no The General Sociological Errors 



there were danger of aggression and there would 

 be no danger of aggression unless the motives for 

 aggression were present, or believed to be present, 

 in the minds of possible enemies. Collective 

 homicide is always a means to an end. The im- 

 mense majority of the wars of history have had 

 exploitation as a motive of the aggressors. The 

 disappearance of the idea that men can enrich 

 themselves more quickly by exploitation than by 

 productive labour will mark the greatest intellec- 

 tual revolution in the history of the human race, 

 and will open for our species the way to an era of 

 prosperity and happiness of which we cannot now 

 form the faintest picture. 



A fuller consideration of this error will be given 

 in the chapter on "Justice and the Expansion of 

 Life," but a few illustrations will be useful in show- 

 ing the nature of the error involved. In the first 

 place, it is untrue to say that men can enrich them- 

 selves most rapidly by exploitation. In order 

 that Peter may rob Paul, it is necessary first that 

 Paul shall have produced something. The vast 

 majority of the human race are engaged in pro- 

 ductive labour. The philosophy of force ignores 

 these, for it ignores the physical universe and the 

 real struggle for existence, which is the struggle 

 against physical environment . The statement must 

 be limited then to mean that not men but the 

 exploiters can enrich themselves more rapidly by 

 preying upon their fellow-men than by productive 

 labour. This amounts already to a great limita- 



