Rambles Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Encounters with Anarchist Individualism: Bigger on the Inside

September 22, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

Links: E. Armand, What Is an Anarchist? (1908) E. Armand, The Anarchist Individualist Initiation (1923) Contr’un #3: The Anarchic Encounter (pdf) (2013) Anarchism, Plain and Simple / Propositions for Discussion (2015) Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism (2020) Constructing Anarchisms (2020) A Schematic Anarchism (2022) ENCOUNTERS: I am large, I contain multitudes. — Whitman, “Song of Myself” After a rather lengthy delay, I’m settling down to some projects that I had initially intended to begin back in January. As it happens, all three of the tasks at the top of the pile — work on Proudhon’s Justice, an edition […]

Encounters with Anarchist Individualism

January 1, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

The “anarchic encounter” was always really a metaphor, on which I hoped to eventually hang a more thorough analysis of anarchistic social relations. The elaboration has been slow, but the metaphor has remained surprisingly serviceable — and saw a real revival over the course of the “Constructing Anarchisms” project. The metaphor has its source in a pair of passages from Proudhon’s Justice in the Revolution and in the Church — a work that I have translated over the past couple of years and will continue to revise and annotate in 2025 — which summarize in just a few lines a rudimentary anarchist social system. There is a little more to work with than a bon mot or some etymological cues, but not a great deal more. Again, it is a question of a focus for elaborations that it would probably not be accurate to say all follow directly from the original source. But you have to start somewhere — or start again somewhere, as many times as it is necessary to start again — and the encounter is a somewhere that has served me well for some time now. I’m hoping others will have a similar experience.

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Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism — No. 6

August 9, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

“Life as experience tears up programs, treads decorum under foot, breaks the windows, descends from the ivory tower. It abandons the City of Established Facts, out through the Gate of Settled Matters and roams, vagabond, in the open countryside of the Unforeseen.” Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism: Project page Related links: Posts: Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism No. 6. — Songs of Solitary Selves Just when it looked like summer had settled in for good, August delivered a bit of rain. And just when I thought I had pretty well wrapped up this set of […]

Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism — No. 5

August 3, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

“Life as experience tears up programs, treads decorum under foot, breaks the windows, descends from the ivory tower. It abandons the City of Established Facts, out through the Gate of Settled Matters and roams, vagabond, in the open countryside of the Unforeseen.” Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism: Project page Related links: “The Gift Economy of Property“ “Occupancy-and-Use: Neo-Proudhonian Remarks“ “Property, Individuality and Collective Force“ “What could justify property?“ Pierre Leroux in “The Present” and “The Spirit of the Age” Posts: Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism No. 5. — Give and Take: The First Society I would, […]

Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism — No. 4

July 21, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

“Life as experience tears up programs, treads decorum under foot, breaks the windows, descends from the ivory tower. It abandons the City of Established Facts, out through the Gate of Settled Matters and roams, vagabond, in the open countryside of the Unforeseen.” Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism: Project page Related links: “The Gift Economy of Property“ “Occupancy-and-Use: Neo-Proudhonian Remarks“ “A Tale of Three Provisos“ Posts: Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism No. 4. — Give and Take: The Last Polity Summer is finally upon us and the fields, which have been going through their slow, but steady […]

Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism — No. 3

July 14, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

“Life as experience tears up programs, treads decorum under foot, breaks the windows, descends from the ivory tower. It abandons the City of Established Facts, out through the Gate of Settled Matters and roams, vagabond, in the open countryside of the Unforeseen.” Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism: Project page Related links: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: Self-Government and the Citizen-State E. Armand, “Life as Experience” (1906) Renzo Novatore, “Intellectual Vagabonds” (1917) “Note on Mutualism and the Market-Form“ “A passage missing from The Theory of Property“ “Proudhon on the State in 1861“ “Authority, Liberty and the Federative Principle“ “Anarchy: Historical, Abstract and […]

Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism — No. 2

July 9, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

“Life as experience tears up programs, treads decorum under foot, breaks the windows, descends from the ivory tower. It abandons the City of Established Facts, out through the Gate of Settled Matters and roams, vagabond, in the open countryside of the Unforeseen.” Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism: Project page Sources: E. Armand, “Je n’ai pas toujours qu’une opinion,” Hors du troupeau No. 5-6 (janvier-février 1912): 85-86. E. Armand, “Parce que je tu considère comme mien,” Les Réfractaires no. 2-3 (31 janvier 1913): 13. Benjamin de Casseres, “Solitude,” Hors du troupeau No. 5-6 (janvier-février 1912): 86. E. Armand, “A […]

Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism — No. 1

July 2, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

“Life as experience tears up programs, treads decorum under foot, breaks the windows, descends from the ivory tower. It abandons the City of Established Facts, out through the Gate of Settled Matters and roams, vagabond, in the open countryside of the Unforeseen.” Rambles in the Fields of Anarchist Individualism: Main page Related links: E. Armand, “Life as Experience” (1906) P.-J. Proudhon, The Philosophy of Progress (1853) “The Fundamental Laws of the Universe(!) and the Anarchism of Approximation“ “Notes on Liberty and neo-Proudhonian Anarchism“ Pseudonymous articles by E. Armand Eugène Bizeau, “Anarchist Individualist Initiation” (1924) Marius Jean (1887-1973) [main page] Posts: […]