Blog - Page 109 of 287 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Pardon our dust (again)

October 18, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

An interesting side effect of the last reorganization of the Libertarian Labyrinth archive was an accelerated convergence of various research and publishing projects, as I got a chance to revisit older material. And that has allowed me to move more rapidly toward the sort of shared archive that I had initially thought of as still a couple of years distant in the grand scheme of things. At the same time, my sense is that my accustomed method of doing research in public, with some hope that others will follow along through the various steps, is no longer as viable an […]

1992 Parisian squatters’ protest

October 14, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

This came through the FB translators group. It’s a flyer from a group of Parisian squatters, probably associated with the squats at the Récollets Convent, which were evicted to make way for new development. It refers to the abolition of a law suspending evictions during the winter months. [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Nous sommes réunis aujourd’hui, nos squatteurs parisiens, pour protester contre la suppression de la loi d’hiver (qui était en fait un bon moyen pour l’état pour se donner bonne conscience pendant 4 mois et faire un trêve en arrêtant momentanément les expulsions sans pour autant changer sa […]

“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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]