Year: 2016

Anarchist Beginnings

Max Nettlau, “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist? Both” (1914)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. N., “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist? Both,”  Freedom 28 no. 299 (March 1914): 20-21. W. J. R., “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 300 (April 1914): 31. [reply] Egalite, “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 300 (April 1914): 31. [reply] C. W., “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 300 (April 1914): 31. [reply] G., “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 300 (April 1914): 31. [reply] M. N., “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 301 (May 1914): 39. [clarification] P. Ramus, “Anarchism: Communist or Individualist?,” Freedom 28 no. 301 (May 1914): 39. [reply] John Nicholson, […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Sara Bard Field, “My Debt to Anarchism” (1915)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
I owe a singular and supreme debt to Anarchism. It was the active agent in introducing me to my Friend, my own Soul. We had been strangers up to that time. There had been periods when I was not aware I had a soul, or, having one, I believed it had been given to me to shatter into bits and to deal out the pieces in continuous self sacrifice. This idea was the result of Christian teaching. “Ye are not your own,” Christianity had said to me. Back to this black lie Anarchism shouted “You are first and foremost and […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Renzo Novatore, “Anarchist Individualism in the Social Revolution” (1919)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
1 Anarchist individualism as we understand it – and I say we because a substantial handful of friends think this like me – is hostile to every school and every party, every churchly and dogmatic moral, as well as every more or less academic imbecility. Every form of discipline, rule and pedantry is repulsive to the sincere nobility of our vagabond and rebellious restlessness! Individualism is, for us, creative force, immortal youth, exalting beauty, redemptive and fruitful war. It is the marvelous apotheosis of the flesh and the tragic epic of the spirit. Our logic is that of not having […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Walter Everette Hawkins, “Credo” (1920)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
CREDO I am an Iconoclast. I break the limbs of idols And smash the traditions of men. I am an Anarchist. I believe in war and destruction Not in the killing of men, But the killing of creed and custom. I am an Agnostic. I accept nothing without questioning. It is my inherent right and duty To ask the reason why. To accept without a reason Is to debase one’s humanity And destroy the fundamental process In the ascertainment of Truth. I believe in Justice and Freedom. To me Liberty is priestly and kingly; Freedom is my Bride, Liberty my […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Arthur Ranc, “Anarchy” (1869)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
ANARCHY. — D’Alembert, after having defined anarchy as “a disorder in the State, which consists of no one having enough authority to commander and make the laws respected, as a consequence of which the people behave as they wish, without subordination and without police,” concludes thus: “We can be sure that all government in general tends to despotism or to anarchy.” That thought which seems at first glance to place political society between two equally depressing alternatives, is at bottom, if we look closely, only a careless conception of the theory formulated in this way by Proudhon: “the first term […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Eliphalet Kimball, “Law, Commerce and Religion” (1862)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
LAW, COMMERCE, AND RELIGION. Eliphalet Kimball 1862 Mr. Editor:—Law, Commerce, and Religion, are the causes of the wrongs, vices, and consequent sufferings which have always prevailed in civilized nations. Natural law, or the healing power of Nature, would regulate society as it does the human body.—The mind of man is his body. Artificial law is a poison which deranges the course of Nature, and is sure to disorder society. The stillness of legal despotism is disorder. Artificial government turns morality upside down, and keeps it so by force. It protects a class of bad men in wronging others, but is […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Félix Pignal, “The Philosophy of Defiance” (1854)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE PHILOSOPHY OF DEFIANCE, or, A Pardon for Cain 1854 FELIX P….. Edited by Max Nettlau … Give me any epithets you wish; I accept them all in advance. I have only one thought, and envision only one glory: it is to strike everywhere and always, as much as I can, at the principle of domination. Satan, in his revolt, is my father, and, in his courage, Cain is my brother! … We do not take a single step in society without hearing that human beings must believe in a God, in a sovereign being, master of all things, according […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Anselme Bellegarrigue, “Anarchy is Order” (1850)

August 29, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[from Anarchy, A Journal of Order, No. 1] I.—Anarchy is Order. Were I to pay heed to the meaning generally attached to certain words, a common error having made anarchy a synonym of civil war, I should hold in horror the title that I have placed at the head of this publication, for I have a horror of civil war. I both honor and flatter myself in never having belonged to a group of conspirators or to a revolutionary battalion, because it shows, on the one hand, that I have been too honest to dupe the people, and, on the […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Max Nettlau, “On Centralization” (1909)

August 26, 2016 Shawn P. Wilbur
[The essay “On Centralization” is one of the few texts from the collection Critica Libertarian that has remained untranslated. For those interested in the questions addressed here, there was ongoing discussion in Les Temps Nouveaux at the time.] I am happy that someone has finally thought about proportion (1), which, in my opinion, holds the true, practical (automatic, so to speak) solution of the differences between centralization and decentralization. The problem remains complicated nonetheless, for proportion is not a single, unchanging term. I mean that for every organism there must be a certain minimum of proportion in order for it […]