Featured articles

Featured articles

Marius Jean (1887-1973)

June 4, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Links: Dictionnaire des anarchistes Bianco Bibliography: Jean Marius, “Etre anarchiste,” L’En dehors 6 no. 108 (début Mai 1927): 3. Marius Jean, “Eux et nous,” L’En dehors 6 no. 113-114 (fin Juillet 1927): 2. Marius Jean, “Se réaliser,” L’En dehors 6 no. 125 (fin Décembre 1927): 3. Marius Jean, “Rêve d’avenir,” L’en dehors 7 no. 137 (début Juillet 1928): 7. Marius Jean, “Il ne faut pas abdiquer,” L’en dehors 7 no. 146 (mi-Novembre 1928): 3. Marius Jean, “L’idéal de l’anarchiste” L’en dehors No. 150 (January, 1929): 8. Marius Jean, “Une propagande qui ne plaît pas,” L’en dehors 8 no. 156 (début […]
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Anarchy: Lawless and Unprincipled

May 25, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
“A distinct, anarchy-centered anarchism is not just possible, but necessary, if we are to confront the systemic challenges facing us, and that anarchism seems likely, if seriously pursued, to be adequate to the task.” Related links: P.-J Proudhon, The Philosophy of Progress [pdf] “Anarchy: Historical, Abstract and Resultant“ “Authority, Liberty and the Federative Principle“ “Notes on Liberty and neo-Proudhonian Anarchism“ Defining Anarchy: The ideal republic is an organization that leaves all opinions and all activities free. In this republic, every citizen, by doing what he wishes and only what he wishes, participates directly in legislation and in government, as he […]
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Positive Anarchy and Collective Force

May 11, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: Our Lost Continent and the Journey Back [main page] “Anarchism: Plain and Neo-Proudhonian“ “Legal Order“ “Archy vs. Anarchy“ “Authority and Authority-effects“ Theories of Anarchist Development Anarchy as a Beacon and as a Focus for Synthesis Defining Anarchy: A distinct, anarchy-centered anarchism is not just possible, but necessary, if we are to confront the systemic challenges facing us, and that anarchism seems likely, if seriously pursued, to be adequate to the task. We’re off to a good start, having defined anarchy in terms of a complete break with legal and governmental order. Any anarchism taking this concept of anarchy […]
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Anarchy: Into the Maelstrom

May 9, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: Our Lost Continent and the Journey Back [main page] “1840: Proudhon’s Barbaric Yawp“ “Anarchism: Plain and neo-Proudhonian” (April 22, 2020) Defining Anarchy:   First, we scuttle the ship of state, with all hands, if need be—ourselves included—if, for the moment, only in the realm of the imagination… After all the preliminaries, all the hesitations, it is time to take the plunge, to do our best to define anarchy in such a way that it can serve us as a guide and instrument in the exploration we have undertaken. And we have told ourselves that the anarchist conception of […]
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E. Armand, “Because I Consider You To Be Mine” (1913)

May 8, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Parce que je te considère comme mien. Parce que je te considère comme mien, je m’intéresse à toi. Parce que je sais que je puis compter sur toi dans les heures difficiles, ou sur tes caresses quand parlent mes sens, ou sur ton savoir quand mes propres lumières défaillent, ou sur ton appui matériel quand je me trouve à bout de ressources, ou sur la sympathie quand je m’embarque dans quelque aventure de ton goût. Parce que tu es ma propriété. Parce que tu m’appartiens et que je puis faire fond sur cette possession. Parce que toi aussi tu me […]
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Anarchism: Plain and neo-Proudhonian

April 22, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related Links: Our Lost Continent and the Journey Back [main page] “Theories of Anarchist Development” (December 30, 2017) Voline, “On Synthesis” (1924) “Toward a General Theory of Archy” (October 3, 2015) “Escheat and Anarchy” (October 8, 2018) “Archy vs. Anarchy” (January 28, 2020) “Neo-Proudhonian Anarchism (A Step toward Synthesis)” (April 19, 2018) GREAT DIVIDES: Lessons of the Outbound Journey In the revised outline for Our Lost Continent and the Journey Back, the work is now clearly split into two parts: Our Lost Continent: Reflections on the Anarchist Past The Journey Back: Reconsideration of Anarchist History And that first section includes […]
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Anarchist History: Lessons from the Outbound Journey

April 21, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related Links: Our Lost Continent and the Journey Back [main page] GREAT DIVIDES: Lessons of the Outbound Journey It’s been almost exactly five years since I first proposed “our lost continent” as a metaphor for the most unexplored portions of the anarchist past and made my first uncertain observations regarding the terrain. It’s been almost two years since I proposed the “thought-experiment” of neo-Proudhonian anarchism and proposed a kind of synthesist reconstruction of anarchist history. And it’s been just six months since I started writing the “summary and rationale” posts, outlining the general goals and basic structure of Our Lost […]
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Notes on Liberty and neo-Proudhonian Anarchism

April 21, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
If we step entirely away from legal/governmental conceptions of liberty, where it is a question of permissions and prohibitions, then one of the options is to address liberty in terms similar to those used by Proudhon. He spoke about quantities of liberty within beings and social collectivities, determined by the complexity and intensity of their internal relations.

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In Search of the Great Divide

March 19, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve decided to devote a section of the project, In Search of the Great Divide, to the pre-1840 period—and specifically to the question of how and when to start a general history of anarchism, addressing some of the alternatives in the beginning and taking the opportunity to look at how various other general histories have tackled the problem.

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Authority, Liberty and the Federative Principle

February 19, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur
Related links: Initial Thoughts Proudhon’s Du principe fédératif et de la nécessité de reconstituer le parti de la révolution occupies an interesting place among his works. It has been, prior to my translation of Théorie de la propriété, the only extended portion of Proudhon’s final major project, the study of Poland, available in English. And my sense is that it has been considered one of the “good” late works, like De la capacité politique des classes ouvrières, rather than one of the potentially “bad” works, like the work on property—while also being, of course, the work most often cited in […]