Individualist Anarchism

Individualist anarchism lies on the extreme and sometimes dubious fringe of the libertarian philosophies since, in seeking to assure the absolute independence of the person it often seems to negate the social basis of true anarchism. This is particularly the case with Max Stirner who specifically rejected society as well as the state and reduced organization to a union of egoists based on the mutual respect of “unique” individuals each standing upon his “might.” French anarchism during the 1890s was particularly inclined toward individualism which expressed itself partly in a distrust of organization and partly in the actions of terrorists like “Ravachol” and emile Henry who alone or in tiny groups carried out assassinations of people over whom they had appointed themselves both judges and executioners. A milder form of individualist anarchism was that advocated by the american libertarian writer benjamin Tucker who rejected violence in favor of refusal to obey and who like all i ividualists opposed any form of economic communism. What he asked was that property should be distributed and equalized so that every man should have control over the product of his labor.