Anarchism

“Anarchism” is a social philosophy that rejects authoritarian government and maintains that voluntary institutions are best suited to express mans natural social tendencies. Historically the word anarchist which derives from the Greek an archos, meaning “no government” appears first to have been used pejoratively to indicate one who denies all law and wishes to promote chaos. It was used in this sense against the Levelers during the english civil war and during the french revolution by most parties in criticizing those who stood to the left of them along the political spectrum. The first use of the word as an approbatory description of a positive philosophy appears to have been by pierre joseph proudhon when in his Qu’est-ce-que la propriete? (What is property?Paris 1840) he described himself as an anarchist because he believed that political organization based on authority should be replaced by social and economic organization based on voluntary contractual agreement.

Nevertheless the two uses of the word have survived together and have caused confusion in discussing anarchism, which to some has appeared a doctrine of destruction and to others a benevolent doctrine based on a faith in the innate goodness of man. There has been further confusion through the association of anarchism with nihilism and terrorism. In fact anarchism which is based on faith in natural law and justice stands at the opposite pole to nihilism which denies all moral laws. Similarly there is no necessary connection between anarchism which is a social philosophy and terrorism which is a political means occasionally used by individual anarchists but also by actionists belonging to a wide variety of movements that have nothing in common with anarchism.

Anarchism aims at the utmost possible freedom compatible with social life in the belief that voluntary cooperation by responsible individuals is not merely more just and equitable but is also in the long run more harmonious and ordered in its effects than authoritarian government. Anarchist philosophy has taken many forms none of which can be defined as an orthodoxy and its exponents have deliberately cultivated the idea that it is an open and mutable doctrine. However all its variants combine a criticism of existing governmental societies a vision of a future libertarian society that might replace them, and a projected way of attaining this society by means outside normal political practice. Anarchism in general rejects the state. It denies the value of democratic procedures because they are based on majority rule and on the delegation of the responsibility that the individual should retain. It criticizes utopian philosophies because they aim at a static “ideal” society. It inclines toward internationalism and federalism and while the views of anarchists on questions of economic organization vary greatly it may be said that all of them reject what william godwin called accumulated property.

Attempts have been made by anarchist apologists to trace the origins of their point of view in primitive nongovernmental societies. There has also been a tendency to detect anarchist pioneers among a wide variety of teachers and writers who for various religious or philosophical reasons, have criticized the institution of government, have rejected political activity or have placed a great value on individual freedom. In this way such varied ancestors have been found as laozi, zeno, spartacus, etienne de La boetie, Thomas Munzer, Francois rabelais, Francois fenelon denis diderot, and jonathan swift anarchist trends have also been detected in many religious groups aiming at a communalistic order such as the essenes, the early christian apostles the anabaptists, and the doukhobors. However, while it is true that some of the central libertarian ideas are to be found in varying degrees among these men and movements the first forms of anarchism as a developed social philosophy appeared at the beginning of the modern era when the medieval order had disintegrated the reformation had reached i rudimentary forms of modern political and economic organization had begun to appear. In other words, the emergence of the modern state and of capitalism is paralleled by the emergence of the philosophy that in various forms has opposed them most fundamentally.