ommon interest.

The basis of Anarchism is utopian individualism. Just as the old
utopian dreamers who tried to "establish" Socialism through the medium
of numerous "Colonies," took the abstract idea of equality and made it
their ideal, so the Anarchist sets up the abstract idea of individual
liberty. The true difference between Socialism and Anarchism is that
the Socialist sets the social interest, the good of society, above all
other interests, while the Anarchist sets the interest of the
individual above everything else. You could express the difference
thus:

Socialism means _We_ -ism
Anarchism means _Me_ -ism

The Anarchist says: "The world is made up of individuals. What is
called "society" is only a lot of individuals. Therefore the
individual is the only real being and society a mere abstraction, a
name. As an individual I know myself, but I know nothing of society; I
know my own interests, but I know nothing of what you call the
interests of society." On the other hand, the Socialist says that "no
man liveth unto himself," to use a biblical phrase. He points out that
in modern society no individual life, apart from the social life, is
possible.

If this seems a somewhat abstract way of putting it, Jonathan, just
try to put it in a concrete form yourself by means of a simple
experiment. When you sit down to your breakfast to-morrow morning take
time to think where your breakfast came from and how it was produced.
Think of the coffee plantations in far-off countries drawn on for your
breakfast; of the farms, perhaps thousands of miles away, from which
came your bacon and your bread; of the coal miners toiling that your
breakfast might be cooked; of the men in the engine-rooms of great
ships and on the tenders of mighty locomotives, bringing your
breakfast supplies across sea and land. Then think of your clothing in
the same way, article by article, trying to realize how much you are
dependent upon others than yourself. Throughout the day apply the same
principle as you move about. Apply it to the streets as you go to
work; to the street cars as you ride; apply it to the provisions which
are made to safeguard your health against devastating plague, the
elaborate system of drainage, the carefully guarded water-supply, and
so on. Then, when you have done that for a day as far as possible, ask
yourself whether the Anarchist idea that every individual is a
distinct and separate whole, an independent being, u