Month: July 2012

Contr'un

Possible & Impossible Worlds

July 6, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
For those who enjoy early science fiction, imaginary voyages, and utopian narratives, I’m sharing some of my favorites at Possible and Impossible Worlds. I’ve been playing around with some non-political translation, including the 1721 “Account of a Voyage from the Arctic to the Antarctic Pole by way of the Center of the Earth, with the description of that perilous Passage, and of the marvelous and astonishing things that were discovered beneath the Antarctic Pole” (which ought to be complete within the next week or so) and some work on a couple of incompletely translated Jules Verne novels. And I occasionally […]
Beyond the Labyrinth

Edward Page Mitchell, “The Ablest Man In The World” (1879)

July 6, 2012
The Ablest Man In The World.  By Edward PageMitchell. 1879 [Originally published without attribution in the New York Sun May 4, 1879]    It may or may not be remembered that in 1878 General Ignatieff spent several weeks of July at the Badischer Hof in Baden. The public journals gave out that he visited the watering-place for the benefit of his health, said to be much broken by protracted anxiety and responsibility in the service of the Czar. But everybody knew that Ignatieff was just then out of favor at St. Petersburg, and that his absence from the centres of […]
fiction

The Symmesonian Letters and Other Tales of the Hollow Earth

July 6, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
This collection of short fiction and satire about “Symmes’ Hole” is intended as a supplement to the archive on the Hollow Earth theories of John Cleves Symmes and includes texts destined for publication in Principles and Explorations of the Mundane System. “Symmesonian,” Cincinnati Literary Gazette (Feb 28, 1824): 66 Cincinnati Literary Gazette, Mar 6, 1824. p. 76 Cincinnati Literary Gazette, Mar 20, 1824. p. 90 W. L. Alden, “Symmes’ Hole,” Stone 17 no. 5 (October, 1898): 343–346. Symmesonian. No. 1 Having been informed, Mr. Editor, that your countrymen always require of every person when first introduced to them, a regular […]
Contr'un

The Mutualism.info Dilemma

July 6, 2012
I’ve hardly started, and there are already some criticisms and concerns about what is is and isn’t going to get covered here. My hope is to eventually cover a wide range of historical, theoretical and practical questions—and, where appropriate, to deal with elements of the traditions both historically (to get us on a firm footing) and critically. It’s useful, for example, to know how William B. Greene adapted Proudhon’s proposals, and the colonial land bank model, to the needs of his audience in 19th century New England. But most of my readers are probably, like me, not in a position […]
Contr'un

Mutualism.info blog

July 4, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
With the contemporary mutualist revival a complex, more or less divided work-in-progress, there are very few easy introductions to mutualism. And there are lots of folks asking to be introduced. It is certain that this blog has become very deep waters. So, with some fear and trepidation, I have begun condensing material from here into a substantially more manageable size and shape, and have begun to post them to a new blog: Mutualism.info.
Contr'un

The Golden Rule as a practical guide

July 4, 2012
I have been using the following paragraph on the Two-Gun Mutualism blog for some time now: Mutualism is not a specific social, political or economic system. Mutualism as such is simply the assertion that every meaningfully social relation will have the form, at base, of an anarchic encounter between unique individuals—free absolutes—no matter what layers of convention we pile on it. To the extent that our conventions, institutions and norms respect that basic premise, we can call them “mutualist.” To the extent that we commit ourselves to viewing our relations through this lens, and exert ourselves in the extension of […]
anarchist mutualism

The Mutualist’s Dilemma

July 4, 2012 anarchisms_w4l2ii
Contr’un Revisited: This post originally appeared as the introduction to the Mutualism.info site. As the text suggests, that project was an attempt to focus on what could be said about mutualism in general, while other blogs pursued lines of inquiry that were different and generally more partisan. Two-Gun Mutualism and the Golden Rule, the blog that would become Contr’un, was the most important of those other blogs. There, I was in the midst of a very serious encounter with property theory and just beginning a more serious engagement with Proudhon’s work. The logic of spinning off an introductory blog, as […]
Proudhon Library

Society for the Mutual Education of Women, “Response to Satan on the Subject of Mr. Proudhon”

July 4, 2012
[When George Dairnvaell attacked Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1848, an anonymous member of the Society for the Mutual Education of Women, an organization founded by Jeanne Deroin and Désirée Gay Gay, came to his defense] [Note: In l’Opinion des Femmes, the author of this pamphlet is identified as Jeanne Deroin.] Society for the Mutual Education of Women. RESPONSE TO SATAN ON THE SUBJECT OF MR. PROUDHON BY THE ARCHANGEL SAINT-MICHEL How long, O Satan, do you hope to persecute with impunity the children of the true God? You have assumed every form in order to establish your empire on the earth; […]
Contr'un

Angels and Fallen Angels Quarrel over Proudhon

July 4, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve posted working translations of a pair of pamphlets published in 1848/9: “The History of Mr. Proudhon and His Principles,” by “Satan,” and “Response to Satan on the Subject of Mr. Proudhon,” by “The Archangel Saint Michael.” The author of the first was Georges Dairnvaell, and the second was published by the “Society for the Mutual Education of Women,” the organization, founded by Jeanne Deroin and Désirée Gay, which published Politique des femmes. The author of the second pamphlet does not appear in any of the sources I have been able to find, but the sentiments are certainly in line […]
Contr'un

“Archangel Saint Michael,” “Response to Satan”

July 4, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
[Note: In l’Opinion des Femmes, the author of this pamphlet is identified as Jeanne Deroin.) Society for the Mutual Education of Women. RESPONSE TO SATAN ON THE SUBJECT OF MR. PROUDHON BY THE ARCHANGEL SAINT-MICHEL How long, O Satan, do you hope to persecute with impunity the children of the true God? You have assumed every form in order to establish your empire on the earth; now you believe your power so solidly based that you dare to reveal yourself by your true name; for it is you who suggested, to a pamphleteer misled by your perfidious inspirations, the strange […]