Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

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ANARCHISM
living without government is a superior way of life, would never have even occurred
to them, lacking anything to compare anarchy with until it was too late.
It was only after hierarchical societies arose that people within them began to
conceive of anarchy as a positive alternative. Some, such as the early Daoist philosophers
in China (Selection 1), looked back to an age without government, when people
lived in peace with themselves and the world. Various Christian sects looked
forward to the second coming, when the egalitarian brotherly love of Christ and his
disciples would triumph over evil (Selection 3). Rationalists, such as Zeno, the
founder of Stoicism in ancient Greece, and later Renaissance (Selection 2) and Enlightenment
(Selection 4) thinkers, envisaged a new era of enlightenment, when reason
would replace coercion as the guiding force in human affairs.
Although none of these early advocates of anarchy described themselves as anarchists,
what they all share is opposition to coercive authority and hierarchical relationships
based on power, wealth or privilege. In contrast to other radicals, they also
reject any authoritarian or privileged role for themselves in the struggle against authority
and in the creation of a free society.
We find similar attitudes among some of the revolutionaries in the modern era.
During the French Revolution, the enrages (Selection 5) and the radical egalitarians
(Selection 6) opposed revolutionary dictatorship and government as a contradiction
in terms, and sought to abolish all hierarchical distinctions, including that between
the governed and the governors.
But it was not until around the time of the 1848 Revolutions in Europe that anarchism
began to emerge as a distinct doctrine (Chapter 4). It \vas Pierre-Joseph
Proudhon in France who was the first to describe himself as an anarchist in 1840 (Selection
8). Anarchist ideas soon spread to Germany (Selection 11), Spain (Selection
15) and Italy (Selection 16). Following the failure of the 1848 Revolutions some expatriates,
disillusioned by politics, adopted an anarchist position (Selection 14).
As the political reaction in Europe began to ebb in the 1860s, anarchist ideas
re-emerged, ultimately leading to the creation of an avowedly anarchist movement
from out of the anti-authoritarian sections of the socialist First International (Chapters
5 and 6). The Paris Commune, despite being drowned in blood, gave renewed inspiration
to the anarchists and helped persuade many of them to adopt an anarchist
communist position (Chapters 7 and 8). The anarchist communists championed the
Commune, but insisted that within the revolutionary commune there should be no
ruling authority and no private property, but rather free federation and distribution
according to need.