In Defense of Anagorism

political economy in the non-market, non-state sector

Quotebag #44

Written by

Lorraine Lee

in

“Calling a fetus at any stage of development from conception until birth an ‘unborn child’ is like calling every living person at any age from birth until death an ‘undead adult’.”—Jami Ward, paraphrasing George Carlin

“[Anarchism] opposes both the insidious growth of state power and the pernicious ethos of possessive individualism, which, together or separately, ultimately serve only the interests of the few at the expense of the rest.”—Stuart Christie, quoted in Liberation Frequency

“Meg Whitman could do more to end oppression in American than a hundred newfound feminist allies. So could Barack Obama. It’s about your relationship to the means of production and how you support yourself and if you’re even allowed to support yourself.”—Valerie Keefe

Comments

2 responses to “Quotebag #44”

  1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
    bloggerclarissa

    Absolutely love quote 1.

    Dislike quote 2 because it suggests that something is wrong with individualism, which is patently untrue.

    Quote 3 presupposes a very paternalistic attitude to the silent, infantilized majority that just sits there waiting for a powerful adult to save it.

    Reply
    1. n8chz Avatar
      n8chz

      While I respect and even support individualism, I’m not quite ready to assert that nothing is wrong with it. My take is that like any principle, the principle of individualism, when taken to its logical extreme, tends to result in the attitude that individuals is [sic] all there is, and that society either doesn’t exist, or is the sum total of all the individuals, no more and no less. Needless to say, I find that particular attitude borders on anti-social. There’s also a tendency for individualism to be equated with laissez-faire capitalism. This results from the (IMHO false) dichotomy between individual and state. I think a more appropriate dichotomy is between individuals and institutions; the latter category definitely including government, but also including business and organized religion. I refer to my position as “thick individualism.” I suppose it is individualism without reservations, but certainly with some, shall we say, caveats.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More posts