Libertarian Labyrinth

Reflections on Anarchist Tendencies and Mutualist History

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.

Polity-form (External constitution)

from Libertarian Labyrinth

In attempting to distinguish between the approaches that seem to me more consistently anarchistic and those that seem to cling to some form of archy, I have proposed the notion of the polity-form as an descriptor for more or less fixed, static associations or organizations including the governmental state, the capitalist firm, the patriarchal family, “the People” within a democracy, the commune in some descriptions of communism, the individual in the context of some forms of individualism, etc. All of these are in some sense both hierarchical, authoritarian and, to some extent, representative structures.

Constructing Anarchisms: Anarchy as Criterion

from Libertarian Labyrinth

The position that I’m inclined to champion is that anarchy, understood in that form of an-arche, is, in fact, clear enough in its meaning to function as a criterion. That basic sense—a rejection of existing foundations or fundamentals—is simple enough, even if understanding all that it entails in various specific contexts is not. That standard of formal adequacy seems broadly applicable. As we contemplate anarchistic practices or elaborate anarchistic theory, are we really saying “no”—and saying no to something fundamental to the existing systems of social relations that we oppose?

Notes on the Development of Proudhon’s Thought

i am not a prude hon hon hon

from Libertarian Labyrinth

These notes will obviously be of most use to those who have followed previous discussions of the individual texts, but it represents what seems to be a fairly promising attempt to deal with the shifting terms of Proudhon’s analysis from 1839 until his death and, as such, may be useful to others, if only as a bit more concrete suggestion that such a resolution is possible.

Definitions, Pluralism, Anarchy

CON [...] SMS

from Libertarian Labyrinth

Constructing Anarchisms: Definitions, Pluralism, Anarchy

One of the ideas driving Constructing Anarchisms has been the notion that “anarchy” and “anarchism” mark problems that it is necessary to return to again and again, that “becoming an anarchist” is an ongoing and arguably interminable project. And, while that idea may not be exactly popular in anarchist circles, it is undoubtedly connected to the widely-shared intuition that we must allow anarchist theory and practice to retain some significant degree of pluralism.

Notes for a Preface

TRUCTING ANARC

from Libertarian Labyrinth by Shawn P. Wilbur

Constructing Anarchisms: Notes for a Preface

If asked, I generally say that I have been an anarchist for close to thirty years. And because of all the other things that I have been for much longer—a big nerd, basically—that has translated into nearly three decades of sometimes obsessive research into anarchist history and theory, art and literature, etc. At this point, it’s hard to imagine thinking of myself as anything other than an anarchist.

Anarchism: The Formula Explored

STRUCTING ANARCHI

from Libertarian Labyrinth

Having established a formula for anarchism-in-general, we certainly haven’t established that all anarchisms are created equal. We have simply provided a means by which those anarchisms that take the form suggested by the formula can be rendered comparable. While the proposed formula leaves considerable space for variation among the anarchisms that it will recognize, it also sets a relatively high bar for consideration.

Anarchism: A General Formula

Anarchism: A General Formula

From Libertarian Labyrinth by Shawn P. Wilbur

The interval between the interruption of the “Margins and Problems” survey and the appearance of this first draft-section from the Constructing Anarchisms manuscript has been considerably shorter than expected—a pleasant surprise after the slow going of the last month or so. I’ll talk more about the structure and aims of the book as the pieces come together, but for those who have been following the workshop, these initial sections should be recognizable as new approaches to familiar problems.

Some Premature Conclusions

from Libertarian Labyrinth

Margins and Problems: Some Premature Conclusions

There are plenty of useful histories of anarchism, including some general histories that draw from the anarchist past the material by which various conceptions of anarchism might be bolstered and enriched. And the more we know about the complexities of the anarchist past, the less, I think, we can begrudge ourselves or our fellow anarchists these ideological and organizational supports.

Enter the Anarchist

From Libertarian Labyrinth by Shawn P. Wilbur

Margins and Problems: Enter the Anarchist

The 1840s opened with a bang, with Proudhon’s declaration: je suis anarchiste. When we’re examining the conditions of possibility for various possible anarchisms, the emergence of anarchist as a role or identity, a means of self-identification, is undoubtedly a moment that will be hard to top.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Libertarian Labyrinth