Democracy. Without Bakounin's intending it, doubtless, the
International Brothers resembled the circle of gods in mythology; the
National Brothers, the circle of heroes; while the third order resembled
the mortals who were to bear the burden of the fighting. The
International Brothers were not to exceed one hundred, and they were to
be the guiding spirits of the great revolutionary storms that Bakounin
thought were then imminent in Europe. They must possess above all things
"revolutionary passion," and they were to be the supreme secret
executive power of the two subordinate organizations. In their hands
alone should be the making of the programs, the rules, and the
principles of the revolution. The National Brothers were to be under the
direction of the International Brothers, and were to be selected because
of their revolutionary zeal and their ability to control the masses.
They were "to have the devil in them." The semi-secret, semi-public
organization was to include the multitude, and sections were to be
formed in every country for the purpose of organizing the masses.
However, the masses were not to know of the secret organization of the
National Brothers, and the National Brothers were not to know of the
secret organization of the International Brothers. In order to enable
them to work separately but harmoniously, Bakounin, who had chosen
himself as the supreme law-giver, wrote for each of the three orders a
program of principles, a code of rules, and a plan of methods all its
own. The ultimate ends of this movement were not to be communicated to
either the National Brothers or to the Alliance, and the masses were to
know only that which was good for them to know, and which would not be
likely to frighten them. These are very briefly the outlines of the
extraordinary hierarchy that was to form throughout all Europe and
America an invisible network of "the real revolutionists."
This organization was "to accelerate the universal revolution," and what
was understood by the revolution was "the unchaining of what is to-day
called the bad passions and the destruction of what in the same language
is called 'public order.' We do not fear, we invoke anarchy, convinced
that from this anarchy, that is to say, from the complete manifestation
of unchained popular life, must come forth liberty, equality, justice
..."[16] It was clearly foreseen by Bakounin that there would be
opponents to anarchy among the revolutionists thems
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