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concluding remarks 171
all, both Marxism and liberalism have been associated with
serious compromises of principle. Fascism perhaps comes closer,
but few would now regard this attractive – even if it seemed so to
many at the time. Gandhi’s remark that Western civilization was
‘a very good idea’ aptly captures the difficulties of putting ideas into
practice. Of course, the problem with anarchism is that in its most
‘utopian’ forms it seeks to dismantle the political organisation that
the vast majority regard as necessary, if not also desirable. And
because what anarchism represents is a far more radical challenge
to the status quo than other ideologies, anarchist proposals tend to
be judged by stricter criteria of reasonableness. Whilst anarchists
have been willing to provide answers to questions about organization,
security, order and well-being, it’s not easy to accept their
answers whilst state provision is reasonably good or at least, not
openly intolerable. The difficulty facing anarchists is to persuade
others to give up the devil they know for one that is almost
unimaginable.
The second reaction is tied to notions of youth and romantic
sacrifice. Here, the suggestion is that anarchism appeals to those
without responsibilities and with the time to indulge in rebellion.
Though it appears similar to anarchist ideas of youthfulness, it
differs markedly from them. Whereas Voltairine de Cleyre argued
that anarchism was for the young at heart and that its simplicity
appealed to the child in everyone, the popular view is that anarchism
is little more than a fashionable pose and that it describes a phase
which most people (rightly) grow out of. The association of anarchism
with romanticism also has a positive and negative variant. The
positive emphasizes the commitment, idealism and heroism of
anarchists, the negative, their naïve enthusiasm, intolerance and
willingness to endanger others in the pursuit of their cause. Olive
Garnett, the diarist and novelist, recorded the following conversation
with Olive Rossetti, co-editor of the nineteenth-century London
anarchist paper, The Torch:
Olive’s conversation unknown to herself was dangerously near the
ridiculous. Among other schemes they have one for the conversion
of the entire British police force, so that, should there be a popular
insurrection in Trafalgar Square, the police, having had their
humane feelings awakened by the Anarchists, will cry ‘Brothers, we
had rather be bludgeoned than bludgeon in support of an unjust
law, we will go in a body & resign’