ANARCHISM 21

All about the spirit of anarchy in the present age

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Swedish anti-police stoner rock from the 1970s.

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An Introduction to the Young Hegelians

The Young Hegelians had such a tremendous effect on global political theory and concrete events up to today that one must include it in a serious study of the contemporary meaning and pertinence of anarchism. After all, one of its members, Edgar Bauer, was later considered by Gustav Landauer and Max Nettlau the founder of anarchism in Germany (i.e., his suggestive philosophical justification of political terrorism), and both members Max Stirner and Karl Marx are decisive figures in contemporary anarchist theory and practice (i.e., humanism vs anti-humanism, masses vs bands “social” movements, etc.). It was perhaps David Strauss’s The Life of Jesus (1835), one of the most important milestones in the still ongoing quest after the historical/rational Jesus, which helped to shape the initial philosophical identity of the group. Through the work of Strauss, and then Feuerbach and Marx, it is clear that the group’s initial focus on the critique of religion, due to Prussia’s authorities’ then relative permissiveness concerning that intellectual sphere, deeply spread into the realm of political economy. (TO BE CONTINUED)

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Definition of anarchy

As with any other concept in human thought, the definition of "anarchy" is historical and social. This means that the meaning and understanding of concepts depend on its historical and social context, and this happens because thoughts and ideas are not independent of concrete human experience. Historical and social events inform the way humans interpret the world, and ideas themselves inform the way humans interact with the world. This could be called a dialectical relationship between idealism and materialism.

Even though etymologically "anarchy" is related to the ancient Greek "anarchos", meaning "without rulers" or "without political sovereignity", in the mainstream media and electoral political discourse, "anarchy" is often used as a synonym for "chaos" and "disorder". There are three things that can be said about this:

The term could have gained this pejorative dimension due to the "propaganda of the deed" in which anarchist individuals and collectives cause physical damage to individuals or property in order to spread anarchist ideals. Propaganda of the deed had its historical prime time at the turn of the 19th century, with the assassination of influential statesmen and with the bombing of government buildings and bourgois  but it is still found widespread in contemporary tactics such as the Black Bloc.

One could argue that the media and the rulling class spread this negative understanding of anarchy in order to mistify and badmouth social anarchist and worker movements by giving them a bad popular reputation.

As Uri Gordon posits, this negative understanding of the term could date back to its Greek origins. Gordon found out through researching Ancient Greek texts that the term was already used as a synonym for "disorder" and "chaos" by thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle. In other words, the view of "anarchy" as a negative ideal is deeply rooted in Western thought. This is why in an article in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Andrew Belsey writes that there is a dogma in political philosophy in which a social organization without the State will necessarily result in "chaos", and that this dogma is only denied by anarchists and classical marxists. It is true that both anarchists and classical marxists are anti-dogmatic in respect to the causation chain of statelessness = chaos, but they deal with this question in such a different and radical way that it has caused a major historical split in the global socialist movement.

Even though it has been adopted by many thinkers who put it forward neutrally – as the term that stands for "a state of social organization without political sovereignity" –, the term remains heavily connected to chaos and social disorder. While some people who identify themselves with anarchist principles choose to stick with the term in order to identify themselves with the rich historical political tradition of anarchism, many others renounce it in order to evade repetitive clarifications or theoretical ostracization, choosing alternative terms such as "libertarian socialism" or no labels at all.

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"The revolution does not have communism as a project and result, but as its very content." -TC

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The first node

The main objective Anarchism 21 takes upon itself is to define anarchism underthe light of the 21st century. Although many references from past centuries will still be posted here, they’ll be interpreted with new eyes, with the new interconnecting habits and mind gymnastics that the Web mentality has simultaneously empowered and limited human thought. Thus, instead of hopelessly trying to portray an idealized conception of anarchism, Anarchism 21 will depart from a deeply anarchist methodology referred by Vsevolod Voline when talking about anarchistic social organization: ‘‘The principle of organization must not issue from a center created in advance to capture the whole and impose itself upon it but, on the contrary, it must come from all sides to create nodes of coordination.’’

Anarchism: from Theory to Practice.