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anarchism: a beginner’s guide
The emphasis of Ward’s anarchism is organizational and he is as
interested in finding evidence of anarchist experimentation as he is
to show how anarchy might flourish. For example, he shows how
groups of people have co-operated to look after their housing needs
in the face of bureaucratic indifference or hostility. He considers the
ways in which peoples have looked after their own health needs
outside the framework of the state; how they have used unemployment
as a platform to establish alternative economies and the
success with which co-operatives have managed local transport
systems and neighbourhood services, from schools to radiostations.
In contrast, Goodman’s concern was with the psychological
condition of Western societies and, rather than looking for evidence
of anarchy in everyday life, he considered how ordinary institutions
and environments might be reformed to encourage the expression of
personality. His view was that modern capitalism produced personnel
much in the same way as it produced other consumer goods. The
quality of human life had been impoverished as a result.
Although their approaches to practical anarchism differ, both
Ward and Goodman identified two particular strategic interests:
education and urban planning. Their concern with education is that
in Western societies schools bred disaffection whilst failing to
address significant social and economic inequalities. Contrary to
popular belief, Goodman argued, in America ‘the poor youth … will
not become equal by … going to middle-class schools’. 43 And the
reason why not is that education is used exclusively as a means of
sorting children into achievement groups. It fails to develop potential
or build imagination, sympathy and trust. It fails even to address the
socio-economic and cultural factors that affect achievement. In
response to the concern of government with educational standards
Ward argues ‘[a]s the threshold of competence rises, so the pool of
inadequacy widens’. Far from providing a route to social advancement
– still less equality – education supports a cycle of inequality.
Ward quotes the sociologist Michael Young: ‘[t]oday you have to be
far smarter to get by, and if you are not, we penalise your children’. 44
Goodman developed a six-point plan to correct contemporary
‘miseducation’:
1. Use school less. Children, he argued, ‘will make up the first seven
years school-work with four to seven months of good teaching’.
2. Educate outside the classroom. This proposal was not new.
Kropotkin’s scheme for integrated education included the