By Cake Boy
For beginners to anarchism, it’s important to understand that there are two ways to look at it. I would say there are two ‘paths’, as they say in the occult literature.
The first anarchism
This anarchism sees anarchism as a social program, as the construction of societies in which the individual has more freedom. Thinkers like Proudhon, Bakunin, and Rothbard used this kind of anarchism. Their anarchism was about the next world, you could say. You could see these thinkers as futurists, architects of the ‘not yet’.
I would call this anarchism the light anarchism or the anarchism of daytime. Preston and I talked about anarchism like this when we discussed our pluralist models.
Then there is another anarchism. The second anarchism.
I would call this ontological anarchism. Anarchism is not the construction of new worlds but anarchism for the here and now. This anarchism is based on Max Stirner’s existentialist thoughts. I would describe it as following your own rules and claiming responsibility for your own actions.
Many anarchists from the light variant, the first variant, think this anarchism is a bit scary. So, you only decide for yourself what you do? To this ontological anarchism, anarchism is not only rejecting the state but rejecting everything that is imposed. You could describe it as the sentence: don’t tell me what to do…
This is a dark anarchism, an anarchism of the night.
The two anarchisms don’t necessarily have to bite each other. Benjamin Tucker, for example, thought about the construction of actual free markets and societies while at the same time coming from an ontological/Stirnerite/nighttime position. But, to many of his followers, this was shocking. A lot of anarchists only dwell in this daylight realm. To them, anarchism isn’t radical individualism but individualism within social structures that will be acknowledged unconditionally.
Is there a night without a day? It is probably the case that the two directions need each other, are part of each other, and interact with each other.
And what did you give me?
A rusted bent death’s head
A black flag that lies bleeding
A dawn that lies dying
We wandered through the rubbles
In the last breaths of morning
In the empty cathedrals
In a world that has ceased
- David Tibet
