From Anarchy, a Journal of Desire Armed, No. 31. The concept of ideology has fairly recent origins. The word was coined by the French writer A. L. C. Destutt de Tracy in 1796 to name his ‘science of ideas.’ Since that time use of the term has been divided between two general senses, one positive… read more »
About three years ago a speaker was introducing systematic ideology to a MENSA meeting. He spoke, among other things, of anarchism, and tried to make it clear what he understood by the term: a small, highly intellectualised movement, holding that people are perfectly capable of governing themselves and operating an orderly society without the use… read more »
From Byron onward the rebellious artist has appeared as a stock figure in the social drama, joined later by the revolutionary worker. The one character stands on no better ground than the other. Some artists have rebelled as some workers have taken part in revolutions, but artists as a group, like workers as a group,… read more »
Prominent among the more chewy nuggets of unorthodox political literature stands The Ego and his Own, the case of the individual against authority, [1] first published in 1845 and written by Johann Kaspar Schmidt under the pseudonym Max Stirner. Marx tackled it in The German Ideology, and the question whether Stirner ranks among the anarchists still… read more »
The State normally takes care to act within the limits set by what the general body of the people are willing to accept. But occasionally it gets out of line, trying to do something that large numbers will not tolerate, or to refuse something they demand; when that happens the outcome shows that final power… read more »
In two vigorous contributions to Freedom (December 1988 and January 1989) the Anarchist Communist Federation supported the National Health Service, a system under which the state imposes compulsory payments for medical services. The Editors of Freedom added their voice in the December issue, describing the present system, under which the coercive powers of the state… read more »
Writers in Freedom often traduce the state. They speak as if it were imposed on us by the rich, the rulers, the bosses, when in fact it is established and maintained mainly by the great body of citizens and subjects. Those who wield the power of the state, the prime ministers, generals and police chiefs,… read more »
Quentin Crisp wrote How to Become a Virgin. Whether he would call himself an anarchist I have no idea, but he has come up with a phrase that hits off, with grace and economy, the present relationship between government and anarchy: “The function of government is to create a walled garden in which anarchy can… read more »
Would anarchists find capitalism acceptable if it were more efficient? The article “Profit and Loss” (Freedom, February 1989) comes close to implying that they would. It lists the recent British disasters – the Zeebrugge ferry, Piper Alpha, Kings Cross, Clapham, Lockerbie, and the Boeing that crashed on M1, and ascribes them to “a profit system… read more »
Anarchism seeks recruits and an intake of six hundred would noticeably strengthen the British movement. Yet an organised group of this size remains detached and receives no encouragement to come closer. “The solution to repressive laws is not better government but no government.” Does that not sound like anarchism? It comes from the Socialist Standard,… read more »