Blog - Page 44 of 286 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Proudhon’s Barbaric Yawp (1840)

February 5, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

Every story has to start somewhere. And when the story is that of anarchist history, it seems hard to find a more likely place to begin than Proudhon’s 1840 declaration—je suis anarchiste—which we generally treat as the first instance of at least one kind of anarchist position-taking.

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Our Lost Continent: 1840

February 4, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

Related Links: Our Lost Continent and the Journey Back [main page] What Mutualism Was: Coming to Terms with our Anarchist Past [main page] 1840: Our Lost Continent: Chronology: Notes: In the history of “the anarchist idea,” 1840 is not the beginning, but it is clearly one of those moments when something begins, conjured up with what has been a remarkably durable power by P.-J. Proudhon’s anarchist declaration, his barbaric yawp: je suis anarchiste. The fact that historical beginnings and endings are, at least in part, a matter of choice, often with significant consequences, is central to the argument about “anarchist […]

Positive Anarchy, Profusion, Uncertainty and the Uses of History

January 30, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

Our Lost Continent and the Journey Back Project Page: Our Lost Continent: Episodes from an Alternate History of the Anarchist Idea, 1837–1936 RELATED: “Our Lost Continent” (April 4, 2015) “The ‘Benthamite’ anarchism and the origins of anarchist history” (April 5, 1015) “New Uncertainties and Opportunities” (April 6, 2015) “Looking Forward—Mapping Our Lost Continent” (April, 2018) “What Mutualism Was: Coming to Terms with Our Anarchist Past” (January 4, 2019) “Our Lost Continent” [tag stream] “Extrications” [tag stream] — notes on synthesis, anarchist development, etc. MAPPINGS: Notes for an Introduction SOURCES: The First Leg of the Journey DISTRIBUTARIES: The Second Leg A […]

Archy vs. Anarchy

January 28, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

These short contrasting entries constitute an attempt to sketch out some basic principles of existing archic society and some anarchic alternatives. Those alternatives are drawn largely from what we have been calling the “neo-Proudhonian” project. As such, they are not necessarily the alternatives most often proposed by self-proclaimed anarchists. They are proposed, however, as a means of approaching some baseline for a consistently anarchistic synthesis of existing anarchisms. That approach will undoubtedly require considerable elaboration and clarification of the contrasting principles and tendencies presented here—but it is important to make a start. The Polity-form: Archic social organization seems to quite […]

Misc. Poems by Shawn P. Wilbur

January 24, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

Links: Future Synthesis: Energy and Fear (1995) “Little Infidelities” (1995) Dog Chain Girl White man Jamaican dreadlocks band, rock reggae roots less black than the coffee I’m drinking. Coffee shop crowd all pretzeled in under dim lights under fans over cheesecake and notebooks. It’s Saturday night in the kingdom of caffeine cool. Check out the berets and the trembling hands. Tonight I’m civilian–longhair bluejeans scribbling poetry eating Toblerone. I buy cappuccino from a quiet girl pretty, funny I never can remember her name. And she smiles smiles shyly smiles pleased to see me I think but who knows? And I […]

Futurism/post-Futurism: Art & Industry at the End of History & Beyond

January 23, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

This is yet another of the grad-school documents that have had some circulation online over the past twenty-five years. I’m collecting them here now largely as a matter of artistic documentation but it has certainly been interesting to dip back into the preoccupations, both political and aesthetic, of the early 90s. This is a considerably less polished production than some of the others I have archive, but it certainly has its moments. And, for those who have read my “Futurist Synthesis” poem, I suppose it may provide some glimpses into the mechanisms of that work. “Futurist Synthesis (Energy and Fear)” […]

What Means this “Art Strike”? (1994)

January 23, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

This is another grad-school artifact, from the days when Lipstick Traces and The Assault on Culture were two of the fixed points in my otherwise rapidly shifting universe of interests. It now seems a very long time ago… I have appended a set of thirteen theses “On the Use of the Situationist International,” which was a product of the same period. It is, as a rather unabashedly pro-situ production, both better and worse than I remember. It seems at least worthy of preservation as a document of the time. What Means this “Art Strike”? (Social Movement and/or “Bad Idea”?) Shawn […]

The line at the Popular Press

January 7, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Distributive Passions: Glimpses & Fragments: Gabe shouldered his way out into the northbound lane of Interstate, through a gap between two carts so narrow that his backpack threatened to catch. In what remained of the street, sparse traffic crawled through clusters of cyclists and pedestrians that would soon be real crowds of commuters. On the shared tracks, light-rail and trolley cars snaked by, nearly bumper to bumper. Manual switch attendants saw to it that things kept snaking by, as they sorted traffic back out to the various private service lines. He walked to the still-operating crosswalk on the […]

Into the Lombard agora

January 6, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Distributive Passions: Glimpses & Fragments: With the sun just coming up, Lombard Station was already a circus. Gabe hopped off the bus at the last stop before the street was swallowed by the tents—as did nearly everyone else on board. He thought that the stop was a block or two back from the last time he had been through, though it was a little hard to tell. A sort of street bazaar was sprouting up amid the strip malls, and the landmarks were constantly changing. The bus lanes narrowed and veered off the painted stripes to weave in […]

E. Armand: Supplements and Broadsides

January 4, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

Related links: E. Armand [main page] There were a large number of supplements, broadsides and advertising materials produced in the course of E. Armand’s various periodical publishing ventures and the existing bibliographies, perhaps understandably, incomplete and sometimes confusing with regard to these items. The first group of documents listed here come from early in Armand’s career and relate to l’Ère Nouvelle. Most can be found in the digitized archives of the IISH. [Charles Hotz papers, folder 183] There are several more known supplements to l’Ère Nouvelle, which I will add as I can confirm their particulars. And then I can […]