E. Armand Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

E. Armand, “A vous, les humbles” / “To you, the humble ones” (1917) (FR/EN)

June 23, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

O humble ones, we know your jealousies and your grudges. We know that in your morals, you ape the social exalted, when you do not surpass them in ridicule or narrowness. We are fully aware of your prejudices, your fear of what others will say, your servility, your flattening before anyone who exercises authority, wears fine clothes or clinks a purse full of coins.

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E. Armand, “Epistle to MM. the Intellectuals” (1919)

February 26, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

That we have learned much from this small number of men whom we call Intellectuals because — belonging to the so-called liberal classes — they have made that which relates to the things of Intelligence the great, the principal, the essential business of their life; that we have learned much from them, this is something we cannot deny without missing the most elementary of established facts. And not only have they taught us much, but, whatever the branch of human knowledge to which they were devoted, their example — their example above all — has contributed not a little to forming us. The history of their existence, at once fertile and eventful, has awakened, aroused, created in us the desire to resemble them.

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E. Armand, “Faire quelque chose… mais quoi?” / “Do something… but what?” (1911)

February 25, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

The anarchist is neither a scholar, nor a therapist, nor a geometer, nor a worker. He is a being who “wants to live,” but to live as a misfit, as an insubordinate, as an undisciplined person, as a rebel, as an original.

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Armand — collation of Initiation and WIaA?

January 8, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

Première partie — Les bases théoriques de l’individualisme anarchiste. 1. Esquisses du Milieu Social, L’Autorité néfaste. Le milieu social. La course à l’apparence. La complexité du problème humain. A qui ce livre n’est pas destiné. A qui s’adresse cet ouvrage. Notre position. 1. LA SOCIÉTÉ ACTUELLE Tableau de la société. La course à l’apparence. Complexité du « problème humain ». Les deux attitudes. A qui s’adresse cet ouvrage. 1) Le milieu social Un chaos d’êtres, de faits et d’idées ; une lutte désordonnée, âpre, sans merci, un mensonge perpétuel ; une roue qui tourne aveuglément, juchant un jour celui-ci au […]

E. Armand on Anarchist Individualism

December 29, 2024 Shawn P. Wilbur

Links: Encounters with Anarchist Individualism (begins January 1, 2025) E. Armand (project page) What is an Anarchist? (translation in progress) Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism In preparation for a new project — essentially a year-long return to the “fields of anarchist individualism, involving a reading, revision and annotation of E. Armand’s Anarchist Individualist Initiation — I’ve been working to quickly translate a number of Armand’s other attempts to characterize anarchist individualism, including one that is apparently about to celebrate its hundredth birthday: The ABC of « our » anarchist individualist demands (dated December 31, 1924) (pdf) You’ll find […]

E. Armand, “Noel! Noel! Noel!” (1900-1935)

December 25, 2024 Shawn P. Wilbur

The anarchist Christmas story is, perhaps, a somewhat unexpected genre, although the opportunities for propaganda are not hard to see. Certainly, it has made sense for anarchist newspapers to mark the holiday season in their own particular way. The result has been tales with names like “Jesus and Bonnot” (linked at the end of this post) — and, come to think of it, perhaps the real surprise is that there doesn’t seem to be a Ravachol Christmas story out there…

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E. Armand, The Anarchist Individualist Initiation — V

August 21, 2023 Shawn P. Wilbur

The Anarchist Individualist Initiation E. ARMAND [ENGLISH TEXT ONLY] ☜ 4. The individualists and the reformers of the milieu social. The law of continuous progress. 6. Authority, Domination, Exploitation: Origin, Evolution, Aspects and Definitions. ☞ DEUXIÈME PARTIE LES THÈSES PRATIQUES DE L’INDIVIDUALISM ANARCHISTE 5. Le Christianisme et les Individualists. La tournure d’esprit païenne. 47) Le christianisme primitif. Y a-t-il un lien de parenté quelconque entre le christianisme et l’anarchism ? Peut-on les concilier ? Peut-on soutenir que les anarchists — individualists ou communists — sont ce que seraient devenus les chrétiens si le christianisme avait suivi son évolution normale au […]

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.

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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. ☞ 6. L’Autorité, la Domination, l’Exploitation : Origine, Evolution, Aspects et Définitions 53) Les individualistes anarchistes et l’autorité. Il est incontestable que l’activité, la propagande, les aspirations des individualistes antiautoritaires ou anarchistes reposent sur une base connue : la négation, le rejet de l’autorité, la lutte contre l’exercice de l’autorité, la résistance à toute espèce d’autorité. On trouvera dans le cours de cet ouvrage les […]

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 ? De quelle méthode se servir pour réaliser les rapports et les accords entre les constituants d’un quelconque milieu humain — ces rapports et ces accords qui croissent en complexité à mesure que l’intelligence s’affine et que devient plus considérable l’acquis des connaissances humaines, que s’amplifie le rayon de leurs applications ? Quel principe poser comme fondement, comme norme des ententes et des contrats de toute […]