“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”
These words, full of wisdom, belong to Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi, no doubt, changed the course of history. His advocacy of non-violence and non-violent resistance inspired civil rights movements, past and present.
The person who transformed Gandhi was a renowned writer. A novelist. Leo Tolstoy.
Tolstoy was Gandhi’s literary mentor. He was, in Gandhi’s own words, “a great teacher whom I have long looked upon as one of my guides.”
Where to begin with Tolstoy?
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. Brilliant novelist, restless thinker, terrible husband, difficult father, perplexed moralist, and a truly fascinating character.
Let’s leave Tolstoy’s self-divisions and inconsistencies for another essay and focus instead on a truly brilliant story that he penned in 1886.
It is titled “How Much Land Does A Man Require?”
The protagonist is a young man named Pahom. An innocent, hard working peasant. One day, Pahom overhears his wife and his sister-in-law (who is married to a merchant) argue about life in the big city versus life in the countryside. As he listens to his wife passionately defend the merits of their modest rural life Pahom wishes with all his heart and soul that he could own some land for himself. Plenty of land, that is. If only that were the case, he would not have to pay fine every week to loaded landowners when his cows or sheep wandered off into their property by mistake. Why couldn’t these people be a bit more compassionate and unselfish? It was so unfair the way the rich did not even “see” the poor. If only he were a landowner himself he would have to pay fine to no one and he would fear no one, Pahom concludes, not even the Devil himself.
The devil happens to be passing by at that moment. Upon hearing this bold statement he decides to put him to the test.
Time goes by, Fortuna spins her wheel and Pahom becomes a landowner. But now that his status has been elevated he gets terribly upset when the animals of poor peasants wander off into his property by mistake. He starts to fine them harshly. “Let them learn a lesson.” And the more land Pahom possesses the hungrier he becomes. Nothing satisfies him anymore. Health, family, love, joy, the dew glistening on a spider’s web, the smell of flowers in the garden… none of these mean anything to him. The only thing he really cares about is accumulating land, more land.
I will not spoil the end of the story, which is powerful as it offers an answer to the very question posed at the start. Tolstoy the moralist and the reformist has clearly an idea as to how much land does a human really need.
James Joyce was very fond of this work of fiction. He called it “the greatest story that the literature of the world knows.” It is an extravagant praise, for sure. But it is true that it is a timeless and universal piece that needs to be read and remembered today.
One day, one of us—poets and novelists and bards walking this earth—should perhaps write a sequel to Tolstoy’s iconic story in the light (and in the darkness) of our Age of Angst—the era of AI technology, climate crisis and massive inequalities.
The title of this new story could be something along these lines:
How Much Monopoly Does A Tech Company Need?
How Much Profit Does A Water Company That Is Now Pumping Sewage into Our Rivers Actually Need?
How Much More Power Does An Authoritarian Politician Require?
Now that five billion people have become considerably poorer, how much profit do the world’s five richest men need?
Given that women of colour are particularly hit by poverty how much more discrimination do racism and sexism need?
and so on.
If Tolstoy were alive today, would he write one of these stories?
I have a feeling he would.
How much more?
How Much Land Does a Human Need?
Another potential title: Hoarders - power, money or stuff; when is it enough?
As always, your essays intrigue and inspire. I am now going to buy Tolstoy’s book because I want to know the end.
It is so easy to condemn the rich and powerful for their acquisitiveness and greed. I love this story by Tolstoy as it shows so clearly how the fear of loss of the power that compels the accumulation and retention of riches, whether land or other types of wealth controls people. As a peasant the young man is sure that he would be a good landlord, as a plutocrat he sees the World differently. An economist who I met a few years ago said “For all the real good that their money actually does the super rich, they might as well be sitting on a pile of newspaper”. Being rich can visibly or sometimes risibly enhance personal comfort but it cannot take away your basic transience. You are only here for a short period and whatever you do needs to make your memory less transient within the realms of uplifting society than you are yourself.