Ep:1 What Even Is Anarchism? (And What It Isn't)

In 1886, four men were hanged in Chicago. Not for what they did — for what they believed. That is where this episode starts: not with a definition of anarchism, but with why the idea has always been treated as a crime.This is the framework episode. What anarchism actually argues — that hierarchy is not natural or inevitable, that it was made, and can be unmade. Proudhon on property as theft. Kropotkin on cooperation as evolution. Bakunin and Marx on whether the state can ever wither away. Prefigurative politics: the means are already the end.The show's first promise: not to tell you anarchism is right, but to show you why it asks better questions than the alternatives.Topics: anarchist theory, Haymarket affair, mutual aid, Kropotkin, Proudhon, Bakunin, hierarchy, prefigurative politics, direct action.Further reading: — Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) — Paul Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy (1984) — Mark Bray, Anarchism: What It Is and What It Isn't (2019) — David Graeber, The Democracy Project (2013) — Uri Gordon, Anarchy Alive! (2008) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.