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what is anarchism? 35
‘the method of modern science, introduced by Kropotkin ... in short
the anarchist scientifical way of thinking’ (Bulletin of the Anarchist
International). In his well-known pamphlet Listen, Anarchist! Chaz
Bufe also defends science, rationality and technology as the only permissible
tools of anarchist dissent. In rather different ways, Rothbard
and Rand also ground anarchism in an idea of reason. Rothbard’s
work is based on a conception of natural law and Rand’s on what she
calls ‘objective’ law, similarly discoverable through the exercise of
reason. 60 The ‘post-objectivist’ George H. Smith captures the gist of
the idea. Anarchism, he argues,
is grounded in the belief that we are fully capable, through reason, of
discerning the principles of justice; and that we are capable, through
rational persuasion and voluntary agreement, of establishing whatever
institutions are necessary for the preservation and enforcement
of justice. 61
The theoretical alignment of anarchism with liberal science was
paralleled by a reassessment of liberalism’s political value. Some
anarchist schools had long seen a positive element in liberal thought
and like liberals claimed liberty as one of their primary goals. Yet not
all groups of anarchists have asserted the priority of liberty with
equal force. So-called individualists – particularly in America – have
tended to be the most vocal advocates of liberty, identifying anarchism
firmly with the defence of rights. Indeed, some writers have
argued that liberal anarchism is a peculiarly American phenomenon.
In her analysis of the relationship of anarchism to American
political culture Voltairine de Cleyre argued that independence of
thought, freedom from the tyranny of arbitrary government and
the guarantee of civic rights were the hallmarks of both anarchist
and liberal traditions. The patriots of the Revolution ‘took their
starting point for deriving a minimum government upon the same
sociological ground that the modern Anarchist derives the
no-government theory; viz., that equal liberty is the political ideal’. 62
Ayn Rand also argued that American anarchism had been shaped
by the revolutionary tradition. Europeans, she added, had never
‘fully grasped’ the American philosophy of the Rights of Man and
remained firmly wedded to the competing principle of the common
good. The Scottish anti-parliamentarian, Guy Aldred, offered a less
culturally determined account, extending the American tradition
back to the English homeland. The ‘English-speaking race, on both