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A René Fugler miscellany

March 28, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

Back in 2020, I shared a translation of René Fugler’s pamphlet “The Anarchist Question,” as part of the Constructing Anarchisms project. At the time, I made a start at translating “The Forms and Tendencies of Anarchism,” another of his pamphlets, but never found the time to finish the work. This week, I found the time to complete that translation and to supplement it with a odd assortment of other texts by Fugler under his various pseudonyms — René Furth, René Forain, etc. […]

Featured articles

Ixigrec (Robert Collino), “Individualism: Crucible of Future Worlds” (1967)

March 28, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

Raised outside constraints and distorting systems, giving free rein to their adventurous genius, to their creative spirit, to this explosive force which propels man ever further towards the conquest of life and duration, the strong individualities which we will have been able to favor by our efforts will perhaps justify, — for our sense of causalities and responsibilities — the appearance of intelligence, conscience and goodness in a universe which we know to be without purpose and without gods. […]

Anarchy 101

A Return to the Question of the “Polity-Form”

March 2, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

The polity-form, then, in its simplest sense, is the form given to social collectivities when they are accounted for, explained, “realized” (in the language used by Louis Blanc in 1849-50), etc. by a transformation into political units. In this process, individuals — participants in the social relations that give rise to these social collectivities — are reimagined as citizens, subjects, members of the political unit, with rights, duties, privileges, etc. granted or imposed as a result. This governmental relation seems inescapably hierarchical — although in certain instances of extensive, stable consensus that hierarchy might be considered more or less “voluntary” (if only because there is no occasion for enforcement.) […]

Working Translations

E. Armand, “Epistle to MM. the Intellectuals” (1919)

February 26, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

That we have learned much from this small number of men whom we call Intellectuals because — belonging to the so-called liberal classes — they have made that which relates to the things of Intelligence the great, the principal, the essential business of their life; that we have learned much from them, this is something we cannot deny without missing the most elementary of established facts. And not only have they taught us much, but, whatever the branch of human knowledge to which they were devoted, their example — their example above all — has contributed not a little to forming us. The history of their existence, at once fertile and eventful, has awakened, aroused, created in us the desire to resemble them. […]

Anarchy 101

Anarchy 101: Thinking about Authority and Hierarchy

February 24, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

It is common, when discussing anarchist critiques of “hierarchy” and “authority,” to encounter conflicts between those who consider anarchism a critique of all hierarchy and every form of authority and those who, for one reason or another, object that it is only certain forms of hierarchy and authority that anarchists oppose — or should oppose. We are reminded of “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,” Bakunin’s “authority of the bootmaker,” etc. For our purposes here, I want to present a general framework that draw sharp distinctions between anarchy and these other elements of social organization. […]

Anarchy 101

Anarchy 101: Thinking about “Crime”

February 11, 2025 Shawn P. Wilbur

This is the first in a series of documents attempting to frame the discussion of key concepts in anarchist theory. The goal is to address a series of frequently asked questions, not necessarily by giving definitive answers to them — as that may often be impossible — but at least by summarizing the particular considerations imposed by a fairly consistently anarchistic approach to the analysis. That means attempting to examine the questions in a context where there is no question of “legitimate” authority, “justified” hierarchy or any of the various sorts of “good government,” “anarchist legal systems,” etc. The guiding assumption here is that the simplest conception of anarchy is one that can be clearly distinguished from every form of archy. If self-proclaimed anarchists might perhaps choose to embrace approaches that are, in practice, more complex or equivocal, there is presumably still value for them in the presentation of more starkly drawn alternatives. For some of us, of course, there simply is no question of any compromise between anarchy and archy. […]