George Walford: The Higher the Fewer (42)

RAVEN, the anarchist quarterly, [1] includes a review-article by Brian Morris. Against the writers who seem to be kidding themselves that as a serious critique of marxism anarchism doesn’t exist [p. 278], he insists that it does.

He is, of course, right. Anarchism exists as a critique of marxism, but marxism has no theory capable of criticising anarchism; it can only dismiss or (when in power) suppress it. Marxism exists as a critique of labour-socialism, but labour-socialism has no theory capable of criticising marxism; it can only dismiss or (when in power) exclude it. Labour- socialism exists as a critique of liberalism, but liberalism has no theory capable of criticising labour-socialism; it can only dismiss or (when in power) discourage it. Liberalism exists as a critique of conservatism, but conservatism has no theory capable of criticising liberalism; it can only dismiss or (when in power) try to disregard it. Conservatism exists as a critique of the non-political people, but the non-politicals have no theory capable of criticising conservatism. None the less it is mainly they who, by virtue of their numbers, decide whether conservatism shall hold office or not. All the way along the range, the greater the critical power the smaller the number of adherents and, the less the political influence exercised.

[1] RAVEN, Volume 2 No. 2 July 1989

from Ideological Commentary 42, November 1989.