E. Armand Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

E. Armand, “Scènes de Noel / Christmas Scenes” (1901)

December 24, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur

A church or a temple. Light, many lights. Candles that illuminate vast crucifixes, or a Christmas tree laden with toys, a fir tree whose evergreen branches evoke the image of eternity. Organs whose sonic flights seem an echo of celestial hymns. Carols that remind us of those with which our mothers rocked us to sleep… Handsome gentlemen in frock coats, tight at the waist, with eight shining gleams; polished, pomaded, combed, varnished, tied. Beautiful, elegant, fragrant ladies, studded with jewels, real or fake, whose slightly raised skirts reveal an expensively shod foot at the end of a finely arched ankle… Good, honest families in their Sunday best, made respectable, troops of children whose happy faces the symbolic tree illuminates… Ease, comfort, joy!… all that is good. […]

E. Armand, The Anarchist Individualist Initiation — VI

September 14, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Anarchist Individualist Initiation E. ARMAND [ENGLISH TEXT ONLY] ☜ 5. Christianity and the Individualistes. The pagan turn of mind. 6. Anarchist individualism and Communism. The idea of value. Individualist demands in the economic domain. […]

E. Armand, The Anarchist Individualist Initiation — XVII

September 13, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur

17. La réciprocité 179) Recherche d’une base individualiste anarchiste des rapports et accords entre les hommes. Sur quelle base asseoir les rapports entre les humains dès lors qu’en sont exclues l’obligation et la sanction ? […]

E. Armand, The Anarchist Individualist Initiation — V

September 12, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Anarchist Individualist Initiation E. ARMAND [ENGLISH TEXT ONLY] ☜ 4. Les individualistes et les réformateurs du milieu social. La loi du progrès continu. 6. L’Autorité, la Domination, l’Exploitation : Origine, Evolution, Aspects et Définitions. […]

E. Armand, “La première impulsion / The First Impulse” (1916)

May 14, 2022 Shawn P. Wilbur

You reproach me for yielding too often to my first impulse — for treating as an adventure what is in reality only a banal event in my life; […]

E. Armand — misc. translations

October 22, 2021 Shawn P. Wilbur

To restrain the passions! To narrow the horizon of the enjoyment of living? Christianity has attempted it and failed. Socialism will try to reduce humanity to a similar denominator of necessities and it will fail. Fourier saw clearly when he coined this masterful expression: “the use of passions.” […]

E.-L. Armand, “Letter from Switzerland” (1896)

July 16, 2021 Shawn P. Wilbur

This is the earliest explicitly anarchist writing I have found that clearly seems to be by Lucien-Ernest Juin, who was in Switzerland with the Salvation Army at the time. It seems to have been predated only by contributions to Christian publications. […]

Hermann Sterne, “Tant pis poux eux! / Too Bad for Them!” (1912)

July 14, 2021 Shawn P. Wilbur

Tant pis pour eux ! À la force armée qui le poursuit, un homme tente de s’échapper. Grâce à son adresse ou à sa force, à son sang-froid ou à son audace, il est sur le […]

E. Armand, “En Route, Pionniers et Précurseurs ! / Onward, Pioneers and Precursors!” (1928)

June 7, 2021 Shawn P. Wilbur

We took up our staffs, girded our loins and off we went. A few of us, alone, by the first side road. […]

E. Armand, “L’Individualisme de la Joie / The Individualism of Joy” (1924)

June 4, 2021 Shawn P. Wilbur

A painful misadventure had just befallen me, to which I owe the addition of some new wrinkles. It was not the first time in my life that I have, as the saying goes, “left some flesh among the brambles.” But this time, I felt that I risked leaving more than my fleece or my blood: I risked leaving my love for the joy of living. And that is serious. It is the worst that can happen to us, to you or to me, to no longer feel love for the joy of living. It matters little if we lose our reputation or our money, or the esteem of those around us, or, in the worst case, our liberty (and that is still a terrible thing.) But there is no loss that can compare to those of the love of the joy of living. […]