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

Anarchy And Anarchism / 149
of different se xes, violence and constraint should play no part. He considers that economic
independe nce and control of he r fe rtility are the pre req uisites for the emancipation
of woman.
The individualist anarchist wants to live, wants to be able to enjoy life-life in
all its manifestations-as an individual. While re taining mastery of his will and looking
upon his knowledge, his faculties, his se nses and his body's ma ny organs of pe r­
ce ption as so many se rvants at the disposal of his "e go." He does not run scared but
re fuse s to be be littled. And knows ve ry we ll that anyone who le ts himself be carried
away by his emotions or ruled by his inclinations is a slave. He see ks to hold on to his
"mastery of se lf' in order to embark upon whatever adventures his individual questing
and specula tion may suggest. ..
The individualist anarchist will take a hand in associations fo rme d by certain
comrades with an eye to shrugging off the obsession of a Milieu that they find re pugnant.
Re fusal to pe rform military se rvice and to pay taxes can expect his
whole- he arted sympathy; free unions, singular or multiple, by way of protests against
the established morality; illegalism (with ce rtain re se rvations) as a violent break with
an economic compact imposed by force ; abstinence from any act, any toil, any fu nction
that implies maintenance or consolidation of the imposed intellectual, ethical or
economic syste m; trading of ba sic ne cessities be twee n individualist anarchists ow n­
ing the req uisite machinery of production, dispensing with any capitalist intermediary,
etc.-the se are the acts of re volt essentially consonant with the individualist
anarchist characte r.