Anarchism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
| Revision as of 16:45, 16 April 2007 WikiSysop (Talk | contribs) (→''Culture and Anarchy'' (1869) - Matthew Arnold) ← Previous diff |
Revision as of 14:27, 2 October 2019 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) Next diff → |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| + | {| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5" | ||
| + | | style="text-align: left;" | | ||
| + | "To be [[government|GOVERNED]] is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so [[To be governed is ... |[...]]]. --[[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]] | ||
| + | <hr> | ||
| + | "[[No gods, no masters]]" | ||
| + | |} | ||
| + | [[Image:Eugène Delacroix - La liberté guidant le peuple.jpg|thumb|200px|This page '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is part of the [[politics]] series.<br><small>Illustration:''[[Liberty Leading the People]]'' (1831, detail) by [[Eugène Delacroix]].</small>]] | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| - | '''''Anarchism''''' [http://www.jahsonic.com/Anarchism.html] is a generic term describing various political [[philosophies]] and social movements that advocate the elimination of all forms of imposed [[authority]], including [[social]] [[hierarchy]] and coercive [[power]]. In place of hierarchy, these movements favor relations based upon voluntary cooperation and mutual aid, leading to a society characterised by the ability of each actor to have a say in outcomes proportionate to the degree they are affected by them. These philosophies use anarchy to mean a society based on voluntary cooperation of free individuals. Philosophical anarchist thought does not advocate [[chaos]] or anomie — it refers to "anarchy" as a manner of human relations that is intentionally established and maintained. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism [Apr 2005] | ||
| - | == Anarchism and the arts == | + | '''''Anarchism''''' is a generic term describing various political [[philosophies]] and social movements that advocate the elimination of all forms of imposed [[authority]], including [[social]] [[hierarchy]] and coercive [[power]]. In place of hierarchy, these movements favor relations based upon voluntary cooperation and mutual aid, leading to a society characterised by the ability of each actor to have a say in outcomes proportionate to the degree they are affected by them. These philosophies use anarchy to mean a society based on voluntary cooperation of free individuals. Philosophical anarchist thought does not advocate [[chaos]] or [[anomie]] — it refers to "anarchy" as a manner of human relations that is intentionally established and maintained. |
| - | :Commenting on the subversive qualities of book reading, [[Stéphane Mallarmé]] is quoted as saying "Je ne sais pas d'autre bombe, qu'un livre." (I know of no bomb other than the book.) | + | ==Origins== |
| - | '''Anarchism''' has long had an association with the [[arts]], particularly in music and literature. It shares these traits with other radical political movements, such as [[socialism]], [[communism]], [[liberalism]]/[[libertarianism]] and even [[fascism]]. Some of this art, like [[punk rock]], would become partially co-opted by capitalist industry (a process called "recuperation" by the [[situationist]]s). | + | :''[[History of anarchism]]'' |
| + | Anarchist themes can be found in the works of [[Taoism|Taoist]] sages [[Laozi]], [[Zhuangzi]] and Bao Jingyan [http://robertgraham.wordpress.com/anarchism-a-documentary-history-of-libertarian-ideas-volume-one-from-anarchy-to-anarchism-300ce-1939/]. Zhuangzi wrote, ''"A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a Nation,"'' while Bao Jingyan said that as soon as "the relationship between lord and subject is established, hearts become daily filled with evil designs, until the manacled criminals sullenly doing forced labour in the mud and the dust are full of mutinous thoughts." [[Diogenes of Sinope]] and the [[Cynic]]s, their contemporary [[Zeno of Citium]], the founder of [[Stoicism]], also introduced similar topics. | ||
| - | The influence of anarchism is not always directly a matter of specific imagery or public figures, but may be seen in a certain stance towards the liberation of the total human being and the imagination. | + | The term "anarchist" first entered the English language in 1642, during the [[English Civil War]], as a [[Pejorative|term of abuse]], used by [[Cavalier|Royalists]] against their [[Roundhead]] opponents. By the time of the [[French Revolution]] some, such as the ''[[Enragés]]'', began to use the term positively, in opposition to [[Jacobin (politics)|Jacobin]] centralisation of power, seeing "revolutionary government" as [[oxymoron]]ic. By the turn of the 19th century, the English word "anarchism" had lost its initial negative connotation. |
| - | Anarchism had a large influence on [[Symbolism (arts)|French Symbolism]] of the late [[19th century]], such as that of [[Stéphane Mallarmé]], who was quoted as saying "''Je ne sais pas d'autre bombe, qu'un livre.''" (I know of no bomb other than the book.) Its ideas infiltrated the cafes and cabarets of turn of the century [[Paris]] (see the Drunken Boat #2). | + | Modern anarchism sprang from the secular or religious thought of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], particularly [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]'s arguments for the moral centrality of freedom. From this climate [[William Godwin]] developed what many consider the first expression of [[modern anarchist thought]]. Godwin was, according to [[Peter Kropotkin]], "the first to formulate the political and economical conceptions of anarchism, even though he did not give that name to the ideas developed in his work", while Godwin attached his anarchist ideas to an early [[Edmund Burke]]. [[Benjamin Tucker]] instead credits [[Josiah Warren]], an American who promoted stateless and [[voluntary community|voluntary communities]] where all goods and services were [[privatization|private]], with being "the first man to expound and formulate the doctrine now known as Anarchism." The first to describe himself as an anarchist was [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]], a French philosopher and politician, which led some to call him the founder of modern anarchist theory. |
| - | More significantly, anarchists claim that 'strains' may be found in the works of the [[Dada]] group, whose anti-[[bourgeois]] art antics saw them wreaking havoc in war neutral [[Switzerland]] during [[World War I]], although it could be argued that the Dadaists were much closer to the [[Council communism|Council Communists]], having much of their material published in [[Die Aktion]]. | + | == See also == |
| + | *''[[The Anarchist Cookbook]]'' (1971) by William Powell | ||
| + | *[[To be governed is]] | ||
| + | *[[Anarchic comedy film]] | ||
| + | *[[Anarchism and the arts]] | ||
| + | *''[[Culture and Anarchy]]'' (1869) by Matthew Arnold | ||
| + | *"[[I know of no bomb other than the book]]" --[[Stéphane Mallarmé]] | ||
| - | Many American artists of the early 20th century were influenced by anarchist ideas, if they weren't anarchists themselves. The [[Ashcan School]] of American realism included anarchist artists, as well as artists such as [[Rockwell Kent]] and [[George Bellows]] that were influenced by anarchist ideas. Abstract expressionism also included anarchist artists such as [[Mark Rothko]] and painters such as [[Jackson Pollock]], who had adopted radical ideas during his experience as a muralist for the [[Works Progress Administration]]. Pollock's father had also been a [[Industrial Workers of the World|Wobbly]]. | + | {{GFDL}} |
| - | + | ||
| - | David Weir has argued in ''Anarchy and Culture'' that anarchism's only had some success in the sphere of cultural avant-gardism because of its failure as a political movement; cognizant of anarchism's claims to overcome the barrier between art and political activism, he nevertheless suggests that this is not achieved in reality. Weir suggests that for the "ideologue" it might be possible to adapt "[[aesthetics]] to [[politics]]" but that "from the perspective of the poet" a solution might be to "adapt the politics to the aesthetics". He identifies this latter strategy with anarchism, on account of its [[individualism]]. Weir has also suggested that "the contemporary critical strategy of aestheticizing politics" among [[marxism|marxists]] such as Fredric Jameson is a product of the demise of marxism as a [[state]] ideology. "The situation whereby ideology attempts to operate outside of politics has already pointed Marxism toward postmodernist culture, just as anarchism moved into the culture of modernism when it ceased to have political validity". | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | In the late 20th century, anarchism and the arts could primarily be associated with the [[collage]] works by [[James Koehnline]], [[Johan Humyn Being]], and others, whose work was being published in anarchist magazines, including [[Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed]] and [[Fifth Estate]]. [[The Living Theatre]], a theatrical troupe headed by [[Judith Malina]] and [[Julian Beck]], were outspoken about their anarchism, often incorporating anarchistic themes into their performances. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | In the 1990s, anarchists were involved in the [[mail art]] movement, which can be described as "art which uses the postal service in some way." This is related to the involvement of many anarchists in the [[zine]] movement. And many contemporary anarchists are involved in making art in the form of flyposters, stencils, and radical puppets.--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_and_the_arts [Apr 2007] | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | == ''Culture and Anarchy'' (1869)== | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ''Culture and Anarchy'' is a book by [[Matthew Arnold]]Matthew Arnold, first published in [[1869]]. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Arnold's famous piece of writing on culture established his High Victorian cultural agenda which remained dominant in debate from the 1860s until the 1950s. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | According to his view advanced in the book, "Culture [...] is a study of perfection". He further wrote that: "[Culture] seeks to do away with classes; to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere; to make all men live in an atmosphere of sweetness and light [...]". | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | This passage is often misquoted as "[culture is] the best that has been thought and said". | + | |
Revision as of 14:27, 2 October 2019
|
"To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so [...]. --Pierre-Joseph Proudhon |
Illustration:Liberty Leading the People (1831, detail) by Eugène Delacroix.
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of all forms of imposed authority, including social hierarchy and coercive power. In place of hierarchy, these movements favor relations based upon voluntary cooperation and mutual aid, leading to a society characterised by the ability of each actor to have a say in outcomes proportionate to the degree they are affected by them. These philosophies use anarchy to mean a society based on voluntary cooperation of free individuals. Philosophical anarchist thought does not advocate chaos or anomie — it refers to "anarchy" as a manner of human relations that is intentionally established and maintained.
Origins
Anarchist themes can be found in the works of Taoist sages Laozi, Zhuangzi and Bao Jingyan [1]. Zhuangzi wrote, "A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a Nation," while Bao Jingyan said that as soon as "the relationship between lord and subject is established, hearts become daily filled with evil designs, until the manacled criminals sullenly doing forced labour in the mud and the dust are full of mutinous thoughts." Diogenes of Sinope and the Cynics, their contemporary Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, also introduced similar topics.
The term "anarchist" first entered the English language in 1642, during the English Civil War, as a term of abuse, used by Royalists against their Roundhead opponents. By the time of the French Revolution some, such as the Enragés, began to use the term positively, in opposition to Jacobin centralisation of power, seeing "revolutionary government" as oxymoronic. By the turn of the 19th century, the English word "anarchism" had lost its initial negative connotation.
Modern anarchism sprang from the secular or religious thought of the Enlightenment, particularly Jean-Jacques Rousseau's arguments for the moral centrality of freedom. From this climate William Godwin developed what many consider the first expression of modern anarchist thought. Godwin was, according to Peter Kropotkin, "the first to formulate the political and economical conceptions of anarchism, even though he did not give that name to the ideas developed in his work", while Godwin attached his anarchist ideas to an early Edmund Burke. Benjamin Tucker instead credits Josiah Warren, an American who promoted stateless and voluntary communities where all goods and services were private, with being "the first man to expound and formulate the doctrine now known as Anarchism." The first to describe himself as an anarchist was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, a French philosopher and politician, which led some to call him the founder of modern anarchist theory.
See also
- The Anarchist Cookbook (1971) by William Powell
- To be governed is
- Anarchic comedy film
- Anarchism and the arts
- Culture and Anarchy (1869) by Matthew Arnold
- "I know of no bomb other than the book" --Stéphane Mallarmé
