Year: 2017

Anarchist Beginnings

“Socialism and the Lexicographers” (1892)

October 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Socialism and the Lexicographers. Liberty is informed that the Collectivists expect to prove their claim to a monopoly of the name Socialism by reference to the Century Dictionary as an indisputable authority. They will find that the Anarchistic Socialists are not to be stripped of one-half of their title by the mere dictum of the last lexicographer. If the dictionary-makers were in substantial agreement in making Socialism exclusive of Anarchism, the demand that Anarchists should cease to call themselves Socialists might be made with some grace. But that there is no approach to unanimity among them on this point will […]
Anarchist Beginnings

“Socialism,” Harper’s Encyclopædia of United States History (1902)

October 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Socialism, a word now employed in several different senses. Loosely, it includes all schemes for abolishing social inequality, and in this sense it is generally distinguished as utopian socialism, under which designation communities like those of the Essenes, the early Christians, and the Shakers in the United States at the present day, and the ideal commonwealths of Plato, More, and Harington, are to be classed. St. Simon (1760-1825), Owen (1771-1858), and Fourier (1768-1830) were the leading modern Utopians. Scientific socialism is an economic theory which affirms that the materials from which labor produces wealth—i. e., the land—should be the property […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Dictionary Of Phalansterian Sociology: Gastrolatry / Gastronomy / Gastrosophy

September 29, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
GASTROLATRY. — Ignoble role of the man who only knows how to play with his jaw. — New Industrial World, 259. Theory of Universal Unity, 109. — See: Gluttony. GASTRONOMY. — In civilization gastronomy can only play a very subordinate role, nearer to debauchery than to wisdom. — New Industrial World, 258. — Conditions which render gastronomy honorable and praiseworthy.  X. 251. — Gastronomy is a seed of attraction more effective than any other. N. 260, 382. GASTROSOPHY. — Gastrosophy is gastronomy applied to industrial attraction and to hygiene. — Gastronomy, which in civilization is only a simple and contemptible […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Hugh O. Pentecost, “The Anarchistic Method” (1890)

September 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL REFORM III. THE ANARCHISTIC METHOD. Those who accept the conclusions of Anarchism believe that it is a science; or, if you please, a philosophy supported by facts scientifically discovered and collated. It is not a religion based upon assumptions, unwarranted or contradicted by facts. It is not a system of metaphysics consisting of undemonstrable speculations. They freely admit that Sociology is not yet an exact science; that, strictly speaking, there is no Science of Society. But they speak of Anarchism as a science because its methods of investigation and accomplishment are scientific. In so far as it […]
Anarchist Beginnings

“Anarchy” (Americanized Encyclopædia Britannica, 1890)

September 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
ANARCHY is that system of voluntary socialism—sometimes called individualism or mutualism—whose battle-cry is “Down with the State.” Its earliest exponent in America was Josiah Warren. He was an associate of Robert Dale Owen, at New Harmony, Ind., where in 1825 a Communistic society started under the most favorable auspices. But it was not until the failure of his experiment that Mr. Warren worked out his new principle of “cost the limit of price.” Mr. Warren maintains that labor expended forms the only equitable element in the cost of an article, and insists that all natural elements, such as land, should […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Claude Pelletier, “Socialist Dictionary: Quarry” (1874)

September 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
QUARRY. A location dug in the ground, where one extracts by means of shafts and galleries, or even from a single level, stone, coal and other minerals, such as lead, copper, gold, silver, etc… Today the quarries, which should belong to the nation, are abandoned to capitalists who exploit them for their own personal interests; and their private interest drives them to convert them into a monopoly in order to reap enormous profits, by augmenting, as it says in the entry for MONOPOLIZATION, the sale price of their product, and reducing the wages of their workers. It follows that they […]
encyclopedia entries

Anarchist Encyclopedia: Absolutism

September 28, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Entries from the Anarchist Encyclopedia [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] ABSOLUTISME n. m. Théorie ou pratique d’une autorité absolue. Système de gouvernement où l’autorité du monarque est absolue. Exemple : monarchie absolue. Sous une monarchie absolue, c’est le règne du bon plaisir, de l’arbitraire et les citoyens sont livrés sans défense à l’autorité tyrannique d’une caste. Toutefois, de nos jours, il n’est presque plus de gouvernements pratiquant le pouvoir absolu d’un seul. Les derniers rois n’ont pas plus de puissance qu’un président de république. Mais il ne faut pas se fier aux apparences. L’autorité, quoique moins ouvertement absolue, n’en existe […]
encyclopedia entries

Anarchist Encyclopedia: Antinomy

September 26, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Entries from the Anarchist Encyclopedia [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] ANTINOMIE (Etym. : gr. anti, et Nomos, lois) Impossibilité d’accorder le pour et le contre, le oui et le non. Opposition de deux sentiments, de deux phénomènes inconciliables. Ainsi, l’individu ne fera pas bon ménage avec l’autorité, le génie ne supportera pas la médiocrité (et la médiocrité supportera encore moins le génie), la beauté et la laideur ne s’accorderont jamais. Il est impossible d’aimer à la fois le néant et la vie. Il faut être pour ou contre. Pas d’attitude équivoque, pas de compromis. La rupture est inévitable entre le […]
Contr'un

Contr’un collections 6 & 7

September 8, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
Corvus Editions made an appearance at the Seattle Anarchist Book Fair last month, and among the new titles were two new collections from the Contr’un blog: Contr’un 6: “God and the State” and the Question of “Legitimate” Authority Contr’un 7: Anarchy and Democracy They are now available online.
Working Translations

Joseph Déjacque, “Scandal” (1858)

September 4, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
I have this nagging fear that perhaps readers of the blog have not been reading the translations by Joseph Déjacque. It’s hard for me to imagine any other reason for the failure of at least a minor Déjacque cult emerging. His work strikes me as an exciting amalgamation of revolutionary fervor and socialist social science, with literary qualities which range from the heights to the depths in entirely entertaining ways. This essay is from Le Libertaire No. 4 (August 2, 1858), and is a sort of explanation for his approach to anarchist propaganda. Along the way it includes one of […]