Saturday 30 July 2016

Harriet Ward on Anarchist Voices' Review

WHEN I first met Colin (Ward) in the mid-1960s I asked him what an 'ideal' anarchist society would look like, since I, like the general public, had little more than the mental picture of 'chaos' as a synonym for anarchy (though I had just about heard of historical figures such as Kropotkin who supposedly represented a more systematic version of it).  Colin suggested I should think more in terms of anarchism as 'libertarianism':  that in every social situation or problem to be solved, there is a choice between an authoritarian or a libertarian solution, and that an anarchist would always choose the latter.  After living with Colin for 45 years and proof-reading most of his writings, I still find this a useful rule of thumb to describe political events and to apply to daily life.

Harriet Ward (16th, August 2015) 

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