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Déjacque’s “Authority—Dictatorship,” revised translation

January 22, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve posted a revised translation of Joseph Déjacque’s essay, “Authority—Dictatorship,” also known by the title “Down with the Bosses!” My original working translation was not the most elegant of attempts, and it’s nice to have a substantially improved version available to readers. Slight revisions of “The Universal Circulus” and “The Theory of Infinitesimal Humanities” are on their way as well, as I start to work seriously on an anthology of Déjacque’s work.  I’ve combed through library catalogs and the pages Le Libertaire for important and representative material, and it looks like these texts are key: Down with the Bosses! The […]
Working Translations

Joseph Déjacque, “Authority.—Dictatorship.” (1859)

January 22, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”]   [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] Authority.—Dictatorship. aka “Down with the Bosses!” Le Libertaire, no. 12 (April 7, 1859) [revised translation] What assurance have I gained? What conclusion can I draw? … The knowledge that I have gained is that there is only one right in the world: it is the right of the strongest. … Thus, no more doubt, no more uncertainty, no more equivocation: might is right; there is no other right than force, for that right is the only one which is inviolable, the only one which carries in itself its own […]
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Proudhonian consistency—II

January 22, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
One of the stumbling blocks to accepting Proudhon’s post-1861 “New Theory” of property seems to be the fact that it is hard to image that “monopoly,” “absolutism,” even “despotism” (all words Proudhon used to describe the allodial property that never stopped being “theft” for him) could be a key ingredient in the creation of society, association, etc. Even when we become accustomed to the “economic contradictions,” this particular move may seem like a bit of a stretch. The isolation of interests that goes with exclusive domain seems to work against the more social elements in Proudhon’s thought.  But if we […]
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P.-J. Proudhon, The Celebration of Sunday — V

January 16, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE CELEBRATION OF SUNDAY [Continued from Part IV] V. If I have accomplished the task that I imposed on myself in beginning these researches, it remains certain and proven: 1. That the institution of the Sabbath was conceived on the principles of a higher politics, the greatest secret of which consisted in making the means arise from the end; 2. That this institution, analyzed in the circumstances of its origin and its reform, supposes liberty, equality, supremacy of religion and the laws, executive power in the people, absolute dependence of the functionaries, means of subsistence the same for all; 3. […]
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P.-J. Proudhon, The Celebration of Sunday — IV

January 16, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE CELEBRATION OF SUNDAY [Continued from Part III] IV It remains to examine the importance of the Sunday celebration with regard to public hygiene. This text will perhaps appear rather petty after the serious subjects that I have treated; and I do not know if, by reversing the order of the question proposed, I could reasonably flatter myself that I had fulfilled the law of progression so recommended by the rhetoricians. However, I do not despair of succeeding: the reader will decide if my boldness has been felicitous. There is no doubt that Moses, in establishing the law of the […]
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P.-J. Proudhon, The Celebration of Sunday — III

January 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE CELEBRATION OF SUNDAY [Continued from Part II] III I approach what is perhaps the most difficult part of my subject, because of the pitfall that it seems to cover: moral utility. What is the influence, on the morals of individuals and of society, of the observation of Sunday considered in itself, independent of the force that religion lends to it, and setting aside faith in dogmas and mysteries? Such is, at least, the manner in which I take up the question, and I do not think, I admit, that one could understand it otherwise. It is not a question […]
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The Celebration continues

January 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve posted another section from my translation of Proudhon’s The Celebration of Sunday, and I have revised the sections previously posted. I finished a rough translation of the whole book a couple of days ago, and am now roughly half-way through revising and editing the full translation. The section I just posted includes the material on “theft” that I started to discuss in December. UPDATE: Section III is now also available.
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P.-J. Proudhon, The Celebration of Sunday — II

January 15, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE CELEBRATION OF SUNDAY [continued from Part I] II What I have said of the civil effects of the Sabbath sufficiently explains the importance that the legislator attached to it, when he made the stability of the State depend on it. But that institution itself had need of safeguards: it demanded to be defended against the negligence of some, against the ill will of others, and against the ignorance and barbarity of all. Now, it is from the guarantees with which Moses surrounded it that we have seen born the influence of the Sabbath on family relations. For such is […]
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Proudhonian consistency

January 14, 2012 Shawn P. Wilbur
I was amused to find that Proudhon’s first published article in 1839 begins with the following: “Is a universal alphabet possible? “If it is possible, is it practicable in the study and common usage of language? “Yes, a universal alphabet is possible, and I believe that possibility is demonstrated by the work that I am about to analyze. “No, that universal alphabet is not practicable and never will be, outside of some phonological comparisons and some literal connections. As the last proposition is a sort of negation of the preceding one, I must engage in some clarifications on the subject, […]