Inexorable Need for Mutual Aid 319 



power. But when the philosophy of force draws 

 the conclusion, "the world is not an idyllic place, 

 therefore men ought to massacre each other until 

 the end of time, " this therefore causes a revolt in 

 all persons with the scientific spirit. The struggle 

 between individuals who are not associable does 

 not prevent alliance between individuals who are 

 associable from being a reality. Combats such as 

 those between spiders and flies and millions of 

 other similar forms of struggle which take place 

 every minute do not prevent the federation of the 

 human race, or delay it for an instant, any more 

 than it is delayed by the continual killing of cattle 

 and sheep which is carried on every day in the 

 stockyards. In nature we see associations formed 

 everywhere in order to combat disadvantageous 

 conditions of the environment. And humanity 

 is subject to the same imperious necessity as the 

 other species. If the earth were a paradise, in 

 which eternal spring reigned and ripe fruits fell 

 into men's mouths, it might be possible for each 

 individual to live isolated and enjoy the most 

 complete happiness. But it is because the world 

 is not an idyllic place that association with our own 

 kind has become inevitable, since it is a question 

 of life or of death. An environment in which 

 250,000 victims may be buried under ruins as the 

 result of an earthquake, or in which millions of 

 lives may be wiped out by a flood, with its ensuing 

 famine and disease, is certainly not a world at the 

 height of perfection, but it is precisely in order 



