{as=figure}
::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> But in spite of all his apparent iconoclasm one already finds in
-> Qu’est-ce que la propriété’? the contradiction that Proudhon is
+> _Qu’est-ce que la propriété_{as="cite" lang="fr"}? the
+> contradiction that Proudhon is
> criticising society, on the one hand, from the standpoint and with
-> the eyes of a French small-holding peasant (later petit bourgeois)
+> the eyes of a French small-holding peasant (later
+> _petit bourgeois_{as="i" lang="fr"})
> and, on the other, that he measures it with the standards he
> inherited from the socialists.
>
> The deficiency of the book is indicated by its very title.
> The question is so badly formulated that it cannot be answered
> correctly.
-> Ancient “property relations” were superseded by feudal property
-> relations and these by “bourgeois” property relations.
-> Thus history itself had expressed its criticism upon past property
-> relations.
-> What Proudhon was actually dealing with was modern bourgeois
-> property as it exists today.
+> _Ancient “property relations”_ were superseded by _feudal_ property
+> relations and these by “_bourgeois_” property relations.
+> Thus history itself had expressed its criticism upon past
+> _property
+> relations_.
+> What Proudhon was actually dealing with was _modern bourgeois
+> property_ as it exists today.
> The question of what this is could have only been answered by a
-> critical analysis of “political economy,” embracing the totality of
-> these property relations, considering not their legal aspect as
-> relations of volition but their real form, that is, as relations of
-> production.
+> critical analysis of “_political economy_,” embracing the totality
+> of
+> these _property relations_, considering not their _legal_ aspect
+> as
+> _relations of volition_ but their real form, that is, as
+> _relations of
+> production_.
> But as Proudhon entangled the whole of these economic relations in
-> the general legal concept of “property,” “la propriété,” he could
+> the general legal concept of “_property_,”
+> “_la propriété_{as="i" lang="fr"},” he could
> not get beyond the answer which, in a similar work published before
-> 1789, Brissot had already given in the same words: “La propriété
-> c’est le vol.”
+> 1789, Brissot had already given in the same words: “_La propriété
+> c’est le vol._{as="i" lang="fr"}”
>
> The upshot is at best that the bourgeois legal conceptions of
-> “theft” apply equally well to the “honest” gains of the bourgeois
+> “_theft_” apply equally well to the “_honest_” gains of the
+> bourgeois
> himself.
-> On the other hand, since “theft” as a forcible violation of
-> property presupposes the existence of property, Proudhon entangled
+> On the other hand, since “_theft_” as a forcible violation of
+> property _presupposes the existence of property_, Proudhon
+> entangled
> himself in all sorts of fantasies, obscure even to himself, about
-> true bourgeois property.
+> _true bourgeois property_.
{as=figcaption}
:::::::::::::::
“What is property?” is a bad question;