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On the Subject of the Anarchist Synthesis (1928)

July 25, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

Beginning with its first issue in 1928, the pages of La Voix Libertaire were the site of an interesting debate on Sébastien Faure’s conception of the anarchist synthesis. I’ll be collecting the texts and gradually providing translations here. La Voix libertaire N°1 — 1er Mai 1928 ✔ Plus apparente que réelle – Sébastien Faure ✔ De notre déclaration à la synthèse anarchiste – Sébastien Faure La Voix libertaire N°2 — 1er Juin 1928 Le mouvement anarchiste subit un temps d’arrêt, il faut y mettre fin – Sébastien Faure Sur la synthèse anarchiste – René Darsouze Entre nous – M. Theureau La […]

Proposal for an Anarchist Encyclopedia in 1895

July 22, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

The work of an Anarchist Encyclopedia appearing indispensable to some comrades, who think that such a document would serve a useful purpose, for every person could consult there the expressions, terms and subjects that constantly figure in the texts of all the writers, which escape for the moment those who know, and would instruct those who do not yet and and who desire to learn.

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Anarchist History: No End of Beginnings

July 21, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

After a couple of decades in the wilderness of history, in search of the elusive headwaters of the anarchist tradition, you stop beside some particularly active mountain spring and think that, while no serious seeker would every claim a single source for that tradition, you’ve probably been in the right neighborhood for some time now. Maybe it’s time to start thinking about the return trip.

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Notes on “The Anarchist Individualist Initiation”

July 17, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

My dear Armand, your book is a book of ideas, which is why those who wish to reign by the sword or by the power of their fists do not value it. I, preserving the ideal of my younger years, I like its dawn-air, which breaks as if to illuminate the helpless vessels that the surf carries off… And, fleeing the ebb of human stupidity, endlessly multiplied, how many sailors lost on the granite rocks, how many tormented minds and hearts full of sorrow, will one day to “put in at the port,” if by you aid their “compass” once again finds the north!

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Le Rétif (Victor Serge), “To Be and to Appear” (1909)

July 17, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

We do not live for ourselves—we live for others. We suffer, we struggle and we die for the gallery, to astonish others, to wrest from them a cry of admiration or praise. To appear is the great, the unique concern for the men of this century.

For the vain glory of appearing, they renounce really living. And this is true in all the domains of their activity.

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E. Armand, The Anarchist Individualist Initiation — IV

July 16, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Anarchist Individualist Initiation E. ARMAND [ENGLISH TEXT ONLY] ☜ 3. Anarchism. Anti-authoritarian or anarchist individualism. Its aspirations. 5. Christianity and the Individualists. The pagan turn of mind. ☞ 4. Les individualistes et les réformateurs du milieu social. La loi du progrès continu. 40) Dernières arguties des réformateurs religieux. L’exposé que nous venons de tracer explique l’attitude de l’individualiste anarchiste vis-à-vis des réformateurs de la Société. Puisque tous les systèmes de renouvellement ou d’amélioration proposés rejettent à l’arrière plan l’individu, comment l’individualiste pourrait-il ressentir autre chose que méfiance ou hostilité à leur égard ? En vain les réformateurs ou novateurs […]

E. Armand, The Anarchist Individualist Initiation — III

July 16, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Anarchist Individualist Initiation E. ARMAND [ENGLISH TEXT ONLY] ☜ 2. The reformers and transformers of the social milieu. 4. The individualists and the reformers of the milieu social. The law of continuous progress. ☞ 3. L’Anarchisme. L’individualisme antiautoritaire ou anarchiste. Ses aspirations 26) L’anarchisme Il semblerait qu’après avoir parlé des réformateurs ou transformateurs de la Société, considérée au triple point de vue religieux, légalitaire et économique, la liste en fût close. Nullement. En examinant à fond les projets proposés, on découvre bien vite une lacune : les réformateurs religieux considèrent l’individu comme une occasion pour la divinité de manifester […]

E. Armand, The Anarchist Individualist Initiation — II

July 16, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Anarchist Individualist Initiation E. ARMAND [ENGLISH TEXT ONLY] ☜ 1. Sketches of the Social Milieu. Harmful Authority. 3. Anarchism. Anti-authoritarian or anarchist individualism. Its aspirations. ☞ 2. Les réformateurs et les transformateurs du milieu social. 7) La douleur universelle Ils sont rares ceux qui, du haut d’un optimisme béat, proclament que la Société . est parfaite. Si bien que les réformateurs, améliorateurs ou transformateurs de la Société sont légion. Il est si peu exact que les hommes soient contents de leur sort, que tout le monde se plaint de son lot, même les mieux partagés. Sans rechercher le degré […]

E. Armand, The Anarchist Individualist Initiation (front matter) (FR/EN)

July 15, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

Related links: E. Armand—Main Page The Anarchist Individualist Initiation (English text only) Notes on “The Anarchist Individualist Initiation” E. Armand, “Qu’est-ce qu’un Anarchiste?” (1908) Le Rétif (Victor Serge), “To Be and to Appear” (1909) Eugène Bizeau, “Anarchist Individualist Initiation” (1924) [verse] The Anarchist Individualist Initiation E. ARMAND E. Armand’s Anarchist Individualist Initiation (1923) is arguably one of the great “lost” classics of the anarchist tradition, not simply as one of the most extensive expositions of anarchist individualism, but as one of the more carefully elaborated treatments of anarchist thought in any form. Part manifesto and part textbook, it manages to […]

Notes on Simon Ganneau (the Mapah) and Evadaisme

July 14, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

We notice the death in Paris, a short time ago, of M. Ganneau. To most of our readers this obscure name will awaken no recollections; yet M. Ganneau had thought himself preordained to great things—and had some years ago drawn on himself no small share of public attention in Paris. At a period when new sects were springing up on all sides—when Mormons were crossing the Rocky Mountains, and “unknown tongues” were flourishing in England—he was the founder—we should say, the inventor—of a new religion; which he named “Evadaisme,” and of which he was—to use his own term—the “Mapah.”

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