A Sympathetic Look at Anarchism

Why do some of us have a positive view of the State – whereas others take a more negative if not anarchistic approach? Patrick Dunkelman’s recent book may be about the US situation but raises much wider questions of this sort. The book is Why Nothing Works – who killed progress and how to bring it back (2025) and argues that

• progressivism is defined not by one, but rather by two divergent impulses - the progressive head and the progressive heart are in different places. Alexander Hamilton, leader of the Federalists, worried primarily about chaos. He wanted to place more authority in the hands of centralized officials and financiers capable of developing America into an industrial dynamo—a “Hercules” on the global stage. His worry was that America would remain too disorganized, too divided, too chaotic to make the most of its opportunity. Putting power into a leadership class would deliver more for the public. Thomas Jefferson’s narrative, by contrast, was born of an entirely different frame. Horrified by the English Crown’s treatment of the colonies, he was determined to thwart overbearing authority—to protect individuals (or, at least, white, male, landowning individuals) from the abuses of public authority.

• the two impulses have waxed and waned through time such that the movement’s underlying zeitgeist has shifted, a bit like the tide.

• the balance that’s emerged since the late 1960s—the excessive tilt toward the Jeffersonian—is a seminal political liability for the progressive movement.

I have to admit to some ambivalence about the State – despite my fixation on it and how it might be “reformed” to ensure it better serves the interests of the ordinary citizen. Occasionally, I confess to a streak of anarchistic makeup in me.

And what better way to do that than to dip into some of the books on my shelves here in the mountain house where I spend my summers -

Anarchy in Action Colin Ward (1973) – very much a British take
Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow David Goodway (2006/12) a very discursive UK text
Black Flame – the revolutionary class politics of anarchism and syndicalism ed Lucien 

van der Walt and Michael Schmidt (2009) A bit too enthusiastic
Two Cheers for Anarchism James Scott (2012) a classic although a bit weak on the 

theory
The Government of Noone – the theory and practice of anarchy Ruth Kinna (2019) a more 

academic approach
Means and Ends - the revolutionary practice of Anarchism in Europe and the US 

Zoe Baker (2024) A pretty comprehensive study with an extensive bibliography