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fiction

Henry Seymour, “The Monomaniacs” (1895)

March 13, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_2third] THE MONOMANIACS: A FABLE IN FINANCE. Once upon a time there lived in the moon a race of people who subsisted principally by eating one another. In course of time their numbers became so diminished that they viewed with alarm the approaching extinction of their species. But the first law of nature sufficiently asserted itself to induce them to relinquish cannibalism except as a luxury, and by degrees they went to fishing, to pasturage and husbandry, ultimately developing a rude system of commodity production. By and by they found hand-labor to be excessively tiresome, and although they worked from […]
Anarchist Beginnings

W. C. Owen, “Anarchism” (1895)

March 13, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_2third] ANARCHISM. 1.—Do Anarchist-Communists believe in the common ownership of land and capital? I myself do not; that is to say, I certainly do not believe in making such ownership compulsory. Whether common, or private ownership shall prevail under Anarchism, is merely a question of detail. The principle is individual freedom; equal liberty to every man, woman, and child to develop all that is in him or her, and to have access to the life-opportunities necessary for such development; i. e. freedom of production, and of distribution or exchange, which is, of course, only the final process of production. This—freedom […]
From the Archives

Bevington and Seymour, “The Prejudice against Property” (1895)

March 13, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third] Debate on Proudhon and property: [/one_third][two_third_last] The Prejudice against Property. To the Editor of Liberty. The main objections to the property idea which stand out clearly in L. S. Bevington’s contribution in the last issue, are two. One is that “there exists no individual producer”; the other, that the ownership of the product of one’s labour is essentially “an instrument of rulership and power over the opportunities of others.” (1) It is patent to everyone that the “individual producer” of a commodity merely puts the finishing touch, so to speak, to a mass of labor performed by other hands. […]
progress reports

Gérard de Lacaze-Duthiers, “The True Revolutionaries” (1922)

March 10, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
The true revolutionaries have always been, in all times and all countries, those whose minds have been broad enough to grasp the most conflicting formulas, to extract from each of them the portion of truth that they contain and to attempt to reconcile them in a higher harmony. The “revolutionaries” are not always those whom we designate by that name: instead, these often deserve the epithet of “reactionaries,” as their acts entirely justify.

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Proudhon Library

Proudhon, Justice: Eighth Study

March 10, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] PROUDHON LIBRARY home page Justice in the Revolution and in the Church (in progress):: Popular Philosophy: Program [draft] First Study: Position of the Problem of Justice Second Study: Persons Third Study: Goods Fourth Study: The State [excerpts] Fifth Study: Education Sixth Study: Labor Seventh Study: Ideas Eighth Study: Conscience and Freedom [excerpts] Ninth Study: Progress and Decadence Tenth Study: Love and Marriage Eleventh Study: Love and Marriage (continued) Twelfth Study: Moral Sanction [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] CHAPTER V Nature and function of liberty. XXXI. Let us finish first with the ambiguity which, on this […]
anarchist individualism

E. Armand, “Qu’est-ce qu’un Anarchiste?” (1908)

March 9, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
E. ARMAND Qu’est-ce qu’un Anarchiste ? Theses et Opinions. J’expose, je propose, je n’impose point. E. A. La société actuelle. — Les réformateurs de la société. — L’anarchiste et la société. — L’anarchiste et les réformateurs de la société. — Les chrétiens et les anarchistes. — L’anarchiste envisagé comme réagissant contre la société. — Volonté de vivre et volonté de se reproduire. — L’effort et la joie de vivre. — L’anarchiste envisagé comme réfractaire sur le terrain économique. — De la vie comme expérience. — Les anarchistes considérés comme espèce et la camaraderie. — Les inconséquences des anarchistes. — De la […]
egoist anarchism

E. Armand, “James L. Walker and the Philosophy of Egoism” (1946)

March 3, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
  James L. Walker and the Philosophy of Egoism L’Unique 14 (October 1946) In France, those who are interested in the history of the anarchist individualist movement have only seldom, if ever, heard of James L. Walker. According to those who saw him and knew him best, information on his life and activities has not been easy to gather and assemble. We know, however, that he was born at Manchester, in Great Britain, to a wealthy family, that he pursued his studies in England, France and Germany, that he was employed for some time by the Times of London, that […]
encyclopedia entries

Anarchist Encyclopedia: Vegetarian

February 28, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
Entries from the Anarchist Encyclopedia [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] VÉGÉTARIEN n. m. De l’adjectif latin vegetus qui signifie végéter, dont on a fait le synonyme de vigoureux en raison de ce que le mot végéter, pris dans son sens littéral, exprime tout ce qui croit normalement, par conséquent vigoureusement. — Celui qui pratique le végétarisme. [/one_half][one_half_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] VEGETARIAN n. From the Latin adjective vegetus, which means to vegetate, which has been synonymous with vigorous, since that word vegetate, taken in its literal sense, expresses everything that grows normally, and consequently vigorously. — One who practices vegetarianism. […]
encyclopedia entries

Anarchist Encyclopedia: Inconsistency

February 28, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur
Entries from the Anarchist Encyclopedia [one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] INCONSISTANCE n. f. Manque de stabilité, de solidité. En gastronomie, l’inconsistance d’un plat, celle d’une opinion en sociologie ou en politique. En physique, absence de liaison des molécules. L’inconsistance d’un bien, d’une affaire sont des facteurs de fragilité ou d’impuissance. Un ouvrage où fait défaut le fond, dont le plan se dérobe, un caractère mou, insuffisamment trempé, sont dits inconsistants. Aussi un manque de suite, de coordination dans les idées, marqué de faiblesse et d’incapacité et considéré en dehors de toute fourberie ou relâchement volontaire : l’inconsistance, par exemple, d’un […]