Anarchy In The UK - and elsewhere.

(An analysis of ANARCHISM: a

mch misnders!ood "oli!ical "hiloso"hy#
By Ian R Thorpe
An outbreak of rioting, violence and looting in Britain's inner city communities in
August 20 !as described by the media as anarchy" But to dismiss !hat !as simple
criminality as anarchy disrespects a !ell thought our political philosophy" In the real
!orld anarchism !ould be un!orkable as a system of government but the ideas it
offers us are a po!erful antidote to the control freakery of the political and corporate
establishment" The term anarchism !hich describes a social system based on anarchy,
!ithout formal and hierarchic government #no monarchs, oligarchs etc"""$ is derived
from t!o %reek !ords, an archos !hich together mean &!ithout a chief or head"&
Anarchism !as one of the most radical and influential political philosophies to
develop in 'urope during the (th century" The defining ideal of anarchism is that
government should be abolished in order to allo! human communities to flourish in a
state of anarchy, !ithout the constraint of authoritarian oversight" Another belief of
anarchist is that the people should be allo!ed to live in free associations, sharing
!ork and its products"
Although the practical
beginnings of anarchy as a political
movement came in the (th century,
anarchism has theoretical roots in the
!ritings of t!o 'nglish social
reformers of the period kno! as
&The Age )f Reason" These !ere
%errard *instanley and *illiam
%od!in" *instanley !as a +th,
century agricultural reformer !ho
believed that land should be divided among all the people" At the time the opposite
!as happening- as a result of the enclosures acts peasant farmers !ere being deprived
of the common land on !hish their sheep, goats and pigs cattle had gra.ed and
foraged for centuries #The other slaves$ The other,%od!in, in a book entitled 'An
'n/uiry 0oncerning 1olitical 2ustice' #+(3$, argued that authority is unnatural and
that social evils arise and e4ist because people are not free to live their lives
according to the dictates of reason" 5e might have been disappointed had this been
put into practice because not only !ere the ma6ority of poor people uneducated and
thus dependent on those in authority, the priest, the 7ord of the 8anor's or his baliff
or foreman and the village elders, to do their reasoning for them" But it !as a good
idea on paper"
The term anarchism !as coined by 9rench political !riter 1ierre,2oseph
1roudhon !ho laid the theoretical foundations of a political movement" 1roudhon's
ideas !ere in many !ays similar to socialism, though not to 8ar4ism in that it did
not put the all po!erful state at the top of a many layered bureaucratic hierarchy"
1roudhon urged that in place of the unrestricted rights of o!ners of private property,
the people should control the means of production that they use" Instead of
government 1roudhon desired a federal system of agricultural and industrial
cooperatives"
Johnny Rotten: Face of anarchy in the punk era.
1roudhon's theories attracted a lot of follo!ers in an era !hen intellectuals !ere
/uestioning the old, hierarchic social orders !ith their rigidly stratified class
structures" Among the most influential although fe! are !idely kno!n no!, !ere the
Russian radicals 8ikhail Bakunin and 1eter :ropotkin, 'mma %oldman- 9renchman
%eorges ;orel- and the American 1aul %oodman" These individuals all elaborated
theories of anarchism based on 1roudhon's !ork"
As !ith all broad political philosophies there evolved many different tendencies
covered by the umbrella term anarchism" ;ome even interpreted it as a call to
establish a Trotskyist system and as Trotsky called for permanent revolution and
advocated achieving this aim through terrorism the term anarchist has become
associated !ith la!lessness and violent insurrection" Any group of protestors !ho
resort to destruction of property, looting and terrorising the population are /uickly
dismissed as Anarchists by the dark forces of authoritarianism !hen in fact they are
6ust criminals" *hile some more level headed supporters of anarchism claim that out
of such a breakdo!n of social order a ne! order !ould emerge others, !ith more
6ustification, fear !idespread disorder and la!lessness could only lead to the
imposition of repressive la!s and heavy handed policing by an authoritarian
government" Though Trotsky sho!ed valid insight into the nature of human societies
!hen he spoke of every revolution being ultimately betrayed because as soon as the
accede to government the revolutionaries become the ne! establishment, clearly the
system he advocated !ould be un!orkable and have catastrophic conse/uences for
any society that adopted it"
Beyond The Tunderdome: Anachy and dystopia are
not the same.
;ome elements continue to insist ho!ever that the only means to change society
is through terrorism" This type of political campaigning, kno!n as &propaganda by
the deed,& appeals mainly to the young or the obsessively insane, the fanatics" It has
led to a number of high profile political assassinations over the years" 8ore
reasonable thinkers including ;orel and %oodman, tried to combine the goals of
anarchism !ith those of trade unions in an ideology dubbed anarcho,syndicalism, or
revolutionary syndicalism" The main tool of this movement !as the general strike, by
!hich anarcho,syndicalists hoped to achieve their goal of abolishing capitalism and
the state and of establishing organi.ed !orker production units" 'conomic and social
change brought about by the Industrial Revolution led to an e4plosion of political
theories such as anarchism, communism, and socialism, as !ell as to modern
liberalism #not the crypto liberalism of the politically correct left but the traditional
liberalism that flourished in the late nineteenth and early t!entieth centuries"
The three main movements of the political left !ere at first united by their basic
desire to overthro! the e4isting political order" the anarchists ho!ever soon split
from the others !hen it became clear the communists and socialists of the 7abour
movement !ere moving to!ards replacing the old all , po!erful elites !ith an all ,
po!erful central state" *hile the communists and socialists !ished to take control of
the state and through that control impose their ideas, the anarchists !ished to abolish
the state altogether" Anarchism continued as a mass movement until the end of *orld
*ar II" It !as especially strong in ;pain, !here anarchists played an active role in the
;panish 0ivil *ar"
The movement declined because after of the
success of communist in the Russian Revolution it and
the victory of the hard line authoritarian Bolsheviks in
the !ake of the old system's collapse it /uickly
became clear !hat kind of oppressive, tyrannical
regime the revolutionaries !ould replace the old order
!ith and also because of the suppression of anarchists
by 9ascist governments in Italy in the (20s and
George Melly: Anarchy
became the philosophy of
louche bohemians.
%ermany in the (30s" In 'urope's other great industrial nations, Britain and 9rance,
and in the <;A, support for anarchistic movements !as eroded as liberal
governments undertook massive social reform programmes to improve the lives of
the great mass of industrial !orkers" Although there !as a revival of anarchism
during the civil rights and anti!ar movements of the (=0s and (>0s, anarchism
persists primarily as an ideal, a !arning against the dangers of concentrating po!er in
the hands of governmental or economic institutions"
Though myself sympathetic to the ideals of non violent anarchists, small
government, minimalist la!s and a system that allo!s as much personal freedom as
possible on the understanding that those !ho step over the boundaries of !hat is
acceptable to the group must face appropriate conse/uences I have al!ays accepted
that a nation could not function !ith .ero ta4es and no government at all" There are
certain functions that can only be provided by government, certain aspects of
individual or group behaviour to !hich the !ill of the ma6ority must apply" And there
must be an authorised #by the !ill of the ma6ority$ body to enforce such la!s as their
are and to administer 6ustice" 8ob rule is not a fit system for either policing or 6ustice
and !e must all shoulder our hare of the responsibility for protecting the !eak from
e4ploitation by the strong"
R'7AT'? 1);T;@
The Intellectual 'lite Truly ?espise 1eople They 1retend To 0are About
8odern left !ing intellectuals publicly indulge in !ailing and gnashing of teeth about poverty,
ine/uality and the plight of the poor" Ironically !hen the left is in po!er the poor seem to get poorer
and are hardest hot by ta4es aimed at redistributing !ealth !hile the !ealthy elite become fore
firmly embedded in positions of po!er" Read about ho! this happens, !hy the intellectuals find it
serves their interests to keep the poor do!n and the ignorant in darkness"
9light 9rom 9reedom
9leeing from freedom seems like a contradiction, after all !e usually associciate flight !ith
escaping from captivity" In this first part of '4istentialism for Beginners ho!ever the author
identifies a human instinct that predisposes us to seek illusory safety by conforming and being part
of the cro!d rather than embarking on the lonely life of the free thinker, the person !ho truly makes
their o!n decisions and follo!s their o!n path"
Auantum ;oul@ Is 'ach )f <s A 1art )f The <niverse
Religious and secular philosophers have argued for centuries about life beyond death, the nature of
the human soul and our relationship !ith %od, the universe or !hatever" 8odern militant secularists
have tried to claim !e are nothing more than machines, others say life is a chemical accident but
e4perience tells most people there is much more to our e4istence than that BThe Agenda@ 5o! An
International 'lite Are ?estroying ;overeign Cations
There is a lot of talk about 'The Ce! *orld )rder' mostly tongue in chek on this site !e must say"
But that does not mean there is nothing to be concerned about in the emergence of a global elite and
their agenda for establishing a !orld government !ith integrated finance, energy, industrial and
agricultural policies and global la! and ta4es B
9reedom )f ;peechD ;o T!entieth 0entury 9or The 7eftist Ca.is
Threats to free speech and other civil rights us ordinary punters fought and she blood for are under
threat, not from the e4treme right but from the liberal left" The intellectually bankrupt lefties have
realised their hundred vyear old arguments are never going to !in the battle for hearts and minds
and so have moved to the position in the political spectrum once occupied by 5itler and ;talin"
;hakespeare's 1roud 7oner and The *isdom )f 0ro!ds
Internet billionaires and trendy, fad follo!ing media pundits like to talk of the !isdom of cro!ds
suggesting a mob can produce a better, more intelligent result that a small team of specialists" If !e
look at a fe! e4amples of the !isdom of cro!ds ho!ever !e soon find things are not !hat they
seen to be"
?r" 1angloss ;aid All Is 9or The Best
'ver been irritated all those e4hortations to &look on the bright side&and &be positive& 9elt let do!n
by hopey,changey stuff and people !ho say &lets 6oin hands and sing :umbaya to create utopia& but
fail to deliver" This article might be 6ust !hat you need to readEFspanGEFAGEBG
The ;cientific ?ictatorship
1resident 'isenho!er !arned against the dictatorship of a scientific elite in his fare!ell address in
(>0" Authors like 5 % *ells and philosophers such as Bertrand Russell !ere predicting such a
system if totalitarian global government !as inevitable to maintain human progress late in the
nineteenth century" And no! those !ith 'eyes to see and ears to hear' #as the Biblical phrase goes$
can observe politicians in collaboration !ith the academic community and a cartel of big banks and
corporations are moving the !orld in that direction" I !ill cover !hat !e can do to resist the loss of
our freedom in a future article, for no! learn ho! the scientific dictatorship #Ce! *orld )rder,
Illuminati, call them !hat you !ill$ operate"
'ugenics Belongs To The 7eft, Cot The Right
9eeling ;orry 9or 7abour ;upporters After 'aling 0omedy 1arty 1olitical Broadcast , There's A
9irst
Anarchism@ *hat it really means by 'mma %oldman
Anarchism , %eorge *oodcock #from the 'ncyclopedia of 1hilosophy, (>+$
*hat Is A 7iberal
The *ar Bet!een ;cience and Religion
1opulist Authoritarianism
1avlov's 0at
The )r!ellian 1arado4