These days, some policy makers are discussing rolling back America’s system of mass incarceration. Figures from Eric Holder to Rand Paul are proposing eliminating many mandatory minimum sentences. States like Colorado are legalizing marijuana. But while some policy makers talk about shrinking the prison state, prison expansion continues to be pushed and passed by legislators….

Is there a connection between egoism and nihilism? Does Ayn Rand’s brand of ethical egoism amount to a form of nihilism? These are the questions addressed in this blog post. Let us turn to dictionary.com for a definition of nihilism: ni·hil·ism: 1. total rejection of established laws and institutions. 2. anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity. 3. total…

Very soon, S4SS will begin issuing its monthly newsletter, The New Leveller. It will be a running discussion devoted to radical libertarian and individualist anarchist thought, and, drawing off of nineteenth-century periodicals like Benjamin Tucker’s Liberty and Moses Harmon’s Lucifer, the Lightbearer, it will feature plenty of fire. The primary purpose of the New Leveller is to provide…

C4SS Media presents Thomas L. Knapp‘s “Depends On What “Corruption” Is,” read by James Tuttle and edited by Nick Ford. “We don’t need the politicians or their cronies. We don’t have to put up with them. And we should stop doing so.”  

The following article was written by Colin Ward and originally appeared in Freedom, June-July 1992. The Background That minority of children in any European country who were given the opportunity of studying the history of Europe as well as that of their own nations, learned that there were two great events in the last century: the unification…

The following article was written by Colin Ward and published originally appeared in “Patterns of Anarchy,” 1966. You may think in describing anarchism as a theory of organisation I am propounding a deliberate paradox: “anarchy” you may consider to be, by definition, the opposite of organisation. In fact, however, “anarchy” means the absence of government, the absence of authority. Can…

On the early summer morning of July 28, 2012, Megan Rice, Greg Boertje-Obed and Michael Walli, the Oak Ridge Three, hiked down a wooded ridge to the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. At the complex the hikers cut their way through three fences using bolt cutters, stealthily moved past guard dogs and then made their way…

I’ve been thinking about how my experiences with disabilities have shaped my perception of anarchism. Throughout western culture, there’s the tension between the idea that our value is innate in our humanity, and the idea that our value is dependent on our utility to others. But utility doesn’t exist in itself, it exists in its…

C4SS has teamed up with the Distro of the Libertarian Left. The Distro produces and distribute zines and booklets on anarchism, market anarchist theory, counter-economics, and other movements for liberation. For every copy of Mikhail Bakunin’s “What is Authority?” that you purchase through the Distro, C4SS will receive a percentage. Support C4SS with Mikhail Bakunin’s “What is Authority?” $1.00 for the first copy….

C4SS has teamed up with the Distro of the Libertarian Left. The Distro produces and distribute zines and booklets on anarchism, market anarchist theory, counter-economics, and other movements for liberation. For every copy of S. E. Parker’s “My Anarchism” that you purchase through the Distro, C4SS will receive a percentage. Support C4SS with S. E. Parker’s “My Anarchism“. $1.00 for the first copy….

In an interview with Fox News curmudgeon Bill O’Reilly, US president Barack Obama insists that the Internal Revenue Service’s “flagging” and harassment of Tea Party and other dissident political groups was the result of “boneheaded decisions” but “not even a smidgen of corruption.” While the American political right is having a good guffaw about that,…

C4SS has teamed up with the Distro of the Libertarian Left. The Distro produces and distribute zines and booklets on anarchism, market anarchist theory, counter-economics, and other movements for liberation. For every copy of Ernest Lesigne’s “Socialism Without Statism” that you purchase through the Distro, C4SS will receive a percentage. Support C4SS with Ernest Lesigne’s “Socialism Without Statism“. $1.00 for the first copy….

Recently, a rebuttal of my previous article “Anarcho-Capitalism is Impossible” was brought to my attention. The author, Christopher Cantwell, made some points that are worth addressing and my own thoughts on the matter have shifted somewhat over time. Therefore, I think it would be worth revisiting the topic with fresh eyes. In his introductory paragraphs,…

C4SS has teamed up with the Distro of the Libertarian Left. The Distro produces and distribute zines and booklets on anarchism, market anarchist theory, counter-economics, and other movements for liberation. For every copy of Voltairine de Cleyre’s “to try all strange sensations…” that you purchase through the Distro, C4SS will receive a percentage. Support C4SS with Voltairine de Cleyre’s “to try all strange…

Konkin offered a scenario [PDF], using agorist class theory, to illustrate the difference between a limited-government libertarian and an agorist: “Consider the individual standing at the corner of the street. He can see two sides of the building behind him as he prepares to cross the street. He is hailed and turns around to see an acquaintance from the…

I – What Is Anarchy. The statesman, intent on schemes to compromise principles and tide over clamorous demands for justice, says it is disorder and spoliation. New taxes are then levied to defend the state, to repress incendiary talk, and protect privileged prerogatives. Or false and surface issues are prepared to distract attention, to embroil citizens in partisan quarrels,…

Governance, Agency and Autonomy: Anarchist Themes in the Work of Elinor Ostrom [PDF] This paper is intended as one in a series, to be read along with my previous one on James C. Scott, on anarchist and decentralist thinkers whose affection for the particularity of local, human-scale institutions overrides any doctrinaire ideological labels. The Governance…

In my last blog post; I discussed some criticisms of Roderick T. Long’s, An Open Letter to the Peace Movement, by a non-anarchist or non-libertarian friend. This post continues that discussion. It contains responses to a part of my friend’s response not previously dealt with. The earlier comments will be given a second look in…

Durante tutta la durata della “chiusura” del governo americano, i politici democratici hanno paragonato i loro rivali repubblicani ad “anarchici”, dicendo che la “chiusura” dimostra la necessità di un governo. Un esempio è un recente intervento al senato della senatrice Elizabeth Warren, democratica. I fraintendimenti del suo intervento sono rampanti. Confonde cooperazione e governo dicendo: “Nella nostra…

So last Sunday in the midst of a second wave of blockades of tech company buses in San Francisco and Oakland, a bus window was broken by some anarchist activists and the action immediately sailed to the top of countless news sites. Activists had been trying to draw attention to how the buses (collectively termed…