New Perspectives on Anarchism

515 Pages·2009·16.43 MB·English

by  Nathan J. Jun

New Perspectives on Anarchism
Edited by
Nathan J. Jun and Shane Wahl
o
Lexington books
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ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data
New perspectives on anarchism / (edited by] Nathan J. Jun and Shane Wahl,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7391 -3240-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-7391-3241-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Anarchism. I. Jun, Nathan 1., 1979- II. Wahl, Shane, 1980-
HX833.N497 2009
335'.83—dc22 2009015304
Θ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSl/NISO 239.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Todd May
Part 1: Anarchism and Philosophy
1 Anarchy in Political Philosophy 9
Francis Dupuis-Déri
2 Is Post-Structuralist Political Theory Anarchist? 2S
Todd May
3 Power and Anarchy: In/equality + In/visibility in
Autonomous Politics 39
Uri Gordon
4 The Anarchism of the Other Person 67
Mitchell Verier
5 The Double Paradigm of Power 85
Salvo Vaccaro
Translated by Samantha EL Bankston
Part 2: Anarchism and Political Science
6 Vanguards and Paternalism 99
Benjamin Franks
7 What Did the Anarchists Ever Do for Us? Anarchy,
Decentralization, and Autonomy at the Seattle Anti-WTO Protests 121
Clive Gabay
V
vi Contents
8 Anarchist Theory and Human Rights 133
Scott Turner
Part 3: Anarchism and Religion
9 Christian Anarchism: A Revolutionary Reading of the
Bible 149
Alexandre J. M. £ Christoyannopoulos
10 Anarchist Confrontations with Religion 169
Harold Barclay
Part 4: Classical Anarchism
11 Reinventing Resistance: Constructive Activism in
Gustav Landauer's Social Philosophy 189
James Horrox
12 Alchemy in Garens: Kropotkin and Reclus, 1877-
1881 209
Dana Ward
13 Proudhon, Pragmatist 227
Irène Pereira
Translated by Vernon Cisney and Nicolae Morar
Part 5: Anarchism and Social Science
14 An Anarchist-Sociologist Research Program: Fertile Areas for
Theoretical and Empirical Research 243
Dana M. Williams
15 Sabotaging the System! Bringing Anarchist Theory
into Social Studies Education 267
Abraham P. DeLeon
16 Whither Anarchist Geography? 281
Anthony Ince
17 An Ethnography of Nowhere: Notes Toward a Re-envisioning of
Utopian Thinking 303
Stevphen Shukaitis
Contents vit
Part 6; Anarchism and Ecology
18 Free from Nature or Free Nature? An Anarchist
Critique of Transhumanism 315
Elizabeth Kolovou and Stavros Karageorgakis
19 Zerzan, Primitivism, and the Value of Culture 333
Rodrigo Gomes Guimames
20 New Remedies or New Evils? Anarchism and the
Scientific Revolution 363
Thomas Martin
21 The State of Nature: The Pol ideal Philosophy of 381
Primitivism and the Culture of Contamination
Mick Smith
Part 7: Anarchism and Culture
22 What is Anarchist Cultural Studies? Precursors,
Problems, and Prospects 403
Jesse Cohn
23 The Past, the Period Drama, and Mutual Aid 425
Karen Goaman
24 Crisis of Authority Aboard the Battlestar Galactica 449
Lewis Call
25 Creating Guerrilla Texts in Rhizomatic Value-
Practices on the Sliding Scale of Autonomy: Toward
An Anti-Authoritarian Cultural Logic 473
Sandra Jeppesen
Index 497
About the Contributors 499

Acknowledgments
The editors are extremely grateful to the contributors for their patience and un­
derstanding throughout die long and often tedious process of putting together
this volume. Thanks are also due our colleagues Samantha Bankston, Vem Cis-
ney, and Nicolae Morar for their translation work; Jason Read and Steve De-
Caroli for recommending this book for inclusion in the OutSources series; Pat­
rick Dillon, Matt McAdams, and all other personnel at Lexington Books who
helped with editing, production, and publicity; countless anarchist comrades
throughout the world for supporting this project from the very beginning; and
our partners Michelle and Jen for bearing all of our endeavors—from the stuffy
and professorial to the politically charged and idealistic—with indefatigable
love.
Chapter 1 originally appeared as Francis Dupuis-Déri, “Anarchy in Political
Philosophy,” Anarchist Studies ( 13.1 ), 2005.
Chapter 2 originally appeared as Todd May, “Is Post-structuralist Theory Anar­
chist?” Philosophy arid Social Criticism (15.2): pp. 167-182, ©1989 by SAGE
Publications. Reprinted by permission of SAGE.
Chapter 3 originally appeared as Uri Gordon, “Power and Anarchy: In/equality
+ Invisibility in Autonomous Politics” in Anarchy Alive (Pluto Press, 2007).
Reprinted by permission of Pluto Press.
Chapter 13 originally appeared as Irène Pereira, “Proudhon, Pragmatiste,” RA-
Forum.
Chapter 17 originally appeared as Stevphen Shukaitis, “An Ethnography of No­
where,” Social Anarchism 3S (January 2004): pp. 5-13.
Chapter 20 originally appeared as Thomas Martin, “New Remedies or New
Evils? Anarchism and the Scientific Revolution,” Social Anarchism, 40 (2007).
Chapter 21 originally appeared as Mick Smith, ‘The State of Nature: The Politi­
cal Philosophy of Primitivism and the Culture of Contamination,” Environ­
mental Values (11): pp. 407-25, 2002. Reprinted by permission of The White
Horse Press.
N. J. Jun, Wichita Falls, Texas
S. A. Wahl, Lafayette, Indiana
November 2009
IX

Introduction
Todd May
Anarchism is back on the scene. Theoretically, as well as practically, anti­
authoritarian thought is in a resurgence that has probably surprised many of
those who have been involved in it in one way or another over the years.
Whether as a mode of organizing resistance, as a model for interpersonal rela­
tionships, or a way of thinking about politics specifically and our world more
generally, anarchist thought has once again become a touchstone. One might
want to call this the third wave, after the wave of the late 1800s to early 1900s
and the anarchist inflections of the 1960s.
There is more than one reason for this resurgence of anarchist practice and
thought. For starters, one might point to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the de­
mise of Marxism as a framework for the left. Of course, much of what marched
under the banner of Marxism has been discredited for many years. However, in
a bipolar world it was difficult not to choose sides. Anarchists and anti­
authoritarians, because they did not pick sides, were often marginalized. With
the demise of the Soviet Union and the (temporary) hegemony of the United
States, the left was forced to cast about for new frameworks for conceiving and
practicing struggle. Anarchism, which had never entirely gone away, offered a
framework grounded in both history and theory.
Not only did it have the pedigree of a legacy. Anarchism offers an approach
to progressive politics that runs counter to the most egregious element of the
way the twentieth century appropriated Marx: its avant-gardism, its authoritari­
anism. For anarchists, Stalin and Mao were not accidents of the way Marxism
was articulated in revolutionary movements. They were instead proper expres­
sions of that articulation. Indeed, Mikhail Bakunin foresaw this very unfolding
back in 1873. (And given the way Marx treated Bakunin in the First Interna­
tional, they may also be seen as proper expressions of Marx himself.) Here are
his words. 1
1
2 Todd May
Now it is clear why the doctrinaire revolutionaries, whose objective is to over·
throw existing governments and regimes so as to create their dictatorship on
their ruins, have never been and will never be enemies of the state. On the con­
trary, they have always been and will always be its most ardent defenders ...
they are the most impassioned friends of state power, for were it not retained,
the revolution, having liberated the masses in earnest, would eliminate this
pseudo-revolutionary minority’s hope of putting a new harness on them and
conferring on them the blessings of their own governmental measures.1
They might stand as a coda to the Marxist-inspired revolutionary projects of the
last century.
The anti-authoritarian character of anarchist thought and practice not only
responded to the discredited avant-gardism of Marxism. It also responded to the
identity politics of the 1980s and 1990s, recognizing the irreducibility of differ­
ent struggles without falling into the ghettoization of those struggles that is the
legacy of identity politics. Whereas Marxism reduced all struggles to class
struggle, identity politics could never see solidarity across struggles. Anarchism
navigates this divide by pressing an egalitarian agenda wherever deleterious
power relationships are in play. With identity politics, it recognizes that there is
no privileged center of power or of struggle. With Marxism, it recognizes the
need for solidarity and connection if resistance is to succeed. Because anarchists
focus on the equality of all who struggle and the necessity to fight domination
wherever it appears, they offer a way to exit from the reductionism and conse­
quent avant-gardism of Marxist practice while retaining the ability to
< communicate among disparate struggles.
i Anarchism responds not only to the ghettoization of identity politics but
.also to a more general phenomenon of academic leftism over the past thirty
years: its increasing insularity of both thought and vocabulary. Much of what
has been produced theoretically in the name of progressive thought is obscure in
its writing and isolated from political struggle. We need not name names here.
Those who have participated in the academic world over the past several dec­
ades know how many arenas of progressive thought have produced texts on
democracy and resistance that can be understood only by an initiated few and
practiced by nobody. Anarchism cuts against the grain of such thought. In taking
equality seriously, it also takes seriously the recognition that everyone is capable
of participating in thought, reflection, and conversation, unless they are being
prevented from doing so by those who would speak in their name.
Moreover, there is something in the egalitarian and horizontal structure of
anarchism that responds to the technology of the internet Although attempts
have been made to narrow the democratic bandwidth of the internet, it has been
able to retain its character as a forum for democratic opinion and an organizing
tool that allows for more nearly equal participation. The French thinkers Gilles
Deleuze and Félix Guattari offered the image of a rhizome to counter what they