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Underground > Switchboard >

defining anarchism

03:06 / 05.02.02

Started to avoid continuing rot in various threads where this has come up. For example, The Angry Brigade one, where I questioned Gentleman Loser's claim that the dictionary definition of anarchism is 'lawlessness or Libertarian fantasy'. Johnny the Zen Bastard replied:

quote: Let's not start this. If we're agreeing to use the English language as a means of communication, then that means we're agreeing to use the words as defined by the authority on it. Naturally, slang doesn't count, but you can't use "sandal" to describe a boot. If it means you can't use the word "anarchy" as you like, tough shit. Modify it somehow. Don't go arguing about the mechanics of something you've already agreed to use.

This is beside the point, and pretty bizarre anyway. First, I was questioning whether there actually exists a dictionary which defines anarchism as, among other things, 'Libertarian fantasy'. More generally, it is ridiculous to suggest that we have to stick to dictionary definitions of terms we're discussing; if all our political arguments are to be based on what the dictionary says a particular ideology or movement is, we're not going to have very interesting discussions. The same would be true in other forums with specialised vocabularies (i.e., the recent thread about entropy in the Lab, no doubt many in the Magick, Head Shop, etc.)

"The" dictionary is not "the" authority on the English language. It's not that I just invented a meaning for anarchism and intend to use it regardless of what the word actually means; anarchism has a history, and accepted meanings as a political movement/ideology/theory regardless of whether the dictionary explains them.

I am hoping, generally, that we can use this thread to discuss/clarify that history and those meanings, with a minimum of recriminations and sarcasm.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:10 / 05.02.02

Don't know much about the history of anarchism, but I do think falling back on dictionary definitions is going to be extremely limiting unless we ask two basic questions: "who wrote/assembled this particular dictionary?" and "why?".

Obviously this is going to be even more true when you're talking about the definition of something like anarchism... In fact the more 'official' the dictionary, surely the less likely it is to give an accurate representation of dissident modes of thought? Plus dictionaries are a way of standardising and regulating language, so even if a dictionary wasn't produced by someone with a political agenda, you could probably make a case for saying that dictionaries and anarchism are antithetical...

(Though of course standardising and regulating language is pretty much a political agenda in itself, I reckon.)

[ 05-02-2002: Message edited by: Flyboy ]

Matthew Fluxington

17:41 / 05.02.02

Right on, Flyboy.

quote:

Many attempts to radically change language are inside jobs. After all, when we reach for our Webster's Dictionary, we may not realize that we are grabbing a piece of linguistic propaganda. Webster's is little more than a reference work today, but it was not always such. Noah Webster wrote with an explicit theological intention in mind, for he traced back the proliferation of human languages to Babel. The point of the dictionary maker was not to record language as it was used, but to direct language to how it should be - to simplify it, to return to the Edenic universal tongue in which man, beast, and God could converse freely.

- from Banvard's Folly by Paul Collins

Nietzsch E. Coyote

18:10 / 05.02.02

gotcha dictionary bad (end threadrot)

Anarchy means...

No Ruler. No Authority. No Hierarchy.

No person should have power above someone else. If someone weilds power over someone else that power is not legit.

[ 05-02-2002: Message edited by: fenris23 ]

15:28 / 08.02.02

linguistic roots: archos (greek): ruler, master

an- (greek): suffix signifying lack of

anarchos: without rulers. In the ancient greek mindset this was an absurd situation, society without rulers was largely unthinkable. Thus the word came to signify chaos, negative disorder. This tradition continues up until today.

NOTE: all this is from memory, reference: Demanding the impossible: a history of anarchism. Corrections welcome.