Ofterdingen and Kropotkin

"Aus ihrem goldnen Zeitalter, wie Thornton richtig sagt, stürzte die englische Arbeiterklasse ohne alle Zwischenübergänge in das eiserne." || As Thornton rightly has it, the English working class was precipitated without any transition from its golden into its iron age. || Die durch Auflösung der feudalen Gefolgschaften und durch stoßweise, gewaltsame Expropriation von Grund und Boden Verjagten, dies vogelfreie Proletariat konnte unmöglich ebenso rasch von der aufkommenden Manufaktur absorbiert werden, als es auf die Welt gesetzt ward. Andrerseits konnten die plötzlich aus ihrer gewohnten Lebensbahn Herausgeschleuderten sich nicht ebenso plötzlich in die Disziplin des neuen Zustandes finden. Sie verwandelten sich massenhaft in Bettler, Räuber, Vagabunden, zum Teil aus Neigung, in den meisten Fällen durch den Zwang der Umstände. Ende des 15. und während des ganzen 16. Jahrhunderts daher in ganz Westeuropa eine Blutgesetzgebung wider Vagabundage. Die Väter der jetzigen Arbeiterklasse wurden zunächst gezüchtigt für die ihnen angetane Verwandlung in Vagabunden und Paupers. Die Gesetzgebung behandelte sie als "freiwillige" Verbrecher und unterstellte, daß es von ihrem guten Willen abhänge, in den nicht mehr existierenden alten Verhältnissen fortzuarbeiten. || The proletariat created by the breaking up of the bands of feudal retainers and by the forcible expropriation of the people from the soil, this “free” proletariat could not possibly be absorbed by the nascent manufactures as fast as it was thrown upon the world. On the other hand, these men, suddenly dragged from their wonted mode of life, could not as suddenly adapt themselves to the discipline of their new condition. They were turned en masse into beggars, robbers, vagabonds, partly from inclination, in most cases from stress of circumstances. Hence at the end of the 15th and during the whole of the 16th century, throughout Western Europe a bloody legislation against vagabondage. The fathers of the present working class were chastised for their enforced transformation into vagabonds and paupers. Legislation treated them as “voluntary” criminals, and assumed that it depended on their own good will to go on working under the old conditions that no longer existed. (Karl Marx Das Kapital - Bd. I VII. Der Akkumulationsprozeß des Kapitals 24. Die sogenannte ursprüngliche Akkumulation) || The papers show that Lady Symons agreed to lobby the Bush administration on BP's behalf because the oil giant feared it was being "locked out" of deals that Washington was quietly striking with US, French and Russian governments and their energy firms. [...] The Foreign Office invited BP in on 6 November 2002 to talk about opportunities in Iraq "post regime change". Its minutes state: "Iraq is the big oil prospect. BP is desperate to get in there and anxious that political deals should not deny them the opportunity." [...] Last week, Iraq raised its oil output to the highest level for almost decade, 2.7 million barrels a day... (The Independent) || Tomlinson, a newspaper seller, collapsed and died less than three minutes after being hit with a baton and pushed to the ground by a police officer, PC Simon Harwood, during the demonstrations near the Bank of England. He had been trying to get home from work at around 7.20pm on 1 April 2009 when he encountered the Metropolitan police officer. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate Tomlinson, a father of nine, who was pronounced dead more than an hour later. (The Guardian) ||