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An absolutely essential bit of anarchist philosophy

November 9, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

I finally picked up a copy of Daniel Colson’s 2001 Petit lexique philosophique de l’anarchisme – De Proudhon à Deleuze. It is simply remarkable; easily one of the best works of contemporary anarchist theory out there. As the title suggests, it takes the form of a lexicon, with entries ranging from “Action” to the “Will to power,” with a heavy emphasis on Proudhon’s mature work and its connections to, and elaborations in, philosophical and sociological works, from Bakunin up to Deleuze. Colson adds a few novel names to the mix: Gabriel Tarde and Gilbert Simondon feature prominently in the work. […]

Counter-development or Bust!

November 9, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

As it turns out, I’ve been welcoming in America’s bright new tomorrow with a kind of seething rage against everyone and everything. Not that some substantial fraction of all that hasn’t been asking for it. We are probably, thanks to the election results, a month or two further away from the Blackwater-run debtors’ prisons that would most likely be our NEW New Deal, but I still don’t see much of any indication that anyone in Washington has tripped to the fact that there are poor people in America. This week, my part-time job is a three-day, 16-hour (total) affair, which […]

Another bit on “socialism,” from Proudhon’s “The Federative Principle”

November 5, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

Just another of those interesting definitions of “socialism,” from the mid-19th century. I first encountered this particular passage in Proudhon’s posthumously published study of Napoleon III, but is originally from the still-untranslated second part of The Federative Principle. “Qui dit socialisme, dans le bon et vrai sens du mot, dit naturellement liberté du commerce et de l’industrie, mutualité de l’assurance, réciprocité du crédit, peréquation de l’impôt, équilibre et sécurité des fortunes, participation de l’ouvrier aux chances des entreprises, inviolabilité de la famille dans la transmission héréditaire.” “Whoever says socialism, in the good and true sense of the word, says naturally […]

More Proudhon on the origin of property

October 27, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third][/one_third][two_third_last] Here’s another little bit from “Justice,” which immediately follows the last passages linked. In it, Proudhon explains how, in the very early phases of the “shock of ideas,” property emerged as a social convention precisely because human beings had not yet learned to question their own absolutism. Elsewhere, however, he makes it clear that our “absolutism” is not simply something we need to “get over” or grow out of, but an important enabling component in ethical evolution. This is part of the revision of the material Rafael posted, once Proudhon had decided that the antinomies did not resolve themselves. […]

“It is the shock of ideas that casts the light”

October 27, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_1third] [Commentary coming soon.] [/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end] One good Proudhon tidbit deserves another, so here are the first couple of sections from Chapter 6 of the Seventh Study (“Ideas”) in Justice in the Revolution and in the Church. The chapter covers “Intellectual discipline, or method of elimination of the Absolute according to the principle of the Revolution. — Constitution of the public reason,” and it is here that Proudhon, having proven, to his own satisfaction at least, the existence of “collective beings” corresponding to the “collective force” which was such an important part of his critique of property, tackles the question […]

What’s your four-year plan?

October 3, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

If the mayan-calendar-apocalypse folks are right, plans for 2013 might be a bit pointless. But if the poles don’t shift on December 21, 2012, or it they do, but the Earth’s crust doesn’t crack, we really ought to be thinking about goals. High on my list would be not throwing another election-related welcoming gala for the police state, since the cost of these just keeps getting higher. It seems like it’s time for a Call for New Memes. Maybe we want to aim for our own sort of “pole shift.” Maybe we want to hitch a ride on the prophecy […]

What ever happened to (the discourse on) Neoliberalism?

October 3, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

Not so long ago, it seemed to me that it was generally accepted among most of my political allies that NAFTA-style “globalization,” and the financial and legislative chicanery that went along with it, were part of a very conscious tilting of the political-economic playing field, which we referred to as “neoliberalism.” The term is one which has had a range of uses, but we were probably most influenced at the time by the writings of Subcommandante Marcos of the EZLN and by “first world” commentaries at least partially inspired by those same writings. And, in that context, “neoliberalism” was very […]

William Henry Channing, “Call of the Present” (1843)

October 2, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

William Henry Channing, editor of The Present (1843-44) and The Spirit of the Age (1849-50), was well placed to gather together the radical threads of the early 1840s. The nephew of the prominent Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing, and a friend or acquaintance of figures like Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, William Batchelder Greene, Orestes Brownson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Lane, Bronson Alcott, etc., he was in touch with much of what was bubbling up in the years prior to the 1848 revolutions. The works of Fourier, Swedenborg, Saint Simon and Proudhon all appeared in his publications, and he translated a number […]

The Gift Economy of Property

September 26, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

Contr’un Revisited: This may well be the best known of my anarchist writings, thanks to its inclusion in Markets Not Capitalism, where, I’m afraid, it is a bit of an anomaly. It is, I suppose, a fine enough example of the content here, rich in suggestive bits, if a little short on elaboration. At the same time, however, it is probably not a surprise that almost ten years after I first came up with the notion, the gift economy of property remains little more than a phrase. We’ve made some headway over the years in bringing various discourses into some […]

from better mousetraps to lemonade seas (Blog recycling, part 2)

September 24, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

In my post “Time to free ALL the political prisoners” I announced my intention to transform The Very Idea into a group blog for counter-institutional speculation and invention. I’ve got some redesigning to do to finish the “recycling,” but the new incarnation, retitled “from better mousetraps to lemonade seas” (the very idea, indeed!) is open for collaborative business, and I have established a discussion list as well. I’m hoping for practical results, but more than anything I am hoping to open a space for those, like me, who have more ideas than they can practically pursue, to document those things, […]