About Anarchism by Walter Nicolas.;Walter Natasha;

Author:Walter, Nicolas.;Walter, Natasha;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Individualism, Egoism, Libertarianism

The first type of anarchism which was more than merely philosophical was individualism. This is the view that society is not an organism but a collection of autonomous individuals who have no obligation towards one another. This view existed long before there was any such thing as anarchism, and it has continued to exist quite separately from anarchism. But individualism always tends to assume that the individuals who make up society should be free and equal, and that they can become so only by their own efforts and not through the action of outside institutions; and any development of this attitude obviously brings mere individualism towards real anarchism.

The first person who elaborate a recognisable theory of anarchism—William Godwin, in his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)—was an individualist. In reaction against the opponents and also the supporters of the French Revolution, he postulated a society without government and with as little organisation as possible, in which the sovereign individuals should beware of any form of permanent association; despite many variations, this is a view of humanity which makes sense as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough to deal with the real problems of society, which surely need social rather than personal action. Alone, we may save ourselves, but others we cannot save.

A more extreme form of individualism is egoism, especially in the form expressed by Max Stirner in Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (1844)—usually translated as The Ego and His Own, though a better rendering would be The Individual and His Property. Like Marx or Freud, Stirner is difficult to interpret without offending all his followers; but it is perhaps acceptable to say that his egoism differs from individualism in general by rejecting such abstractions as morality, justice, obligation, reason and duty, in favour of an intuitive recognition of the existential uniqueness of each individual. It naturally opposes the state, but it also opposes society, and it tends towards nihilism (the view that nothing matters) and solipsism (the view that only oneself exists). It is clearly anarchist, but in a rather unproductive way, since any form of organisation beyond a temporary “union of egoists” is seen as the source of new oppression. This is an anarchism for poets and tramps, for people who want an absolute answer and no compromise. It is anarchy here and now, if not in the world, then in one’s own life.

A more moderate tendency which derives from individualism is libertarianism. This is in its simplest sense the view that liberty is a good thing; in a stricter sense it is the view that freedom is the most important political goal. Thus, libertarianism is not so much a specific type of anarchism as a milder form of it, the first stage on the way to complete anarchism. Sometimes it is actually used as a synonym or euphemism for anarchism in general, when there is some reason to avoid the more emotive word; but it is more generally used to mean the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.