over acorns is irrational when acorns cover the ground and fighting risks injury.
• Transition to Civil Society:
  • Over time, environmental obstacles and resource depletion threaten human survival, compelling humans to unite or perish (borrowing from Plato's Republic).
• Nature of the Social Contract:
  • Individuals alienate themselves without reservation, surrendering themselves "whole and entire" to the community along with all their rights.
  • The contract is formed voluntarily out of a desire for genuine community, not out of fear or terror (Hobbes) or selfish property protection (Locke).
  • Contrast with Slavery: Slavery is based on force, inequality, and lack of consent. The social contract is an equal, uncoerced agreement entered into by morally developed individuals.

The General Will, Moral Transformation, and the Legislator

• Moral Transformation of Man:
  • Entering civil society transforms man from a "stupid limited animal into an intelligent being and a human."
  • Replaces instinct with justice, physical impulse/appetite with duty and right, and raw craving with moral reason.
• Critique of Modern Civil Society:
  • Modern humans reside in an "advanced state of nature" masquerading as civil society. Despite technological and architectural progress, social relations remain governed by coercion, manipulation, and moral immaturity.
• Characteristics of the General Will:
  • Distinct from the Private Will (self-interest). The General Will seeks common interest and equal public benefit.
  • "Forced to Be Free": Individuals deviating from the General Will are constrained by civil laws for their own benefit, while civil society patiently awaits their moral maturation (analogous to compelling a child or uninformed adult to take medicine).
  • Infallibility of the General Will: The General Will is always right because it reflects morally mature, informed citizens deliberating on general laws without ideology or factional interests.
  • Condemnation of Factions: Political parties destroy independent moral reasoning: "it is important that there should be no partial society [party] in the state and that each citizen make up his own mind…"
• The Legislator vs. Demagogue:
  • An ignorant populace ("blind multitude") cannot construct a legislative system unaided.
  • The Legislator: A moral and political genius who ennobles and enlightens the community, raising citizens to moral maturity so they can rule collaboratively.
  • The Demagogue: Exploits mass moral immaturity, telling the populace what their small minds want to hear and validating selfish attitudes to maintain control.
• Conditions for a Well-Constituted State:
  1. Freedom from deeply rooted customs or superstitions.
  2. Absence of fear from sudden invasion (sufficient population for defense and collaboration).
  3. A population small enough for every member to be known to all.
  4. Economic self-sufficiency without dependence on or exploitation/colonization of other nations.
  5. Absence of extreme wealth or poverty (a self-sufficient middle class).
  6. Synthesis of an ancient people's stability with a new people's docility.
  • Rousseau concludes that due to these stringent requirements, extremely few well-constituted states exist.