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76
anarchism: a beginner’s guide
Anarchists often argue that their critique of power is a distinctive
mark of their ideology and they regularly compare their understandings
to competing Marxist ideas. Yet it does not follow from their
denunciation of state power that they reject the use of power in
support of anarchist change and/or the development of anarchy. The
significant division between anarchists on the issue of power is
where it should be located. Power is not to be despised, whatever
anarchists claim to the contrary.
anarchism and liberty
Anarchist theories of government, power and authority suggest that
the state is an unnecessary evil. There are good reasons to seek its
abolition and, contrary to the fears and suspicions of the state’s supporters,
there is no reason to link its disappearance to savagery and
disorder. On the contrary, the abolition of the state will put an end to
violence and repression and herald a new – more harmonious –
social order. Moreover, it will release individuals from the constraints
of authority and enable them to enjoy their freedom.
It is possible to extrapolate three anarchist conceptions of freedom
from the critiques of authority. For example, the critique of
command supports an idea of liberty as autonomy: the condition in
which individuals determine their own affairs and subject their
decisions to conscience or reason. The critique of control supports a
concept of individuality: the liberty individuals enjoy to explore
their creative potential and to develop their particular talents and
capabilities. Finally, the critique of corruption supports a notion of
altruism or brotherhood, in which individuals are able to fulfil their
social roles and relationships through association with others.
Anarchists combine these conceptions of authority and liberty in
different ways. For example, Tolstoy linked his critique of authority
as a form of moral corruption to an idea of freedom as autonomy.
The only true liberty, he argued ‘consists in every man being able to
live and act according to his own judgement’. 66 Similarly, Kropotkin
tied his critique of authority as dependence to an altruistic conception
of liberty inspired by the idea – which he called the principle of
mutual aid – that individual freedom is inextricably linked to the
freedom of the whole.
Moreover, anarchists tend to regard these different conceptions
of liberty as interconnected ideas, not discrete categories of thought.