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Anarchism (from Greek ἀν (without) + ἄρχειν (to rule) + ισμός (from stem -ιζειν), "without archons," "without rulers") is a political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support anarchy or the elimination of state, abolition of private property, and prefigurative politics (i.e. modes of organization that consciously resemble the world you want to create. Or, as an anarchist historian of the Spanish Revolution formulated, "an effort to think of not only the ideas but the facts of the future itself".) Though the terms "anarchist" and "anarchy" have been used to describe purported anti-statists and their positions since ancient times, political anarchism originates with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the first self-declared anarchist, and his publication of What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government in 1840. Proudhon's famous declaration that "Property is Theft!," along with his less famous declaration that "Property is Liberty", inspired different anarchist economic models throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
While political anarchism has its roots in the same 19th century social foment that produced Marxism, the two philosophies diverged sharply, beginning with a personal split between Karl Marx and anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. Anarchists were active in the abolition of slavery, and have continually been active in the labor movement, civil rights, women's liberation, anti-capitalism, the anti-war movement, LGBT rights, anti-globalization and alter-globalization, tax resistance, and other forms of anarchist activism. Selected articleTheodore Kaczynski (born May 22, 1942) is an American anarchist and an important figure in the green anarchist and anarcho-primitivist movements. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where, as an intellectual child prodigy, he excelled in academics from an early age. Kaczynski received an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and earned a PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan. He became an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley at age twenty-five, but resigned two years later. In 1971, he moved to a remote cabin in Lincoln, Montana, where he sought to live closer to nature. From 1978 to 1995, Kaczynski sent sixteen bombs to several people he saw as key agents in the development of the industrial society, creating what came to be known as the "Unabomber case". A total of three people died and twenty-three were injured. Kaczynski sent a letter to The New York Times on April 24, 1995 in which he threatened further attacks if his manifesto were not published. In the manifesto, called Industrial Society and Its Future, he argues that mass society is inherently oppressive to man, with its development progressively depriving the individual of his autonomy. He then refers to primitive society, without the dependence on large social institutions, as an ideal of freedom. Anarchist authors such as John Zerzan and John Moore, have come to Kaczynski's defense, while expressing some concerns over his actions. He has also been criticised by primitivists for having failed to understand the underlying aspects of civilization/domestication, which he might have perceived as non-issues, such as poverty, sexism, racism and homophobia. Even outside the anarchist movement, Kaczynski's writing has been referenced for the importance of its critiques and for its analysis of technology in relation to social organization and freedom. Part of Kaczynski's manifesto was cited by the scientist and author Raymond Kurzweil in his book The Age of Spiritual Machines, and then mentioned in the article "Why the future doesn't need us" by computer scientist Bill Joy. His FBI-granted name, Unabomber ("UNiversity and Airline BOMber") stands now in popular culture both as an example of a lone-wolf mad bomber and a symbol of resistance against a future technological, Orwellian dystopia. (read more...)Selected imageBlack Bloc demonstrators taunting liberal protesters at Malcolm X Park during the January 20, 2005 counter-inaugural protest. The tactic of black bloc affinity groups advocating direct action instead of nonviolent resistance was pioneered by European autonomes in the 1980s. Did you know?
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