Anarchism Archives - Page 2 of 8 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Mutualism is Approximate (from LeftLiberty 2)

September 11, 2009 Shawn P. Wilbur

Mutualism: The Anarchism of Approximations[continued from Part II]__________ Mutualism is approximate. Mutualism values justice, in the form of reciprocity. Mutualism is dialectical. (Or “trialectical.” Or serial.) Mutualism is individualism and socialism—or it is neither. Mutualism recognizes positive power. Mutualism is progressive and conservative. Mutualism is market anarchism. __________ Philosophical Observations (continued) Mutualism is approximate. It rejects absolutism, fundamentalism, and the promotion of supposedly foolproof blueprints for society. What it seeks to approximate, however, is the fullest sort of human freedom. In The Theory of Property, Proudhon claimed that “humanity proceeds by approximation,” and proceeded to list seven “approximations” that he […]

Anarchism

I would say “mark your calendars”…

August 13, 2009 Shawn P. Wilbur

…but some critical details are lacking. The Canadian Magazine, in 1902, included a short item on the origins of anarchism, which included these details: “The professional anarchist is a loafer and an idler, a gambler and a lover of dark living. Once a year a great anarchist gathering is held on Long Island, New York. The leading sport at the latest gathering there was shooting with rifles at targets made to represent the crowned heads of Europe.”

Anarchism

JUSTICE: Program – Conclusion

July 19, 2009 Shawn P. Wilbur

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, Volume I, “Program,” section XIII. § XIII. — CONCLUSION The papacy having been broken, Catholicism is brought low: there is no more religion in the civilized world. The Protestant churches, a sort of middle term between religious thought and philosophical thought, that remained in opposition to the Roman Church, perish in their turn, obliged as they will be either to decisively adopt philosophy, and consequently to consummate their abjuration, or to undergo a restoration of unity, and consequently to contradict themselves. Eclecticism itself no longer has any raison d’être; of […]

Anarchism

JUSTICE: A word about the situation

July 19, 2009 Shawn P. Wilbur

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church, Volume I, “Program,” section XII. § XII. — A word about the situation. It is by their principles, religious or philosophical, that societies live. Before 89, France was Christian: its monarchy was of divine right, its economic constitution established on feudality. Christian, monarchical and feudal, the French nation could be said to be as well disciplined in its thought as it was in its government. She had principles, doctrines, a tradition, a morals; she had rights. Under Louis XIV it arrived, using its principles, at the highest degree of power […]

Anarchism

Happy 200th, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon!

January 16, 2009 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve been celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon by tidying up my files of material relating to him, archiving some of my scattered translations at Collective Reason, and taking some time to gather my thoughts on Proudhon’s importance for the anarchist movements of the present and the future. I came to grapple with Proudhon’s work rather reluctantly, which seems to be the norm, among those of us who come to grapple with it at all. I deeply regret that reluctance, as there has probably never been another figure in the anarchist tradition who has pursued as […]

Anarchism

Kicking off a year of Justice

January 1, 2009 Shawn P. Wilbur

2008 was a transitional year for my various projects, and some, like the English-language archiving, suffered a bit from my relocation and the various transitions that surrounded it. I hope that an equivalent service to the movement has been rendered by the translation that has taken up so much of my time. The progress seems glacial in comparison to the years where I was able to add thousands of pages of material, but, as ought to be apparent, developing the skills to dig back into the early French texts has had some very important effects on my overall thinking about […]

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. […]

Radical History night at Laughing Horse

August 9, 2008 Shawn P. Wilbur

A new weekly event, at Laughing Horse Books! R@dical History SeriesMAJOR MOMENTS, MINOR MOVEMENTS, LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS, CONTROVERSIES, AND CHARACTERS. EACH WEEK: A SHORT, INFORMAL PRESENTATION, FOLLOWED BY COFFEE-DRINKING AND DISCUSSION. AUGUST TOPICS: 8/12: P.-J. Proudhon and “Property is theft!” (Theme and Variations) A survey of the uses to which Proudhon put his famous phrase. 8/19: Panarchy and Pantarchy: Hierarchy in a free society P. E. Depuydt and Stephen Pearl Andrews push the envelope of anarchy. 8/26: Anarchists as Inventors: From desk-top publishing 1830-style to the Lysander Spooner’s “elastic bottom.” With Shawn P. Wilbur (Laughing Horse Collective, Alliance of the Libertarian […]

Josiah Warren on “Communism”

November 19, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

I’ve finally posted all ten installments of Josiah Warren’s “The Motives for Communism: How It Worked and What It Led To” on the Libertarian Library blog. The series appeared in Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly in 1872. I think it’s worth mentioning again that what Warren is most concerned about with regard to “communism” is not a system of economics or property, but the assumption of a community of interests prior to the individual investigation of individual interests. You can compare Warren’s account to that of Paul Brown, another New Harmony dissident. Speaking of Brown, I’ve been slowly transcribing his Gray […]

Plans and Prospects

November 19, 2007 Shawn P. Wilbur

As many of you know, I’ll be relocating from Ohio to Oregon sometime in the late spring/early summer of 2008. Teaching work has dried up out here, so it seems like time to move. I’ll be close to my parents and to a number of friends from Ohio who moved out there. Even if I stay poor, there will be mountains in the background, which is a big consolation for a guy who’s been living on an ancient lake bed for eighteen years. All of this has, of course, meant a little shuffling of priorities. I have access to resources […]