Man, I don’t even know where to begin with this book. I had started this book last spring but took a break for a couple months. Even during the sabbatical, thoughts from this book would recur in my head until I eventually picked it back up about a month ago. Written towards the end of Tolstoy’s life it was banned from Russia so initially it was printed in Germany. This book comes at a very interesting point in history. About 30 years after Das Kapital, and only 20 years prior to a world war that the book predicts without intending to, but almost as an inevitability. While people were arguing and continue to argue the virtues of Communism over Capitalism or vice versa, Tolstoy presents a possible third choice… neither. Tolstoy’s fundamental belief springs from the nonresistance taught in the sermon on the mount. As a result, he draws striking conclusions about governments and the people who support them. He draws a consistent line from this single doctrine to show that a government of any kind is incompatible with this belief. When I say to anti capital punishment people something like “if you are against the death penalty, then disband the army”. Tolstoy would say yes, absolutely and also defundThePolice. As such his ideas were inherently anarchistic, but in the most compelling and consistent of ways. He makes his argument that human’s moral development is in stages. The first stage is that of a savage where one only cares about themselves. The second stage is that of a citizen where one only thinks of the group they belong to (family, nation, etc.) the third and final stage is that of divinity when one cares for the entire world. Whereas this might sound cliche, he backs it up with brilliant reasons, and allegories to elaborate his thinking. It is a very interesting pairing to read this book directly after Just Mercy. The two of these books have me again questioning crime and punishment, death penalty etc. I will be thinking about points in this book for some time to come.
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