1,540 words
It is quite fair to say that I became a Socialist in a fashion somewhat similar to the way in which the Teutonic pagans became Christians — it was hammered into me. Not only was I not looking for Socialism at the time of my conversion, but I was fighting it. I was very young and callow, did not know much of anything, and though I had never even heard of a school called “Individualism,” I sang the paean of the strong with all my heart.
Evgenii Vuchetich, We Shall Beat Our Swords Into Plowshares, 1957
Evgenii Vuchetich, We Shall Beat Our Swords Into Plowshares, 1957
3,775 words
Editor’s Note:
The following text is Jack London’s essay “Wanted: A New Law of Development,” from his book The War of the Classes (1905). The subject of this essay is eugenics and dysgenics, although London does not use those words. So one can better follow his argument, I have edited out passages where he adduces example after example from the news of the day.
Evolution is no longer a mere tentative hypothesis. (more…)
3,429 words
I was born in the working-class. Early I discovered enthusiasm, ambition, and ideals; and to satisfy these became the problem of my child-life. My environment was crude and rough and raw. I had no outlook, but an uplook rather. My place in society was at the bottom. Here life offered nothing but sordidness and wretchedness, both of the flesh and the spirit; for here flesh and spirit were alike starved and tormented.
