August Monthly Reading: From "Whom to Serve?"

Recently a police inspector came to me with a policeman and two witnesses and said: “The district police chief, in commission with the military commandant, has sent me to invite you to the police department on the matter of your failure to appear for verification of the conscription lists.” I was somewhat flustered and hesitated in my words, and he added: “They are now waiting for you at the police department.” I say: “Why are they waiting? I did not promise to come.”

“But they ask you—you understand: the police chief and the military commandant sent me.”

“Yes,” I say, “but I have absolutely no need of them.”

“So you won’t go?”

“Yes! I won’t go.”

“So you don’t recognize the authorities, you’re going against authority?”

“I am not going against authority, let the authorities stand, perhaps they are needed by someone, but I have no need of them whatsoever. Here you speak so threateningly: ‘the police chief, the military commandant’ and ‘against authority,’ but I understand that these too are people, born like me from a mother’s womb, drinking, eating, sinning and dying, in a word, like all people. And agree yourself, why should I go to a person whom I have absolutely no need of. If, as you say, they need me—well then let them come to me.”

“Well, yes,” said the policeman, “but if we allow this, then no one will go, and through this the authorities will be destroyed—so you’re going against authority?”

“But understand what I’m saying: I don’t need them. If I do some work and it isn’t needed by people, how can I make them need my work. The same with authority. It isn’t needed by me. If I am mistaken, then of course the authorities won’t be destroyed because I, some insignificant person, made a mistake. But if, as you fear, the authorities will in this way become unnecessary to everyone and through this be destroyed, then what can be done—such, apparently, will be the will of God.”

“So you won’t go?”

“Of course not!”

“In that case, goodbye!”

“Be well.”

The evil of authorities lies in this: that they are coercive. To get rid of coercion, one must learn to get along with one another by good will, without needing coercion. And this can be achieved only by conscious faith, by understanding of life, in fulfilling the will of our Father who is in heaven, that is, the eternal law. Let every person, before every forthcoming deed, first ascertain by his own reason whether it accords with the will of God or does not accord. And if it accords, let him do it; but if it does not accord, let him not only not do it but not lift a finger, not utter a single sound in favor of such a deed. And then what is not needed will be destroyed of itself by the will of God. What is loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven. The wisdom of life consists in keeping the will of God, in knowing how to repay evil with good.

—Buka

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Translator’s Notes:

• This excerpt was censored from the original Circle of Reading because it depicted and advocated non-cooperation with military conscription authorities.
• The phrase “What is loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven” inverts the more familiar “What is bound on earth shall be bound in heaven” (Matthew 16:19), emphasizing that human rejection of coercive institutions can free people spiritually.