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Heretics, Radicals, & MUTUALISM
Heretics, Radicals, & MUTUALISM
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Paleomutualist Manifesto
Paleomutualist Manifesto
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FAIR SHARES: Community Economics for Permaculture Practitioners
FAIR SHARES: Community Economics for Permaculture Practitioners
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The Evolution of Consent: Collected Essays, vol. I
The Evolution of Consent: Collected Essays, vol. I
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The Evolution of Consent: Collected Essays, vol. II
The Evolution of Consent: Collected Essays, vol. II
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About the Author
Greetings
Difficulty Welcome to Ambiarchy Academy, formerly the Evolution of Consent. Here you will learn about ambiarchy, formerly geo-mutualist panarchism, and ambitheism, formerly dualist pantheism. These are developments from historical mutualism and pantheism, as covered in paleomutualism. The historical background of pantheism and mutualism play a significant role in ambitheism and ambiarchy. These are my contemporary philosophies carrying on the traditions of mutualism and pantheism in my own way, with contemporary insights added. Together, Ambiarchy and Ambitheism compose a comprehensive worldview that has application in the real world. Rate this post! Post Rating (more…)
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Social Darwinism, Mutualism, and Postmodernism
Difficulty The Evolutionary Sociology of Herbert Spencer As human beings are animals, we are bound by the same fundamental laws of biology as the rest of the animal kingdom. The biological world, of which we are a part, is composed of ecological systems, combinations of biological organisms and communities of those organisms that find themselves always within a dynamic equilibrium, or else quickly shifting toward one. This dynamic equilibrium is maintained by forces of natural selection that occur within conditions of relative stasis (as described by Charles Darwin) or rapid punctuation (as described by Stephen Jay Gould). Because human beings are biological entities, and because our societies are emerging superorganisms, it is necessary to consider our lives within the framework of natural selection. Doing so, as was done by Herbert Spencer, is historically labeled social Darwinism, but has taken more contemporary form in ecological-evolutionary theory, as expressed by Gerhard (more…)
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Creedal Foundations of Mutualism
Difficulty Mutualism was the first well-organized industrial workers’ movement. And it grew largely from heresies prominent in the minds of, and material conditions faced by, radical textile workers. There had been significant and well-organized peasant uprisings in the Middle Ages. John Ball, a heretical preacher, had inspired the English Peasants’ Revolt, led by Wat Tyler. Under the leadership of Jan Zizka— considered by some the best military leader of all time— the Taborites fought off military orders with well-armored knights, from wooden wagons from which they made some of the first military use of gunpowder. The German Peasants’ War was a countrywide conflict led by heretical, anti-feudal clergymen such as Thomas Muntzer. Peasant uprisings were quite common, and mutualism comes from that heritage. But these were not organized, industrial worker rebellions. Some may have been organized—such as the Stedinger in their peasant republic— but they were not organized by (more…)
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Paleofeminism: A Remodernist Defense of the Original
Difficulty I think that what is empowering about anarcho-feminism, particularly in someone like Emma Goldman, is that there is the idea that women’s freedom fundamentally does not depend on any changes in behavior from men (though it may be offensive), so much as upon the self-development of women. This is typical of the radical strains of modernist and Enlightenment-era feminism, such as Mary Wollstonecraft—the mother of modern feminism— and the women in the French and American revolutions, who stressed women’s capacity to reason equally with men, and who focused on education as the best means of women’s emancipation. Emma Goldman wrote works such as “Woman Suffrage,” in which she opposed suffrage for women on anarchist and feminist grounds. She argued that woman needed instead to focus on becoming equal with man as by abolishing her own self-imbued and socially-conditioned ignorance and superstitions. Her argument mirrors those of black abolitionists (more…)
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Decolonization and Anti-Imperialism vs. Socialism
Difficulty Decolonization/anti-imperialism and socialism both relate to the struggles of conquered peoples. Both the colonized/imperialized and wage slaves represent the results of conflicts over cultural dominance (over people and geographic advantages). Victors in these conflicts may become colonizers/imperialists and capitalists. Colonized people are those who have had their culture challenged by colonies of a more powerful culture– the colonists– that imposes its own ways on them. Often they live in communities of their own, under the authority of the colonizing force. Imperialized people have become politically controlled by the colonizing culture, the empire. These are systems of colonialism and imperialism. Working class people are those who, while considered a part of the dominant culture, are not full beneficiaries of that culture’s privileges. They don’t own much property or have much economic or political say. Their productive life is controlled by capitalists, in the system of capitalism. These situations– colonialism/imperialism (more…)
Posted in History, Macroblog, Social Sciences
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Enlightenment, Counter-Enlightenment: Modernism, Postmodernism
Difficulty Part 1 – Enlightenment, Counter-Enlightenment In the late 20th century and early 21st century, historians such as Margaret C. Jacob and Jonathan Israel, following scholars such as Isaiah Berlin who uncovered a Counter-Enlightenment, dissected the Enlightenment into Radical Enlightenment and Moderate Enlightenment factions. The Moderate Enlightenment was the Enlightenment that we were all familiarized with growing up, that was responsible for the American Revolution, and those that followed. This is the Enlightenment of Montesquieu, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. This Enlightenment, which had produced the oligarchic republics that we are familiar with today, had actually followed in the wake of a much more Radical Enlightenment that had pursued not only republicanism, but popular democracy, freedom of speech, religious tolerance, and so on. It was this Radical Enlightenment (which had preceded and influenced the more aristocratic-styled Moderate Enlightenment) that is most associated with core Enlightenment ideals, with (more…)
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Paleomutualist Manifesto
Difficulty Introduction Mutualism is a perennial impulse, a revolutionary social movement, and a sophisticated philosophical tradition. It is established upon, and focuses on, the reciprocity of rights and obligations, promoting the fairest approximation of justice. It was once a very rich, worldwide tradition that featured especially prominently in Europe, the Americas, and Australia. But it has been set into decline. Paleomutualism takes interest in the reasons for this decline and ways that mutualism can be revived to the benefit of working people everywhere. Mutualism’s Impact Did you know that the American forefather, Benjamin Franklin, was the first person to form a mutual insurance company in the New World? This makes him at least a practicing, if not an ideological, mutualist! If this isn’t odd, Alexis de Tocqueville described America as a land rich in voluntary associations (mutualism). Are you aware that the American mutualist, Lysander Spooner, had referred to (more…)
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Expanded Edition of Heretics, Radicals, & MUTUALISM Now Available
Difficulty level not set for this Post Expanded Second Edition NOW AVAILABLE! 564 pages Preface Is This Book for You? This book will be a curiosity to those with an interest in Mutualism, its origins, and the heretical and radical cultural stock it came from. But it will also command the attention of seekers and freethinkers with an interest in heretical and radical views, and those interested in history, conspiracy theory,[1] or “outside of the box” thinking in general. If you decide for yourself what to believe, you just may be a heretic. If you look to the root for your beliefs, you are most assuredly a radical. And if upon looking for the root you discover mutuality, you must be a Mutualist. This book is for you. What is Mutualism? Capitalism and communism are words that almost every American will be familiar with. But what about Mutualism? Within the (more…)
Necessitarian Psychology in the Revolutionary Tradition
Difficulty Baruch Spinoza’s necessitarian philosophy, as presented in his Ethics, is found in modern anarchist literature, as in the work of William Godwin or Mikhail Bakunin. Further, Spinoza’s psychology has been affirmed by the frustration-aggression theory, and so may be considered to be scientific. This scientific view of social psychology was at the heart of Radical Enlightenment thought, which is at the foundation of the Western revolutionary tradition. This tradition ultimately aims at interfering with the chain of frustration and aggression, themselves having their foundation in ignorance and superstition, and expression in political and religious authority. It is from the Spinozan thought behind the Radical Enlightenment that radicalism, and anarchism more specifically, came to be. Spinoza, Necessity, and Blessedness Spinoza’s philosophy was a complex relationship between his theological, political, ethical, and psychological understanding. A pantheist, he held God to be another name for Nature. A democratic republican, he opposed (more…)
Posted in Macroblog, Mutualism, Pantheism, Revolution, Social Sciences, Uncategorized
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Reversing the Thermoeconomic Arrow of Time
Difficulty The Returns to the Economic Factors of Production Analyzed for Efficiency through a Thermodynamic Engine Introduction Thermoeconomics is a field combining thermodynamics (the study of heat and heat transfer) and economics (the study of resources and resources transfers). It was pioneered by thinkers such as Georgescu-Roegen in his The Entropy Law and the Economic Process and later by John Bryant in his Thermoeconomics: A Thermodynamic Approach to Economics. Both thinkers, base their models upon the second law of thermodynamics, the “entropy law,” as well as upon conventional reasoning in economics stemming from the Marginal Revolution. What is the entropy law? And what is the Marginal Revolution? The entropy law, or second law of thermodynamics, states that the entropy of a closed system is always increasing. Entropy is chaos or disorder, so the law suggests that chaos or disorder always increases for a closed system (a system without external inputs). The Marginal Revolution was a period in economics in (more…)
Radically Remodernizing Mutualism
Difficulty Mutualism refers to a social movement and corresponding philosophy— as popularized by Pierre Proudhon— that is decidedly modernist in its original orientation, coming out of the Radical Enlightenment. In the name of postmodernism and cultural Marxism—found among the elites of university campuses—, however, mutualism’s modernist orientation has been downplayed, resulting in confusion (obscurantism), polarization (“Tuckerites” and “neo-Proudhonians”), and followed by reductionism (‘the real mutualism is “neo-Proudhonism”’). This essay argues for the revival of mutualism’s modernist elements, such as its pursuit of collective reason, utilizing the developmental model of Spiral Dynamics, Integral theory, art history, history of the philosophy of science, mutualist history, and ecological-evolutionary theory. In it, I display clearly mutualism’s modernist origins, its position in Spiral Dynamics, its similarity to Integral theory, relationship to Marxism and cultural Marxism, and its position on war, stratification, and sociocultural evolution, as well as matters having to do with the current (more…)
Posted in Anarchy, Macroblog, Mutualism, Revolution, Social Sciences, Uncategorized
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Anarchism, Synarchism, and Ambiarchy
Difficulty In order to understand Ambiarchy, it helps to understand synarchy. In a way, Ambiarchy is the synthesis of the thesis, anarchism, and its antithesis, synarchism. Anarchism is, of course, a philosophy that advocates the elimination of external government and the political state. Anarchists oppose political authority and institutions such as private property, preferring instead to promote mechanisms of self-government and self-management. As there is much on the internet about anarchism, and as I have covered it extensively in my work, I will leave it at that for now. Synarchism is not as familiar as anarchism is. But it was created as an alternative to anarchism, by those who opposed anarchism but saw it as an inevitable future should it not be stopped. Synarchists believe in a technocratic government that is administered by secret societies who use as little physical force or might as is possible, substituting instead the (more…)
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Science, Scientism, and Credentialism
Difficulty “Scientist” is not a class of people, but an adherent to the ideology of scientism. But not everyone who does science need be a scientist, but, merely, adhere to the scientific method, preferably pressing a “null hypothesis.” No “ist” or “ism” needed. Science was revolutionary. It was about the ability of common sense (the five senses, perhaps also intuition), used by anyone capable, to make sense of the world. It was a popularly accessible method for understanding. The Scientific Revolution led to the Enlightenment, wherein titles of nobility (whether inherited or conferred) were abolished in favor of making persuasive arguments in deliberation with others. Where people hear each other out democratically, titles of nobility get in the way of honest communication. Governmental accreditation of degrees is one step removed from the gains of the Enlightenment, and one step closer to titles of nobility. No longer is science a (more…)
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Paleoradicalism
Difficulty “Paleoconservatism” and “paleolibertarianism” are watchwords from the political Right. But I want to introduce a new term from the political Center, the “Far Center,” as I call it. This term is “paleoradical.” Conservatives and radicals are often pitted against one another in the fashion of revolutionaries and reactionaries. So why might a radical—someone who typically identifies with the historical Left—want to align themselves with the “paleo” position, a position which suggests that something from the past got it right? Is this counter to the “progressive” element that is so often found within radicalism? The “paleo” in “paleoconservative” and “paleolibertarian” typically refers to antagonism toward the elements of “progress” associated with the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his henchmen. Paleo-conservatives and libertarians also distinguish themselves from neo-conservatives and neo-libertarians, as well as from Left-libertarians, by way of their opposition to militarism and cultural Marxism. Paleoconservatism and paleolibertarianism (more…)
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Anarchy: More or Less Government?
Difficulty Compared to monarchy, is democracy more or less government? It seems to depend on who is asked. Some will suggest that democracy is less government than monarchy is, because people have the ability to participate directly in the governing process. Others, however, will point to bureaucratization and suggest that democracy is most certainly more government than monarchy is. The same can be said of anarchy. Anarchy, of course, is a word often confused for chaos, while actually referring to no rulers. No rulers, of course, is not the same thing as “no rules.” No rulers refers to a situation in which existing human rules are not applied by a ruling party, but by way of agreement. The natural world requires that an anarchy, if it is to exist in an industrialized world, will require greater amounts of organization than a democracy would, in much the same way that (more…)
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Direct-Democracy or Philosopher Kings?
Difficulty The Masonic Philosophical Society recently posted a poll on Facebook, asking whether direct-democracy or philosopher kings were preferable. The results, when I saw them last, were about 60/40 with philosopher kings in the lead. Plato had famously posed philosopher kings as an alternative to direct-democracy, after direct-democracy had killed his teacher, Socrates. Of course, these are not the only options out there. Other options include complete dissociation, representative democracy, non-philosopher monarchs, and consensus decision-making. But direct-democracy and philosopher kings show us the furthest bounds of possibility: the rule of the majority and the rule of the minority. Minority-rule, by a benevolent philosopher king, is very expedient and conceptually fair, if such a philosopher rules with a level hand. The problem is, the ideal philosopher king, who is wise to every possibility, is non-existent. All-too-often potential philosopher kings degrade into tyrants. This is so often the case as to (more…)
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Proudhon on Economic Rent
Difficulty This was originally composed for part of a “Mutual Exchange” by C4SS, the Center for a Stateless Society. It has subsequently been removed, with a notice that they are no longer affiliating with me. Because I think the original content was important, I posting it here with a few omissions to remove the discussion format. On these grounds alone, I believe it a reasonable argument to suggest that a more thoroughly mutualist position — considering the core principles on which its economic form is merely an expression or attribute — would support the community capture of economic rent. I also believe libertarian variants of Georgism provide for the least arbitrary and fairest allocation of possession for occupancy-and-use, and best allow the price mechanism to operate. Nonetheless, I do believe there are times when Proudhon supports something similar to the community capture of economic rent, and I aim to demonstrate some (more…)
Posted in All, Anarchy, Geo-Mutualism, Georgism, Macroblog, Mutualism, Social Sciences
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The Wider Mutualist Movement
Difficulty Mutualism is often spoken of in terms of a philosophical camp, as if mutualism were a philosophical potential that remains unrealized, and which has had a certain impact. But mutualism is better regarded as a social movement, as its philosophical premises and its real-world efforts are intertwined, and its major philosophical proponents had witnessed mutualism-in-action before expounding upon it. That is, much of what we know as mutualist philosophy is a justification and attempt to forward a social movement that was already in place. As I have written in Heretics, Radicals, & MUTUALISM, I believe this social movement ultimately to go as far back as the ancient philosophical schools and beyond. Mutualism as an economic practice– mutual insurance, mutual banking, cooperativism– goes back, at least in part, to the middle ages, and as an ethical practice to time immemorial. As an instinct or living condition, it precedes the (more…)
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