The Anarchist Banker

We had finished dinner. In front of me my friend, the banker, a great merchant and a notable monopolist, was smoking a cigar like someone who has no worries. The conversation, which had been dying away, was now dead between us. I tried to revive it, at random, using an idea that crossed my mind. Smiling, I turned to him:

“Just think: a few days ago I was told that you were once an anarchist…”.

“It’s not that I was one: I was one and I am one. I haven’t changed in that respect. I am an anarchist”.

“That’s a good one! You are an anarchist. And in what way are you an anarchist?… Unless you want to attribute a different meaning to the word…”.

“In the common sense? No, I don’t attribute that to you. I use the word in the common sense”.

“Then you mean that you are an anarchist in exactly the same way in which those people in the workers’ organizations are anarchists! So there is no difference between you and those people of the bombs and the unions…».

«Difference, difference, there is… It is clear that there is a difference. But it is not what you think. Do you perhaps think that my social theories are the same as theirs?…».

«Ah, now I understand! In theory you are an anarchist, in practice…».

«In practice I am as much an anarchist as I am in theory. And in practice I am more anarchist, much more, than those people you spoke of. My whole life has shown it»…