Anarchism

1. Anarchism • Common usage and definition • Anarchism, liberalism and socialism • Human nature and the need for government • Individualist (philosophical) anarchism • Goodwin • Stirner • Tucker • Socialist anarchism • Proudhon • Bakunin • Kropotkin

2. Usage and definition • Anarchy from Greek: anarkhia "lack of a leader,“ (from an- "without" + arkhos "leader“) • Commonly associated with disorder, chaos, lawlessness • E.g. used to describe situation in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina • Temporary state of uncertainty in times of regime change • Political ideal/ideology • Anarchist • Often used as if synonymous with “terrorist” • Regularly in media applied to describe violent mobs (e.g. anti-globalization movement and other militant protesters) • Proponents of anarchist ideology

3. Anarchism, liberalism and socialism • Anarchism = negation of state authority • Social networks, comprised of voluntary associations, to replace government • State/government understood as monopolies established in favour of ruling minorities • Anarchism = radical liberalism • Liberals (e.g. JS Mill) view state as “necessary evil” • Anarchists view state as “unnecessary evil” • Individualization instead of individualism • Anarchism = antiauthoritarian socialism • Identical goals (society without state), but different means • Socialists: need for transitory regime, to educate socialists • Anarchists: unity of means and ends • Similar understanding of human nature • Human nature is essentially good, but corrupted by society

4. Government and human nature • Ancient Greece • Encyclopedia Britannia article on anarchism (Kropotkin 1910) • Referring back to stoics in Greece as early exponents of anarchist philosophy (around 300BC) • Instinct of self-preservation leading to egotism • Corrective instinct – sociability • Early Christian political thought • St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430AD) • Need for government because of corrupt human nature • Government should become obsolete when human nature could be freed from corruption • James Madison “there is a degree of depravity in mankind that requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust… But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” (Federalist papers)

5. Individualist anarchism • Early anarchist thought an offspring of enlightenment • Optimistic view of human nature • Evil in the world not caused by original sin but a consequence of government • William Godwin (1756-1836) • Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) • Positivist view of human nature • Emphasising potential to improve through education • State authority an obstacle to improvement, indeed an intended obstacle, through which ancient regime aims to conserve itself • Radical rather than revolutionary • Solution is intellectual progress, not political activism of any kind

6. Anarchism and nihilism • Max Stirner (1806-1856) • Student of Hegel • One of key targets for Marx in his “German Ideology” • The Ego and his Own (1843) • Pure, violent individualism • Advocating uninhibited free will • Glorifying rebellion, crime and violence • Core value: assertion of the self • Destruction of state necessary • Cooperation possible, but only on ad-hoc basis, for instrumental purposes • Critic of liberal thinkers, accusing their individualism as inconsequential, basically a smokescreen for continued state domination • Similarities with Nietzsche

7. Philosophical anarchism • Josiah Warren • Founder of autonomous communities (“Village of Equity”, “Utopia”, “Modern Times” • Outlining and establishing cooperative economic system • Henry David Thoreau • The Duty of Civil Disobedience • Influential in 20th century, impacting on, for example, Gandhi • Benjamin R. Tucker • Defined the individualistic anarchist as “an unterrified Jeffersonian Democrat” • Argued that not free markets in general lead to exploitation, but rather that markets are distorted by monopolies, holding governments responsible for this

8. Socialist anarchism • Emphasizing cooperation instead of exchange • Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) • “Property is theft” • Not advocating dispossessing people • Property only becomes problematic as soon as it gives power over others “My conscience is mine, my justice is mine, and my freedom is a sovereign freedom […]. Whoever puts his hand on me to govern me is a usurper and tyrant; I declare him my enemy.” • Influential in the Paris Commune of 1871, and on American philosophical anarchists • Inconsistencies in Proudhon’s thoughts • Promoting society based on mutualism, free bargaining, small communities; hence anti-capitalist • More individualist than collectivist

9. Bakunin • Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) • Combining radical theory with radical practice • Inspiration for anarchist terrorists (like Nechaev) “Let us put our trust in the eternal spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unsearchable and eternally creative source of all life. The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.” (The Reaction in Germany, 1842) • First explicitly revolutionary anarchist theory • Still, like Proudhon, opposed to mass political parties • Envisaging a vanguard model of revolutionary and revolutionising elite • Myth of human selfishness (instrumental for dual power of church an state in old regime) • Emphasizing science, enlightenment • Conflicting with Marx over question of “dictatorship of proletariat”

10. Kropotkin • Peter Kropotkin (1842-1941) • Aristocrat, scientist, geographer • Converted by Bakunin in Switzerland to anarchism • Most systematic anarchist thinker • Building on Darwin’s theory of evolution, applying it to social development • In contrast with “Social Darwinism” (e.g. Herbert Spencer), Kropotkin argued that co-operation was key to evolutionary success • Arguing that anarchism is “not a utopia, constructed on the a priori method […]. It is derived … from an analysis of tendencies that are at work already” • Proposing that anarchism is the most logical, scientific political theory • Anarchist-communism vs. collectivism