A Gang of Individuals Against Totality

All too often anarchism as a movement and a discourse is oriented towards collectivist ideology.  I mean this in a literal sense of an ideology.  Much of what is called anarchism seems to be more of a form of Hegelianism.  Possibly it becomes a way for Marxists to smooth out the more and more obvious contradictions of their ideology.  Continue reading

Identity Fraud

The word anarchist has long been used to label various people and movements that often are and have been quite different from each other in their approaches, ideas and goals.  People who have called themselves or been described by others as libertarians include individuals as diverse as Bakunin, Warren, Armand, Kropotkin, Michel, Stirner, Goldman, Mackay, Durruti, Arrigoni, Dolgoff, and Rothbard.  What made all of these folks anarchists was their opposition to the state, to governments of all kinds.  They all believed that the state was a pernicious force which crushed individual freedom and stood in the way of cooperation and mutual aid among equals.  But their ideas about how to destroy or circumvent the state and their actions intended to accomplish their goals varied tremendously.  Continue reading