Month: February 2012

Contr'un

Anselme Bellegarrigue, “The Revolution” (3 of 4)

February 8, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Anarchy: A Journal of Order Anselme Bellegarrigue Issue Two [continued from Part 2]  VIII The Revolution is the emancipation of the individual or it is nothing; it is the end of the political and social tutelage, or it means nothing. In this I am, and indeed must be, in agreement with everyone, even with those we are accustomed to call reactionaries and who are, after all, only minors promised to the tutelage of the self-styled democrats, as the democrats are today minors under the tutelage of the so-called reactionaries. From a national point of view, the names of the parties […]
Contr'un

Anselme Bellegarrigue, “The Revolution” (2 of 4)

February 8, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Anarchy: A Journal of Order Anselme Bellegarrigue Issue Two [continued from Part 1]  IV February 24, at two o’clock in the afternoon, the Tuileries, the legislative palace, the ministerial hotels, the Hôtel de Ville, and the Prefecture of police were all deserted; the official hierarchy was eclipsed. Authority had physically disappeared, and the people were free. And understand well what that word people means, coming from my pen: when I make use of that word, I mean to designate everyone, smocks and coats, patent leather shoes and hobnailed boots. On February 24, I say, the people were free, that is […]
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Anselme Bellegarrigue, “The Revolution” (1 of 4)

February 8, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Anarchy: A Journal of Order Anselme Bellegarrigue Issue Two Foreward The editor of Anarchy, tackling head-on a word which the politicians have used to intimidate the population and hold it for ransom, has proposed two things: First, to prove that order is a popular and anti-governmental element. The best argument that can be furnished in support of this thesis is that the monarchist papers openly greet the civil war as a Providence. Second, to establish that the Revolution is purely and simply a matter of business. The indifference and political skepticism to which the people abandon themselves more and more, […]
fiction

Paule Mink, “Poor Old Man” (1894)

February 6, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Panting, along the gray road, which lost itself in the distance in a damp autumn fog, an old man walked, doubled over. Feet bare in worn-out shoes, trousers ragged and dirty, dressed in a thin shirt of blue cloth which covered him without protecting him from the bitter north wind that blew, a cheap cap pulled down over his eyes, an empty beggar’s bag on his back, and in his hand a gnarled stick which he supported his tottering only with great difficulty: his whole aspect inspired a distressing sadness.

[…]

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Anselme Bellegarrigue

February 2, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve posted a translation of a biographical account of Anselme Bellegarrigue, written in 1862 by Joseph Noulens, an old friend and collaborator of Bellegarrigue. It’s absolutely jam-packed with entertaining stories and useful details of Bellegarrigue’s life and career. But it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. It’s already led me to Bellegarrigue’s contributions to La Mosaïque du Midi and Le Palais de Cristal, which were not political, but are certainly interesting, and it’s given me enough clues to have substantially widened my search for texts and biographical material. Give it a read, and stay tuned for more information.
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A biographical account of Anselme Bellegarrigue

February 1, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
A GASCON Minister plenipotentiary of the Republic of San-Salvador AT PARIS. We are going to present a sketch of a bizarre and independent type who, through the adventures of his cosmopolitan life and especially the singularity of his ideas, might have obtained and maintained a great vogue in British society. Among us, his way of life passed unnoticed. That difference in taste between the two nations arises, as we have said elsewhere, from the breakdown of individual originality by the weight of a leveling unity. So we have different sorts. In England, they favor bizarre natures with a gracious and […]
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Open Letter on Libertarian Feminism

February 1, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
Stephan Molyneux has recently graduated from shoddy to What is this I don’t even…, with a pair of videos on feminism, which he describes as “socialism with panties.” There is a hopeful part of me that would like to believe that nobody could take “Stef” seriously on his best days—and it is definitely not those we see in these videos—but the rest of me knows better. So I would like to draw attention to “An Open Letter to Stefan Molyneux and Other Anti-Feminists,” written by a group of good folks, including Sharon Presley, Charles Johnson, Nathan Goodman, and Ross Kenyon—and […]
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The trial of Joseph Déjacque

February 1, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
An account of Joseph Déjacque’s 1851 trial for inciting hatred and contempt between classes, and against the government, is now available in English translation, over on From the Libertarian Library. It’s a lot of fun, and even the poetry translated relatively well.