Existentialist Anarchism

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Existentialist Anarchism, also known as Anarcho-Existentialism or AnEx, is a Post-left ideology that believes a truly Individualist society is only possible through the realization of existentialist philosophy. It could be seen as a reflection of Anarcho-Nihilism that has a more positive outlook on life.

Variants

Satrean Existentialism

Philosophical stances

Sartre Advocated Atheist Existentialism. According to him, human is not a creation made by God's plan, but is an existence incidentally thrown away. Thus there is no pregiven essense nor determined objective to be realized for human.

Sartre, for these reasons, say that human is an existence that is condemned to be free. It is because human who has nothing predetermined must make their own life by making independent choice every moment. In other words, it makes their own essense through existence. Sartre expressed this as quote "existence preceeds essense."

Although human has a freedom to choose, it cannot choose freedom itself. In other words, human have no choice but to be free regardless of whether it wants it or not. Consequently free man fundamentally cannot avoid responsibility related with his choice. And this situation of exisstence including freedom and responsibility causes us agnst.

Human who has fallen into angst of existence escapes from free choice, which Sartre saw as bad faith. Bad faith is an attitude which denies freedom and independence and conform to established custom, fixed law or principle, or existence such as God. Thus he emphasized life which the man escapes from bad faith by making independent choice, and is responsible to his own choice.

Political stances

Sartre became a communist activist after the Spanish civil war. He supported popular revolutions as he saw it as a realization of true freedom.

He participated in resistance movement during World War Two. After the war, Sartre supported concept of progressive violence and Stalin regime. He advocated comitted literature which the writer actively participate in political issues. After Khrushchev repressed Hungarian revolution, he disowned French Communist Party and Soviet Union. He supported many socialist leaders such as Nasser, Guevara (who he called as 'the most complete human being of our age') and ect. He supported Algerian independence from France which led him an assasination attempt. He rejected and criticized Nobel Literature Prize. He supported Maoism during 60's and 70's as a protest against Actually Existing Socialism. After American envolvement in Vietnam War, he along with Bertrand Russell opposed the war and staged Anti-War protests. During the protests of 68, he advised young people to actively participate in politics. He suddenly became blind in 1973 and died in 1980.

Absurdism and Midday Thought

Absurdism

Camus advocated Absurdism. According to Camus, absurdity is not inherent in human nor the universe, but in the relationship between it. We expect rationality and morality in the universe, but it is simply not true. Every attempts for absolute or definite knowledge is inherently futile, and there is no unconditional reward or punishment for our actions.

Camus considers three posibilities for our situation. The first possibility is despair, which we stop fighting for our objectives and kill ourselves. The second possibility is hope (which he calls it as 'philosophical suicide' in other words), which we stop percieving reality as it is and fall in blind belief that the universe will eventually be as we desire it to be. The third possibility is rebellion, which we acknowledge that the situation is hopeless, but still continue to fight for what we believe in. Camus rejects despair and hope, as these posibilities give up the struggle against absurdity, and instead accepts rebellion.

In his advocation of life and rebellion, he affirms libertine way of life, as the way still values life and not despair and suicide.

He mentioned the myth of Sisyphus, which the Sisyphus had the punishment of having to endlessly roll up a rock to the top of the mountain. He argued that one must never give up struggle even in the most hopless situation, thus "one must imagine Sisyphus happy".

Midday Thought

He defined the rebel as a person who says both 'yes' and 'no'. He says 'yes' to inherent human dignity and 'no' to the situation in which the dignity is oppressed. For Camus, unlike existentialists, existence do NOT precede essense, and essense (human dignity) precede existence.

However, when the rebel forgets his original causes and stops saying both 'yes' AND 'no', the rebellion soon corrupts into meaningless bloodshed. For Camus, both unconditional 'yes' and unconditional 'no' is equally nihilistic.

During his critique of both metaphysical rebellion and historical rebellion ― such as Sade, Romanticist Movement, Stirner, Nietzsche, Surrealist Movement, Rousseau, Jacobins, Hegel, Russian Nihilism, Lenin ― he criticized Marxism the most for it's dogmatism and ongoing consequences.

He advocated 'Midday Thought' which denies all sorts of violence and retains the origin of rebellion. Although he acknowledges that there is a situation where the violence is essentially unavoidable, he still advocates that there must be a limitation and condition for violence.

History

Existentialist Nihilism as a philosophy was created around the 19th century. Though not directly stated by Max Stirner, the idea of Existentialism having a grounds for anarchism came about through the writings of Max Stirner and Friedrich Nietzsche. Before the Second World War, when existentialism was not yet in name, Franz Kafka and Martin Buber were among these thinkers who were also anarchists. Both are today sometimes seen as Jewish existentialists as well as Jewish anarchists. These philosophers were the leaders in the Existentialist Anarchist movement. In the 21st century, philosophers have introduced the idea of Optimistic Nihilism, which closely represents a view of Existentialism that views we’re not doomed to live in a meaningless universe–it’s that we get the chance to experience ourselves and the universe we share. This 21st century view of not only Nihilism, but Existentialism is becoming increasingly popular, and is shown in the scope of politics through political theorists like Evan Stoller.

Personality and Behavior

Specializing in aggressively pensive stares, Existential anarchism doesn't utilize any emotions other than a quiet depression.

While they enjoy debate they strictly only do so on a respectful and peaceful level, usually opting out almost immediately if the other side becomes aggressive.

Existential Anarchism strives to find their own individual meaning and tends to love profound talks about life. ExAn also tends to be quite philosophical and can be seen giving lessons to people about the philosophies of Maslow, Nietzsche, Camus, or Sartre.

How to Draw

Flag of Existentialist Anarchism
  1. Draw a ball
  2. Draw a wave like shape then make another and rotate it 180 degrees so the flag becomes vertically symmetrical
  3. Fill the left side with blue and the right side with black
  4. Draw white lines on the curves of the wave shapes then add lines that curve in from the center
  5. Draw two shapes that look like the top and bottom half of an hourglass in white.
  6. Finish with the eyes!
Color Name HEX RGB
Blue #CFE7FF 207, 231, 255
Black #141414 20, 20, 20
White #FFFFFF 255, 255, 255


Relationships

Friends

  • Anarcho-Egoism - "It is saying that man is the reality—not even man in the abstract, but the human person, you and I; and that everything else—freedom, love, reason, God—is a contingency depending on the will of the individual. In this respect, existentialism has much in common with Max Stirner's egoism." Herbet Read.
  • Post-Leftism - Another Anarchist that doesn't rely on the Left.
  • Post-Anarchism - Criticizes classical anarchists for assuming an objective "human nature" and a natural order, which existentialism also objects to.
  • Neo-Marxism - Jean Paul Sartre was a Marxist.
  • Acid Communism - Optimistic Nihilist. Also R.I.P.

Neutral

  • Religious Anarchism - How can you be so pious in the face of undoubtable proof that God lies dead, what more am I not seeing?
  • Anarcho-Nihilism - We both like to talk about about the nature of existence, but don't you want to deal with meaninglessness?
  • Objectivism - You found your happiness, so good for you... but you are quite literally a walking contradiction...
  • Anarcho-Capitalism - I can have interesting talks with him about individual rights, but he is a free market fundamentalist. At least we have Irwin.
  • Avaritionism - Ummmm... What?
  • Soulism - You also believe that life is without objective purpose, but you're too idealistic to be fully responsible for yourself.
  • Frankfurt School - We agree on human autonomy, but you're too pragmatic.

Enemies

  • Authoritarianism - You don't care about individuality.
  • Nationalism - You enforce people to have 'national identity'.
  • Noocracy - You discriminate people based on artificial ideals.
  • Racial Nationalism - Racism is wrong. There is no such thing as 'racial essence'.
  • Scientocracy - Science shouldn't be the norm of life.
  • Theocracies - Religious beliefs should be based on subjective resolutions and not be mandatory.
  • Traditionalism - You enforce people to believe in and act according to traditions.

Further Information

Literature

Existential anarchism doesn't have any devoted theory to it, but has been mentioned by Max Stirner in The Ego and His Own. Existentialism as a separate theory is explored in the works of philosophers such as Søren Kierkegaard, who is regarded as being the founder of existentialist thought as a whole. It is important to note however that Kierkegaard himself was not an anarchist and in reality was rather conservative.

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