Encounters with Anarchist Individualism: Bigger on the Inside

From Libertarian Labyrinth by Shawn P. Wilbur

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 of E. Armand’s Anarchist Individualist Initiation and Sociology [Reconstructed], an anthology of the works of Lewis Masquerier — called for the careful comparison of multiple versions of the texts involved. It’s a variety of work that I really enjoy, “when the fit takes me,” but it doesn’t take me all the time.

Revenge of the Return of Anarchy and Democracy (Revisited)

From Libertarian Labyrinth by Shawn P. Wilbur

The most recent issue of Anarcho-Syndicalist Review includes an article by Wayne Price, “Do Anarchists Support Democracy? The Opinions of Errico Malatesta,” in which he once again takes up the defense of “democracy” as at least consistent with anarchist principles. A brief discussion of the article on the North American Anarchist Studies Association list picked up threads from the 2017 C4SS “Mutual Exchange” on anarchy and democracy.

Anarchy 101: Thinking about Authority and Hierarchy

From Libertarian Labyrinth by Shawn P. Wilbur

This is the second in a series of documents attempting to frame the discussion of key concepts in anarchist theory. (You will find all of these documents linked in the subreddit’s wiki, on the “Anarchism in a Nutshell” page.)

Reflections on Anarchist Tendencies and Mutualist History

From Libertarian Labyrinth by Shawn P. Wilbur

What follows is a long Twitter thread, originally intended for the audience there as a response to certain criticisms of the historical account developed by myself and others regarding mutualism. It’s a mix of reflections on our search for the perhaps ultimately illusory core of “the mutualism tradition” and thoughts on how to apply the lessons learned in the course of that exploration.

A Schematic Anarchism: Anarchism-in-General

Voline reminds us that our individual understandings of anarchism—what we have been calling here our anarchisms—are destined to be partial, but also that the fullest sense we might hope to achieve, anything like a “general, complete truth,” is still likely to be defined by the movement and displacement of its elements—by a sort of anarchy. Nettlau, while also emphasizing the natural variation among anarchisms—and while embracing an ethic of mutual toleration, which seeks to give relations among even non-anarchists something of an anarchic character—emphasizes the unique character of anarchy itself. Anarchy is not everything that anarchists do or desire. As I’ve emphasized before, it is not anarchy that builds bridges or binds books, even if some part of the practice of anarchist bridge-builders and book-binders must be counted among the proliferation of partial anarchisms that we encounter.

A Schematic Anarchism: Rethinking Anarchism Without Adjectives and Synthesis

from Libertarian Labyrinth by Shawn P. Wilbur

The schematic anarchism introduced over the last few months is at once a comparatively adjectiveless anarchism and a tool for synthesis. It is, however, not an example of anarchism without adjectives or anarchist synthesis in their most familiar senses. Exploring the ways in which those ideas are transformed in the context of this new conceptual toolkit should help clarify the character and uses of the new apparatus.

A Schematic Anarchism (Introduction)

from Libertarian Labyrinth by Shawn P. Wilbur

As long as we are constructing anarchisms for our own use, we can pretty much do what we want with terminology, provided that the uses we make are clarifying for us, in the context of our own specific contexts and commitments. When we turn to the comparison of anarchisms and the translation between them, the demands are obviously different. Our individual anarchisms may exhibit small inconsistencies or they may be almost wholly incommensurable — and our lack of not just a well-developed common language, but often even any kind of lingua franca, can make it hard to judge the extent to which they can be brought into conversation with one another.

Embracing Anarchy - Introduction

from Libertarian Labyrinth

Embracing Anarchy — Becoming Anarchists, Constructing Anarchisms

There are plenty of reasons why anarchists find themselves so divided in the present, many of which will not be easily overcome. Let’s not let that worry us. If we find, as well we may, that some anarchisms are ultimately incompatible with one another, antagonistic in their expressions, incommensurable in their specific conceptions, so be it. There is a proposal to accompany the analysis presented here, but it is not a proposal for unity.

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