Month: January 2013

Contr'un

Anarchy is order! (Wait! What?)

January 28, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
I have often seen the phrase “anarchy is order” attributed to Proudhon—and to Bakunin, and Bellarrigue, and Elisee Reclus, and a French singer-songwriter named Leo Ferre. Often the phrase is actually Bellegarrigue’s (“Anarchy is order; government is civil war”) or the phrase “Anarchy is order without power,” cited as appearing in the Confessions of a Revolutionary. That latter phrase does not seem to appear in that book (and I’ve searched pretty carefully) and it doesn’t really sound all that much like Proudhon. There are a number of places where he talked about the relationship between anarchy and order, and lots […]
Proudhon Library

From Proudhon’s study on the State (“Justice,” 1858)

January 27, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
[These passages are taken from the Fourth Study, on “The State,” in Proudhon’s Justice in the Revolution and in the Church.] [From CHAPTER I.] V. — I will not make my readers wait for the solution. As you have just seen, I reduce all of political science to a single question, that of Stability. Why is it that from ancient times until the present, the constitution of the states has been so fragile, that all the publicists, without exception, have declared them essentially instable? How are we to bestow stability and duration on them? It is from this specific side […]
Bakunin Library

Louise Michel’s “Nadine,” a drama featuring Bakunin

January 26, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
I have previously posted a short excerpt from Louise Michel’s novel, The Imperial Bastard, which featured Bakunin as a main character. Michel also adapted some elements from that novel in dramatic form as Nadine, a political tragedy set in the Polish rebellions of 1846. I’ve posted a working translation of that play now at the Working Translations blog. As with all of these new translations, there are some rough spots to smooth, but in this case it’s mostly a case of making sense of the details of the stage directions, and I think all the charm of Michel’s Bakunin comes […]
Bakunin Library

The Political Theology of Mazzini and the International

January 26, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] 1871 was a huge year for Bakunin as a writer. Along with The Knouto-Germanic Empire (the manuscript from which “God and the State” is drawn), he wrote “The Political Theology of Mazzini and the International,” a lengthy polemic against Giuseppe Mazzini. Like “God and the State,” which was translated into English by Benjamin R. Tucker, it was translated by an individualist anarchist in the United States, Sarah E. Holmes, and appeared in serial form in Tucker’s Liberty. Both translations were quite good. “The Political Theology…” is comparatively little-known, but well worth reading. A continuation of […]
Contr'un

Notes on the Notes: “They’ve a temper, some of them…”

January 25, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
Talking about the “Notes,” there really does seem to be a certain amount of fear that if we don’t couch our anarchism in a specific language of “anti-statism” we may somehow slide into the embrace of something we ought to oppose. Now, any set of terms or concepts can almost certainly lead us astray, if we let the terms do the leading, and not our principles. That, of course, includes those honored by time and tradition, if they have become fixed ideas. Recall that Proudhon’s assault on “property” began with a pre-Stirner warning about such things—and then recall Stirner. And […]
Contr'un

Notes on the Notes: Another thought on the relation between states and conflict

January 25, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
One of the common responses to my recent writing about Proudhon’s theory of “the state” has revolved around the opposition of his definitions of “state” with the “territorial monopoly on force” stuff that is so common in our circles. I think the action is elsewhere. It doesn’t look like any of the socialists in the 1849 debate were very concerned with “monopoly on force.” When Proudhon complains that “the state is external constitution of the social power,” he’s probably just agreeing with Louis Blanc (and possibly Pierre Leroux as well) about the definition of the “state,” and differing on whether […]
Contr'un

Notes on the Notes: Three (+1) Proudhon Periods?

January 25, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
There’s a lot to unpack and clarify in the “Notes on Proudhon’s changing notion of the state,” but one of the simplest elements to clarify may be the notion that Proudhon’s development can be roughly broken into three periods: 1839-1846: an early exploratory period, marked by early insights and some provocative statements, but also by inconsistent or non-existent definitions of key terms (“possession,” for example;) 1848-1852: a period when much of Proudhon’s focus was on the 1848 Revolution and its aftermath in the Second Republic, marked by more occasional writings, many of them related to political events and rivals, and […]
Contr'un

Proudhon’s Theory of the State

January 20, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve posted some notes on Proudhon’s theory of “the state” at the Two-Gun Mutualism blog [Part 1 — Part 2 — Part 3]. Like his analysis of “property,” his treatment of “the state” and “the governmental principle” developed in ways that might look like he engaged in a fairly complete reversal. But as was the case with “property,” the changes are mostly terminological—and I’m arguing that they were probably a very good thing, from the perspective of the overall development of Proudhon’s social theory, however much our present sensibilities might be offended by the vocabulary of the argument. Whether or […]
Contr'un

Notes on Proudhon’s changing notion of the state (3 of 3)

January 20, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
[part 1][part2] The Republic is the organization by which, all opinions and all activities remaining free, the People, by the very divergence of opinions and will, think and act as a single man. In the Republic, every citizen, by doing what they want and nothing but what they want, participates directly in the legislation and in the government, as they participate in the production and circulation of wealth. There, every citizen is king; for he has the fullness of power; he reigns and governs. The Republic is a positive anarchy. It is neither liberty subjected to order, as in the […]
Contr'un

Notes on Proudhon’s changing notion of the state (2 of 3)

January 19, 2013 Shawn P. Wilbur
[These notes are connected to a book chapter I am writing on Proudhon’s theory of the state, some parts of which will undoubtedly end up in TGM: Rearmed. They wander somewhat far afield from that specific question, as I trace out some similarities between various aspects of Proudhon’s thought. And because that wandering became a little more extensive than I had anticipated, I am stretching the series out to three posts.—Shawn.] [part 1][part 3]  ___________ I’m aware that readers who have followed the argument this far are likely to be resistant to the interpretation I’m presenting, and for a number […]