From the Archives Archives - Page 8 of 11 - The Libertarian Labyrinth

J. A. Maryson, “The Principles of Anarchism” (1935)

June 22, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0″][/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] THE PRINCIPLES OF ANARCHISM by Dr. J. A. MARYSON Translated from the Yiddish by A. GROSSNER The Principles of Anarchism Anarchism is the philosophy and ideal of individual liberty in human society. But true individual liberty is not possible without economic independence, and, therefore, the theory and philosophy of anarchism embrace the ideal of the economic independence of every individual. The conception of individual liberty excludes all social domination and all state coercion; the conception of economic independence precludes every form of exploitation and all special privileges. Anarchism differs from the […]

Lewis & Ann Masquerier in the “Boston Investigator” (1834-1888)

June 19, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

INTRODUCTION January 5, 2026. — I have stood on the top of Mount Moosilauke, on the western end of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, and looked down over the Connecticut River valley. It’s a spectacular spot, which I wish I had been able to visit more often. These days, that view to the west has gained a surprising significance, as I have gradually come to think of a twenty-mile stretch, between Wells River, Vermont, in the north, and Orford, New Hampshire, in the south, as something of a hotbed, in the years when anarchism was emerging, of the kind of thought […]

Dyer D. Lum, “Why I Am a Social Revolutionist” (1890)

June 8, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] WHY I AM A SOCIAL REVOLUTIONIST. BY DYER D. LUM Before answering the inquiry propounded to me, it were well to first define terms. In one sense whoever desires a radical change in our social conditions, who advocates principles at utter variance with those now maintaining, may be said to be a Social Revolutionist; in this sense the Quakers were religious revolutionists. But the accepted meaning of the term does not embrace revolution and evolution as identical words, but ascribes to the former active resistance by overt acts to the powers that be. It is […]

Anarchism defined (“Twentieth Century,” 1890)

June 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Anarchism does not mean no government. It means no government by physical force. It does not mean each for himself independently of all. It means voluntary cooperation. Anarchism is Socialism without physical compulsion. It does not mean the destruction of our present forms of government by physical violence. It means the harmonizing of society by education in sociologic science. It does not contemplate sudden changes. It recognizes that slowness is a necessary characteristic of evolution. Anarchism is the synonym for sociologic evolution. It means that we should proceed in the direction of less government by […]

William Lloyd Garrison, “Why I Am a Single-Taxer” (1890)

June 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] WHY I AM A SINGLE-TAXER. BY WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. I am an advocate of the Single-tax because it stands for a fundamental reform based on a moral principle. The name is intended to indicate a practical method of reaching and curing much of the misery that afflicts society. It seems shameful that in a world of plenty, with more than enough for all to live upon in comfort, there should exist, side by side, congested wealth and abject poverty, evidently arising from a derangement of forces. What is the primal cause? Is it a decree […]

William G. Sumner, “Why I Am a Free Trader” (1890)

June 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] WHY I AM A FREE TRADER. BY PROF. W. G. SUMNER. 1. As a student of political economy: By free trade I mean anti-protectionism. At the present time, in the United States, the policy of protection and the philosophy of protectionism are interlocked with each other. The protected interests make their struggle in the lobby and in Congress to get the privileges which they want, but as soon as they are forced to enter upon any justification of such special privileges, they have recourse to an economic philosophy by which they endeavor to show that […]

Van Buren Denslow, “Why I Am a Protectionist” (1890)

June 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] WHY I AM A PROTECTIONIST. BY VAN BUREN DENSLOW. I am asked to state: “Why I am a Protectionist.” It is a personal question. Whether any other person can be a Protectionist for the same reasons is aside from the form of the question. Its answer also must be purely egotistic, and need not therefore seek to be modest. The editor of the Twentieth Century has doubtless his reasons for putting the topic in this form. It is sufficient that I reply according to the fact. I. I am a Protectionist, because forty years of […]

William Morris, “Why I Am a Communist” (1894)

June 6, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] WHY I AM A COMMUNIST. BY WILLIAM MORRIS. Objection has been made to the use of the word “Communism” to express fully-developed Socialism, on the ground that it has been used for the Community-Building, which played so great a part in some of the phases of Utopian Socialism, and is still heard of from time to time nowadays. Of Communism in this sense I am not writing now; it may merely be said in passing that such experiments are of their nature non-progressive; at their best they are but another form of the Mediæval monastery, […]

E. Armand, “Revolutionary Opposites” (1927)

May 26, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[two_third] Revolutionary Opposites. The French Revolution institutionalized, successively or simultaneously, the despotism of the majority, the law as an expression of the general will, the Republic one and indivisible, Jacobinism, the Terror, the guillotine as a permanent factor, the Committee of Public Safety, the Tenth of August, the September Days, the drownings at Nantes, the machine-gun massacres at Lyons, etc., etc.—things that had not even the attraction of novelty, having all been practiced previously under one form or another. The French Revolution, therefore, led directly to Napoleon the Great and Napoleon the Little, to Lenin, Mussolini and the others. When […]

Max Nettlau, “The War in the Balkans” (1913)

May 25, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

The present struggle is, in my opinion, not a struggle between little Montenegro and big Turkey, little Servia and big Austria, but between the isolated Turkish and Austro-German interests, strictly on the defence, and unfettered Panslavist greed, egged on and supported by the bitter and absolute enmity of France and England against everything that is German. We saw how public opinion was “educated” by politicians and the Press, until the South African War become “inevitable;” the same game is going on about Germany—these are the first-fruits of this campaign.

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