Bellegarrigue

The first Anarchist manifesto, written in 1850, declares "Anarchy is order, whereas government is civil war" and argues — with language as sharp even now as any against the delusion that voting does any good for anyone but politicians and puts the case that the established power structure is a gigantic crime against humanity.
"Every individual who, in the current state of affairs, drops a paper into the ballot box to choose a legislative authority or a executive authority is — perhaps not wittingly but at least out of ignorance, maybe not directly, but at least indirectly — a bad citizen. I repeat what I have been saying and take back not a single syllable of it." An introduction by Sharif Gemie places Bellegarrigue in his social and political context of the struggles for emancipation following on from the French revolution.

Quote:

If governing is called a job, I ask to examine the products of this job, and if those products don't suit me, I declare that forcing me to consume them would be the strangest abuse of power a man could exerce on another man. It is true that this abuse is done by force and that I am the one who supports, on my own coins, this force I am complaining about. That said, I'm coiling back on myself and recognize that though I am a victim, I am also an idiot. But my idiocy only stems from my isolation, which is why I say to my fellow citizens: Let's rise up; let's only trust in ourselves; let's say: let freedom be, and freedom shall be.