Feature Articles
Lying Until Proven Truthful
Whenever a public figure is accused of sexual assault or alleges that another public figure has sexually assaulted them, websites and forums and everything else under the sun will inevitably be flooded by some derivation of: “I thought people were innocent until proven guilty in this country!” Leaving aside the long and sordid history of…
Market, State, and Anarchy: A Dialectical Left-Libertarian Perspective
[Hear an in-depth discussion on this article and its topics in this episode of The Enragés] Preface  This article was originally composed as a series of posts on Facebook; I prefaced my series with the warning: “I have no use for being in anyone’s fan club, whether the U.S. libertarian/classical liberal communities, the Democratic Party,…
Why Collective Action Problems Are Not a Capitalist Plot
On the Non-Triviality of Going from Individual to Collective Rationality It’s been a mainstay of the radical left for a long time to blame the lack of radical activity by whatever particular collective subject they believe to have potential on some sort of capitalist subterfuge. The various arguments for what exactly happened range considerably, but…
Christianity and Egoism
I began writing this on Ash Wednesday. On this day, many Christians fast, eating only one meal, and begin a Lenten discipline, abstention from something enjoyed. Over time, various Christian traditions have recommended different Lenten practices, but all who observe Lent do so by giving something up until the Friday before Easter. Can a religion…
Molotov Pill Bottle: Radical Answers to Failed Capitalist Healthcare
[Hear an in-depth discussion on this article and its topics in this episode of The Enragés] A recent legislative attempt at Medicare and Healthcare expansion has fallen to the monopolistic death-grip of corporate lobbyists. What does the history of radical alternatives to healthcare have to teach us? Before looking at examples of solutions, it is…
Transhumanism and Egoism
I’ve been called upon to give a transhumanist perspective on egoism. I think that this is a pretty simple critique so I’m going to largely spend this piece talking about why egoists should take it seriously. If you’re already convinced of the importance of thinking rigorously, please just skip my self-indulgent rant and go to…
Beyond Egocentrism, Towards Egoism
“Man is the last evil spirit or spook, the most deceptive or most intimate, the craftiest liar with honest mien, the father of lies.” – Max Stirner, 1844 (2017: 129) Beyond Egocentrism When the heliocentric model of the universe was proposed in the 16th century, it was an enormous scandal. The pope eventually condemned Galileo…
Egoism, Morality, and Anarchism Under Complexity
Jason Lee Byas has already articulated what I think is an interesting (and effective) challenge to Max Stirner’s critique of morality, as well as come to a conclusion that I very much endorse: namely, that self-interest and caring for the well-being of others need not be separate concerns. In my view, the most important contribution…
Toward a Cooperative Agorism
I have a saying that goes something like: ‘I don’t trust anybody who thinks taxation is theft but profit isn’t.’ The former is a common sentiment among libertarians left and right, who argue, like Michael Huemer, that “[w]hen the government ‘taxes’ citizens, what this means is that the government demands money from each citizen, under…
Donbas Recognition? No, Thanks
For eight years, Russian state propaganda was always saying that Ukraine and its citizens were our enemies. By implying that all Ukrainians are neo-Nazis and pigs, common people of both countries got divided by the elites. I have some friends from Ukraine, mostly we share the same anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist views. And why the…
Laurance Labadie’s “Critical Comment on Social Credit” & “Extracts from Labadie”
Critical Comment on Social Credit I studied your article in “New Democracy” carefully and liked some things you said in it. Some things annoyed me tho. You speak of certain demands on the government. This surprises me. In my estimation, no one who understands liberty demands from government. For example, suppose we demand justice from…
Emma Goldman and Individualist Anarchism
[Hear an in-depth discussion on this article and its topics in this episode of The Enragés] Emma Goldman is someone who is frequently associated with anarchism as a historical phenomenon. Her mix of anti-state activism, radical support for feminism and free love movements in the early 20th century, and her radiant life of praxis for…
Laurance Labadie’s “Liberty and the State”
Liberty and the State The anarchistic solution of the money problem is so simple as to cause amazement. It is to permit anyone and everyone to go into the banking system. Why not? No one objects to anyone going into the hat business or building business or any other non-invasive enterprise. Naturally those who furnish…
Insurrection or Revolution?
Insurrection or Revolution? The ethical politics of Stirner’s egoism At a time when the grand narrative of Revolution that we inherited from modernity and the rationalist discourses of the Enlightenment has all but broken down, what alternatives are there for conceptualising radical transformation? Despite the lack of an organised revolutionary class or movement, the left…
A Dialectical Rand for an Egoist Anarchism
I wanted to thank Cory Massimino for inviting me to submit a few thoughts on the topic of this important C4SS MES exploring the interrelationships between anarchism and egoism. Given the broad areas highlighted for conversation, I’d like to focus briefly on these two topics: What does egoism have to say about intersectional approaches in…
The Authority of Yourself
What I’ve said so far presents a dilemma for how anarchists should approach morality. If my first post is correct, we can’t ignore Stirner’s challenge. A morality that refuses to answer the amoralist requires systemic self-sacrifice with nothing in exchange. Such moral cannibalism would differ from other forms of domination only in its pervasiveness. Yet…
Anarchy is Moral Order
Anarchy Is Moral Order As I argued in my previous post, anyone who cares about morality needs a good answer to the amoralist challenge posed by someone like Stirner. As I also said there, this is especially true for those moralists who are also anarchists, since a morality without such an answer begins to look…
Against Moral Cannibalism
As Stirner means the term, I am not an egoist. I see morality as crucial, both to anarchism and to life in general. However, I think Stirnerite, amoralist egoism gets something very right about morality that most people get very wrong. In the next couple of posts, I’ll be saying more about why I reject…
The Eco- and Our Home
The prefix “eco-“, as in ecology and economy, is rooted in the ancient Greek “οἶκος”, translated as “house,” “home,” “shelter,” or “habitation.” Our home, (the home that we all currently share in common: our planet and its biosphere), is the focus of this essay — even as the title is an irreverent and playful response…
The Social Ecology of Egoism
[Hear an in-depth discussion on this article and its topics in this episode of The Enragés] The philosophy of Max Stirner (1806-1856 C.E.), or Egoism as it is sometimes crudely called, essentially addresses the relationship between the individual and alienation; to use Stirner’s language, the alienation between the individual and their property. Property can be…
Anarchy and Democracy
Fighting Fascism
Markets Not Capitalism
The Anatomy of Escape
Organization Theory