But no one would even dare to whisper that
there is such a thing as yellow.

For the purposes of pure logic it is clearer to argue with silly
examples than with sensible ones: because silly examples are simple. But
I could give many grave and concrete cases of the kind of thing to which
I refer. In the later part of the Boer War both parties perpetually
insisted in every speech and pamphlet that annexation was inevitable and
that it was only a question whether Liberals or Tories should do it. It
was not inevitable in the least; it would have been perfectly easy to
make peace with the Boers as Christian nations commonly make peace with
their conquered enemies. Personally I think that it would have been
better for us in the most selfish sense, better for our pocket and
prestige, if we had never effected the annexation at all; but that is a
matter of opinion. What is plain is that it was not inevitable; it was
not, as was said, the only possible course; there were plenty of other
courses; there were plenty of other colours in the box. Again, in the
discussion about Socialism, it is repeatedly rubbed into the public mind
that we must choose between Socialism and some horrible thing that they
call Individualism. I don't know what it means, but it seems to mean
that anybody who happens to pull out a plum is to adopt the moral
philosophy of the young Horner—and say what a good boy he is for
helping himself.

It is calmly assumed that the only two possible types of society are a
Collectivist type of society and the present society that exists at this
moment and is rather like an animated muck-heap. It is quite unnecessary
to say that I should prefer Socialism to the present state of things. I
should prefer anarchism to the present state of things. But it is simply
not the fact that Collectivism is the only other scheme for a more equal
order. A Collectivist has a perfect right to think it the only sound
scheme; but it is not the only plausible or possible scheme. We might
have peasant proprietorship; we might have the compromise of Henry
George; we might have a number of tiny communes; we might have
co-operation; we might have Anarchist Communism; we might have a hundred
things. I am not saying that any of these are right, though I cannot
imagine that any of them could be worse than the present social
madhouse, with its top-heavy rich and its tortured poor; but I say that
it is an evidence of the stiff and narrow altern