Imperium in Imperio - Lecture 1 2024 PDF

Of course it would be extremely difficult to estimate, however roughly, the relative numerical importance of both these series of facts [the facts of mutual struggle vs. mutual aid]. But if we resort to an indirect test, and ask Nature: “Who are the fittest: those who are continually at war with ea...

Of course it would be extremely difficult to estimate, however roughly, the relative numerical importance of both these series of facts [the facts of mutual struggle vs. mutual aid]. But if we resort to an indirect test, and ask Nature: “Who are the fittest: those who are continually at war with each other, or those who support one another?” we at once see that those animals which acquire habits of mutual aid are undoubtedly the fittest. They have more chances to survive, and they attain, in their respective classes, the highest development of intelligence and bodily organization. --Kropotkin, Mutual Aid (pp.11-12) Sutton Elbert Griggs, (1872-1933) Imperium in Imperio / Empire within an Empire (1809) Overshadowed, 1901 Pointing the Way, 1908 Unfettered, 1902 The Hindered Hand, 1905 “If we … ask Nature: ‘Who are the fittest: those who are continually at war with each other, or those who support one another?’ we at once see that those animals which acquire habits of mutual aid are undoubtedly the fittest. They have more chances to survive, and they attain, in their respective classes, the highest development of intelligence and bodily organization. --Kropotkin, Mutual Aid (pp.11-12) “Our initial step must be the creation of a device whereby the several strengths of the millions of Negroes in the world may be harnessed to the huge stone of a world hate, to the end that said stone shall be swung aloft and hurled into the sea, sinking by the force of its own weight into eternal oblivion.” (The Unfettered, “Dorlan’s Plan,” 234).  “I am a traitor” (5). “I have trampled under my feet the sacred trust of a loving people, and have betrayed secrets which were dearer to them than life itself … It is true that I have betrayed the immediate plans of the race to which I belong, but I have done this in the interest of the whole human family – of which my race is but a part. My race may, for the time being, shower curses upon me; but eventually all races, including my own, shall call me blessed.” (5-6) “Come er long hunny an’ let yer mammy fix yer ’spectable, so yer ken go to skule. Yer mammy is ’tarmined ter gib yer all de book larnining der is ter be had eben ef she has ter lib on bred an’ herrin’s, an’ die en de a’ms house.” (6) “[T]he determined course of action which [these words] reveal vitally affected the destiny of a nation and saved the sun of the Nineteenth Century … from passing through, near its setting, the blackest and thickest and ugliest clouds of all its journey; saved it from ending … by setting, with a shudder of horror, in a sea of human blood.” (7) “The institution was one of the many scores of its kind, established in the South by Northern philanthropy, for the higher education of the Negro.” (38) “The White South, that then was, fought [Black colleges] with every weapon at its command. Ridicule, vilification, ostracism, violence, arson, murder were all employed to hinder the progress of the work … [for] the Old South instinctively foresaw the danger to its social fabric as then constituted, and therefore despised and fought the agencies that were training and inspiring the future leaders of the Negro race in such a manner as to render a conflict inevitable and of doubtful termination. (40) “He saw the South leading the young negro boy and girl to school, where, at the expense of the state, they were taught to read history and learn what real liberty was, and the glorious struggles through which the human race had come in order to possess it. He foresaw that the rising, educated negro would allow his eye to linger long on this bloody but glorious page until that most contagious of diseases, devotion to liberty, infected his soul.” (33) “So his ear was to the ground, expecting every moment to hear the far off sounds of awakened negroes coming to ask for liberty, and if refused, to slay or be slain … Feeling thus, he pleaded with his people to grant the negro his rights, though he never hinted at a possible rebellion, for fear that the mention of it might hasten the birth of the idea in the brain of the negro” (35). [Belton] announced as his subject: “The Contribution of the Anglo-Saxon to the Cause of Human Liberty” (27). “The white people who sat and listened to his speech looked upon it as a very revelation to them, they themselves not having had as clear a conception of the glory of their race as this Negro now revealed” (27). “He did not on this occasion preach a sermon, but devoted the hour to discoursing upon the philanthropic work done by the white people of the North for the freedmen of the South. A map of the United States was hanging “[Belton]saw an immense army on the wall, facing the assembled school. On of young men and women being this map were black dots indicating all the trained in the very best manner places where a school of learning had been in every section of the South to planted for the colored people by their white go forth to grapple with the great friends of the North. Belton sat closely problems before them … [He] felt scrutinizing the map. His eyes swept from one that they were to determine the end to the other. Persons were allowed to ask future of the race.” (40) any questions desired, and Belton was very inquisitive.” (39) “The teachers decided that they had been visited by a Negro, hunting for chickens, laughed heartily at their fright and resumed deliberations. Thus again a patriot was mistaken for a chicken thief; and in the South to-day a race that dreams of freedom, equality, and empire, far more than is imagined, is put down as a race of chicken-thieves. As in Belton’s case, this conception diverts attention from places where startling things would otherwise be discovered.” (44) “Another black nigger brat for me to teach” (12). “Let me gib yer my advis, sistah Hannah. De greatest t’ing in the wul is edification. Ef our race ken get dat we ken git ebery t’ing else. Dat is de key. Git de key an’ yer ken go in de house to go whare you please. As fur his beatin’ de brat, yer musn’t kick agin dat. He’ll beat de brat to make him larn, and won’t dat be a blessed t’ing? See dis scar on my side my head? Old marse Sampson knocked me down wid a single-tree tryin’ to make me stop larning, and God is so fixed it dat white folks is knocking us down ef we don’t larn. Ef yer take Belton out of school yer’ll be fighting ’ghenst de providence of God.” Being thus advised by her shepherd, Mrs. Piedmont decided to keep Belton in school. So on Monday Belton went back to his brutal teacher, and thither we follow him” (21) Ye who chronicle history and mark epochs in the career of the races and nations must put here a towering, gigantic, century stone, as marking the passing of one and the ushering in of another great era in the history of the colored people of the United States. In these rebellions, they learned the power of combinations, and that white men could be made to capitulate to colored men under certain circumstances. In these schools, probably one hundred thousand students had these thoughts instilled in them. These one hundred thousand went to their respective homes and told of their prowess to their playmates who could not follow them to the college walls. In light of these facts the great events yet to be recorded are fully accounted for.” (46-47) “[The other students] all very readily agreed; for the matter of his eating had been thoroughly canvassed for a number of sessions, but it seemed as though no one dared to suggest a combination. During slavery all combinations of slaves were sedulously guarded against, and a fear of combinations seems to have been injected into the Negro’s very blood.” (45) From the year 1619 until the close of the civil war, the white people of the South held the Negroes in slavery. It is the habit of nature to confer upon a man those qualities that better fit him for his line of work. In order to successfully hold slaves, the Southern man fostered the belief that the Negro’s humanity was somehow of a different brand from his own … To prevent uprisings … repressive measures were instituted, and the Southern white man became an adept in the art of controlling others, and his nature became inured to the task. The traits of character acquired in one generation were transmitted to succeeding generations, so that the notions of inherent superiority and the belief in the right of repression became ingrained in Southern character. (“Dorlan’s Plan,” 227) SYLVIA WYNTER (b. 1928): Bios-Mythos, Sociogeny … and the Genres of Being Human  “The cringing, fawning, sniffling, cowardly Negro which slavery left, had disappeared, and a new Negro, self-respecting, fearless, and determined in the assertion of his rights was at hand … the ushering in of another great era in the history of the colored people of the United States. Rebellions, for one cause or another, broke out in almost every one of these schools presided over by white faculties, and as a rule, the Negro students triumphed. These men who engineered and participated in these rebellions were the future leaders of their race. In these rebellions, they learned the power of combinations, and that white men could be made to capitulate to colored men under certain circumstances. In these schools, probably one hundred thousand students had these thoughts instilled in them. These one hundred thousand went to their respective homes and told of their prowess to their playmates who could not follow them to the college walls. In light of these facts the great events yet to be recorded are fully accounted for.” (46-47) [The College President] gave three strokes to the gong, the The confused and bewildered signal for dispersal. But not a student moved. The President teachers remained behind, busy was amazed. He could not believe his eyes … He then in with their thoughts. They felt like nervous tones repeated his former assertions and then hens who had lost their broods. pulled the gong nervously many times in succession. All The cringing, fawning, sniffling, remained still. At a signal from Belton, all the students cowardly Negro which slavery lifted up their right hands, each bearing a small white left, had disappeared, and a new board on which was printed in clear type: “Equality or Negro, self-respecting, fearless, Death.” and determined in the assertion of his rights was at hand. The president fell back, aghast, and the white teachers were all struck dumb with fear. They had not dreamed that a combination of their pupils was possible, and they knew not what it foreboded. It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the external conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms. Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. - Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (1859), last paragraph