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How NOT to Read Josiah Warren

May 12, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

[The following note comes from David Ames, Robinson Crusoe’s Money (1876, pages 59-60). I include in here for the specimen notes, both of which were new to me, and for the hints about E. D. Linton’s scheme, but it can also stand as a textbook failure to read Josiah Warren’s actual proposals. Those who have just read William Pare’s “Equitable Villages in America“ will get a chuckle at the differences between the two accounts.] * If to any it may seem puerile and unnecessary to enter into such explanations, it may be well to remind them that one of the […]

William Pare on equitable commerce

May 11, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] William Pare’s “Equitable Villages in America,” a lecture from 1854, is a particularly good short treatment of the system of “equitable commerce” proposed and practiced by Josiah Warren. Pare never forgot that the first principle of Warren’s philosophy was individualization, and this helped him to understand that the “cost principle” is not simply a matter of exchanging labor time, but a system which incorporates into the notion of “cost” a whole range of subjective valuations, which cannot be subordinated to any social or institutional standard of equity without betraying the system completely. I recommend the […]

The Dual Commerce Association, Boston, 1859

May 9, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

One of the things that is becoming clearer from continuing research into the practical history of mutualism is that there were lots of small experiments in, and local enthusiasts for, equitable commerce and mutual currency. I’ve already documented one Practical application of the cost principle in Massachusetts, 1863. If appears that this was preceded in Boston by an 1859 project, The Dual Commerce Association. The OCLC catalog lists one 16-page pamphlet: Dual Commerce Association. The Dual Commerce Association: its Experience, Results, Plans & Prospectus : First Report. Boston, Mass.: Dual Commerce Association, 1859. and The Circular includes the following short […]

The Big Time, at last!

May 6, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

Just recently, in a Wikipedia talk-page debate about the significance of the Alliance of the Libertarian Left, the True Intentions of the Agorists, etc., someone asked the interesting, if slightly incoherent question: Why aren’t “Shawn Wilbur” and “Brad Spangler” have Wikipedia articles if they are notable people? Who are these people? Who, indeed? Well, it turns out that yours truly does have a Wikipedia article dedicated to him. On it, we learn the following: Shawn P. Wilbur, född 1963, är en nutida amerikansk individualanarkist och mutualist. Now you know. Funny, though, that’s far from the first indication I’ve had that […]

Bridge over Troubled Waters

May 4, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

Donald Drumm’s “Bridge over Troubled Waters,” the BGSU Kent State / Jackson State memorial sculpture, is, as I said earlier, hidden in plain sight. This shot, with snow piled around it and a trash barrel tucked underneath, is unfortunately characteristic of the sort of attention it gets on campus. Drumm created a number of sculptures for the campus, designed the murals for the exterior of Jerome Library, and also, if I recall correctly, contributed a number of book cover illustrations for the Popular Press. The memorial statue currently stands on the corner, between lots A and G, right beside the […]

May Days to Remember

May 4, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

There is a Kent State / Jackson State memorial sculpture on the Bowling Green State University campus, hidden in plain sight on a busy corner between parking lots. Walking over at noon, through the end-of-semester move-out crowds, I suddenly heard the sirens of a passing ambulance. . .

Joshua King Ingalls on land reform and the single tax

May 3, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

Joshua King Ingalls’ essay “Henry George Examined: Should Land Be Nationalized or Individualized?” is now available in the archive. This is the classic encounter between the mutualist land reform doctrine of Ingalls and George’s single-tax scheme. This version was taken from the supplement to Liberty, October 14, 1882, and differs slightly from the version incorporated in Ingalls’ Reminiscences.

The “Little-Landers” of San Ysidro

May 3, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

“A little land and a living, surely, is better than a desperate struggle and wealth, possibly.” So said William Ellworth Smythe, using the phrase of Bolton Hall, whose and Three Acres and Liberty and A Little Land and a Living were among the basic works of the back to the land movement. Hall was a single-tax advocate and anarchist, friend and supporter of Emma Goldman, etc. His Free Acres community was one of the single tax enclaves, which attempted a non-state form of Georgism. He was also a promoter of intensive, small-lot farming practices. Smythe followed Hall in some aspects […]

Three by Kropotkin

May 2, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

Prince Peter Kropotkin was a regular contributor to The Nineteenth Century, and his essays were widely reprinted. Here are three of his contributions to that journal. Peter Kropotkin, The Coming Anarchy Peter Kropotkin, The Scientific Bases of Anarchy Peter Kropotkin, The Morality of Nature

Tucker on Right and Rights, 1882

May 1, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

There have been a series of discussions / arguments / pointless pissing contests in recent months, revolving around the question of just what sorts of property, and what sorts of actions, are authorized by mutualist theory. Mutualism begins—literally, in Proudhon’s What Is Property?—with a sense that “property” may be a problem without a really satisfactory solution. What, then, does that mean about the mutualist understanding of property relations, particularly in a setting where other property systems may be in place, or in competition. The short answer is probably that mutualism authorizes very little. If the best we can do is […]