Debunking the White Ethno-State
The classic alt-right, neo-nazi, and national anarchist line is that social trust is higher in countries with higher degrees of ethnic homogeneity. They go on to claim that where there is higher trust, there is less crime and corruption, which leads to a higher standard of living. In order to defend this argument, they often…
Legibilidad y control: temas en la obra de James C. Scott
The following study is translated into Spanish from the English original, written by Kevin Carson. Centro para una Sociedad sin Estado – Estudio No. 12 (Invierno/Primavera de 2011) Opacidad y legibilidad. En Ver como un estado, Scott desarrolla el tema central de la «legibilidad», que hará parte de la mayor parte de nuestras líneas de…
Deleuze, Guattari and Market Anarchism
There’s been a lot of talk about Deleuze and Guattari around both academic and activist scenes for quite some time. Sometimes they are objects of unfounded derision (decried as “holy fools” by traditionalist socialists like Richard Barbrook), and other times they are the beneficiaries of overtly non-critical praise.
Agorism: Libertarian Politics Beyond Policy
Often, libertarians work towards their goals by campaigning for politicians and ballot measures that promise to enact them. Agorists work towards their goals by working towards their goals. Agorism is libertarian politics beyond policy. It’s the familiar focus on individual liberation, respect for persons and their property rights, the market process, and the self-organizing power…
The Real Sons of Anarchy
A young biker sits with his back against a graffitied stone wall off a hiking trail near the Nevada border, his face buried in a notebook. His name is Jax Teller and he’s the vice president of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club – Redwood Original, or SAMCRO for short, and the book he’s reading…
Rethinking Markets: Anarchism, Capitalism, and the State
Markets are generally conceived as the bulwark of capitalism, greasing the wheels of capital accumulation and mobilisation and creating the class relations characteristic of modern capitalism. It creates winners and losers, and displaces workers and firm owners through the mechanisms of creative destruction and competition.
Remembering the Paris Commune
This month marks the 145th anniversary of the violent suppression of the Paris Commune by the French national government. The Paris Commune remains a potent symbol for many people – though what exactly it symbolizes is a matter of dispute. To conservatives, the Commune stands for a reign of terror and mob rule. For many…
Freed Market Anarchists: Meet Wendell Berry
For many years, I have encountered repeated references to Wendell Berry, the venerable farmer-sage of Kentucky: novelist, poet, essayist, philosopher and environmental activist. And I lazily assumed his writings to be in the category of things that are Good For You, but probably dull, like stodgy health food. But then I came across The Art…
Does “Free Market” Even Mean Anything?
Whenever you read the words “our free market system,” it should raise a red flag. See, for example an article titled “Nobel Prize Economists Say Free Market Competition Rewards Deception and Manipulation,” by George Akerlof and Robert Shiller (Evonomics, Jan. 6). Now, if “free market” means anything, it means an economy where all market exchange…
Areas of commonality — Techno-Utopianism, Counterfeit and Real
Download a PDF copy of Kevin Carson’s full C4SS Study: Center for a Stateless Society Paper No. 20 (Spring 2016) Techno-Utopianism, Counterfeit and Real (With Special Regard to Paul Mason’s Post-Capitalism) I. Capitalist Techno-Utopianism from Daniel Bell On II. Categories of Leftist Techno-Utopianism III. Other Non-Capitalist Techno-Utopianisms John Holloway Michel Bauwens Accelerationism IV. Analysis: Comparison of the…
Compulsory Education
Everyone loves learning. The thing is that not everyone likes studying and what’s even more frustrating is to be told how we should study, why we should study etc. Making education available to everyone is benevolent but making education compulsory for everyone is something that we are so used to that we do not see…
Trump’s Toxic Aggrieved-Nation Shtick
The key to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign — the feature that explains nearly everything else about that toxic dump — is his aggrieved-nation shtick. Just about everything Trump says (when he’s not adoring himself or belittling others) is about how the once-great American nation has been humbled by the rest of the world. To hear…
The Individualist Anarchist Wears No Clothes
Introduction: Who Was Emile Armand? Emile Armand (a pseudonym for Ernest-Lucien Juin) is at the center of the collection Individualist Anarchism – Revolutionary Sexualism: Writings by Emile Armand (2012) published by Pallaksch Press and distributed by Little Black Cart. Armand was a French egoist/individualist anarchist, arguably an early proponent of polyamory within the anarchist scene…
Supranationalism: The EU as Extortion Mechanism
Supranationalism and the EU The polymath philosopher, activist and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell was a radical left iconoclast who made major contributions to mathematical logic and nearly every other discipline he touched. Many libertarians admire him, but one major disagreement stands out: In his later years he advocated world government in order to prevent the…
Anarchism: What It Is and What It Is Not
Anarchism: What It Is and What It Is Not by Joseph A. Labadie So you want me to tell you what Anarchism is, do you? I can do no less than make the attempt, and in my own simple way try to make you understand at least that it is not what the uninformed and…
The Semantics of “Good” and “Evil”
The Semantics of “Good” and “Evil” by Robert Anton Wilson The late Laurance Labadie once told me a parable about a king who decided that every time he met somebody he would kick them in the butt, just to emphasize his power. My memory may have elaborated this yarn a bit over the years, but…
The Natural Right of Cryptographic Governance
In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and around the U.S., sentiment among the governing class is turning powerfully against encryption. Reuters reports an impending “crackdown” on Bitcoin in the EU. Other reports suggest France could inhibit Tor and free wi-fi at will. U.S. officials have taken the opportunity to go on…
The Attractions of Geo-Mutualism
The Attractions of Geo-Mutualism Appraisers Begone! I am neither a philosopher, nor an economist, nor a political scientist, and so I’ve found myself a bit out of my scholarly depth in this symposium. Prior to these exchanges, I had only slight understanding of Georgist land use proposals, and it had not occurred to me that…
Are We All Mutualists?
Are We All Mutualists? Some General Comments on Occupancy-and-Use It falls to me, in this opening salvo in a symposium on occupancy-and-use land tenure, also known as usufructory property, to write a defense of it. Theoretical advocates of it go back, in some form, at least to Godwin and Paine in the Western tradition. I’m…
Occupancy and Use: Potential Applications and Possible Shortcomings
Introducing the November 2015 Mutual Exchange Symposium Discourse on Occupancy and Use: Potential Applications and Possible Shortcomings “It’s a shame there’s even a need to say this, but ‘property’ is a word that’s used by different people to mean different things,” reckons Kevin Carson in his opening salvo. Carson’s statement neatly summarizes C4SS’s November 2015…
Anarchy and Democracy
Fighting Fascism
Markets Not Capitalism
The Anatomy of Escape
Organization Theory