[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…

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…

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 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…

The work of Max Stirner is a contentious topic among anarchists, with numerous interpretations of his work, ranging from descriptive, presenting a certain framework of thought, to prescriptive, advocating for anti-authoritarianism, and expressing a commitment to “individualism.” It is my position that egoism is primarily descriptive in nature. The key distinctions Stirner makes, those between…

Reflections on Socio-Economic Evolution Aside from various forms of robbery, legal and illegal, there are three methods by which humans get sustenance in their relations with others—parasitism, benevolence, and reciprocity. Parasitism is the inescapable relation between mother and child which is absolutely essential for the prolongation of life. It is characterized by consuming what one…

Max Stirner schrijft over zijn ‘unie van egoïsten’ als zijn model voor sociale ordening. Wat moeten we hierbij voorstellen. En is dit niet gewoon een soort paradox ? Een verbond van egoïsten ? Zijn het dan nog wel egoïsten ? Is het niet rommelen met woorden ? Wat moet jij je voorstellen, bij een verbond…

Is individueel anarchisme een ULTRA liberalisme, zoals sommige (communistische) anarchisten zeggen ? Zegt individueel anarchisme : Doe maar wat je wilt ? zoals sommige anarcho communisten beweren ? Iets dat ze dan ultra liberaal vinden. Ja, ‘wij’ zeggen : Doe wat je wilt, zeg wat je wilt, denk wat je wilt. Dat zegt individueel/egoïstisch anarchisme….

Di Lynn James. Originale pubblicato il 27 novembre 2018 con il titolo On the Limits of “Just Being Polite”. Traduzione di Enrico Sanna. Poche sono le cose più intrinseche all’essere umano della comunicazione. Attivismi, politica, filosofia riposano saldamente sulla nostra capacità di spiegarci. Jürgen Habermas, in Etica del Discorso, arriva a porre la capacità di…

There are few things more intrinsic to what we do as humans than communication. Activism, politics, and philosophy rest heavily on our ability to effectively engage in meaningful discourse. Jürgen Habermas even claims in Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action that communication is foundational to morality and freedom. All that philosophy jargon aside, the way we…

There’s an old saying that someone who kills a man is a murderer but one who kills a million is a conqueror and killing them all makes you god. If you add the words “unintentionally” and add loaded terminology that is supposed to passively excuse murder, then you get the current US foreign policy. In…

The Most Difficult Aspects of Anarchy Response to Kevin Carson’s Rejoinder by Shawn Wilbur At base, Kevin and I disagree about the possibility of, as I put it, “a truly anarchic space, outside the legal order and beyond the realm of permissions and prohibitions.” That’s a serious disagreement, since it amounts, for me, to a…

The laws of God, the laws of Man, He may keep who will, and can; Not I: let God and man decree Laws for themselves and not for me. –A.E. Housman Political Myth and Self-Hypnosis A rose by any other name Would never, never smell the same And cunning is the nose that knows An…

Illuminating Discord: An interview with Robert Anton Wilson By Jane Talisman and Eric Geislinger (Columbia Region New Libertarian Alliance) (Originally published in New Libertarian Notes/Weekly 39, September 5, 1976; reprinted at RAWillumination.net) CRNLA: Tell us a little about your background. RAW: I was born into a working class Irish Catholic family in Brooklyn 44 years…

Wolfi Landstreicher. “Anarchy on the Market? A critical look at Kevin Carson’s Studies in Mutualist Political Economy” Modern Slavery 2 (Fall-Winter 2012/2013). Landstreicher begins with a critique of my approach in defending the labor theory of value in terms of Ludwig von Mises’s a priorism: But what if someone doesn’t accept the a priori assumption that there…