"A common danger tends to concord. Communism is the exploitation of the strong by the weak. In Communism, inequality comes from placing mediocrity on a level with excellence"
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Proudhon opens with a cool observation about politics as herd behavior: fear is a glue. “A common danger tends to concord” is less a celebration of solidarity than a warning that unity is often rented, not owned. Crisis manufactures agreement, and once the danger fades the coalition frays. It’s a preface to his deeper suspicion of mass movements that claim to speak for “the people” while quietly demanding everyone march at the same height.
His jab at communism is designed to invert the usual moral script. Where socialists accused capital of letting the strong prey on the weak, Proudhon flips it: communism becomes “the exploitation of the strong by the weak.” The sting isn’t mainly economic; it’s psychological and moral. He’s attacking a politics of resentment that, in his view, weaponizes equality as a license to punish ability, ambition, and distinction.
The third line sharpens the charge: inequality doesn’t disappear; it mutates. If a system forces “mediocrity” onto “a level with excellence,” you don’t get a flat world, you get a new hierarchy where conformity rules and talent is treated as a kind of offense. That’s the subtext: coercive egalitarianism doesn’t end status games, it simply changes which traits are rewarded.
Context matters. Writing in the shadow of the 1848 upheavals and early socialist experiments, Proudhon was an anti-capitalist who still distrusted centralized collectivism. This is less a defense of bourgeois privilege than a plea for a different radicalism: mutualism, decentralization, and equality built without crushing individuality.
His jab at communism is designed to invert the usual moral script. Where socialists accused capital of letting the strong prey on the weak, Proudhon flips it: communism becomes “the exploitation of the strong by the weak.” The sting isn’t mainly economic; it’s psychological and moral. He’s attacking a politics of resentment that, in his view, weaponizes equality as a license to punish ability, ambition, and distinction.
The third line sharpens the charge: inequality doesn’t disappear; it mutates. If a system forces “mediocrity” onto “a level with excellence,” you don’t get a flat world, you get a new hierarchy where conformity rules and talent is treated as a kind of offense. That’s the subtext: coercive egalitarianism doesn’t end status games, it simply changes which traits are rewarded.
Context matters. Writing in the shadow of the 1848 upheavals and early socialist experiments, Proudhon was an anti-capitalist who still distrusted centralized collectivism. This is less a defense of bourgeois privilege than a plea for a different radicalism: mutualism, decentralization, and equality built without crushing individuality.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
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