hitherto society has been
no automatic entity, leadable and guidable by an individual, much as
appearances often pointed the other way; if even hitherto those who
imagined they pushed were themselves pushed; if even hitherto society
was an organism, that developed according to certain inherent laws;--if
that was hitherto the case, in the future all guiding and leading after
individual caprice is all the more out of question. Society will have
discovered the secret of its own being, it will have discovered the laws
of its own progress, and it will apply these consciously towards its own
further development.

So soon as society is in possession of all the means of production, _the
duty to work, on the part of all able to work, without distinction of
sex, becomes the organic law of socialized society_. Without work
society can not exist. Hence, society has the right to demand that all,
who wish to satisfy their wants, shall exert themselves, according to
their physical and mental faculties, in the production of the requisite
wealth. The silly claim that the Socialist does not wish to work, that
he seeks to abolish work, is a matchless absurdity, which fits our
adversaries alone. Non-workers, idlers, exist in capitalist society
_only_. Socialism agrees with the Bible that "He who will not work,
neither shall he eat." But work shall not be mere activity; it shall be
useful, productive activity. The new social system will demand that each
and all pursue some industrial, agricultural or other useful occupation,
whereby to furnish a certain amount of work towards the satisfaction of
existing wants. _Without work no pleasure, no pleasure without work._

All being obliged to work, all have an equal interest in seeing the
following three conditions of work in force:--

First, that work shall be moderate, and shall overtax none;

Second, that work shall be as agreeable and varied as possible;

Third, that work shall be as productive as possible, seeing that both
the hours of work and fruition hinge upon that.

These three conditions hinge, in turn, upon the nature and the number of
the productive powers that are available, and also upon the aspirations
of society. But Socialist society does not come into existence for the
purpose of living in proletarian style; _it comes into existence in
order to abolish the proletarian style of life of the large majority of
humanity_. It seeks to afford to each and all the fullest possible