Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 The Euthanasia of Government: Classical Anarchism Reconsidered
- 2 Crowned Anarchy: Towards a Postanarchist Ontology
- 3 An Infantile Disorder: Anarchism and Marxism
- 4 The Horizon of Anarchy: Radical Politics in the Wake of Marx
- 5 Debating Postanarchism: Ontology, Ethics and Utopia
- 6 Conclusion: Postanarchism and Radical Politics Today
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - The Horizon of Anarchy: Radical Politics in the Wake of Marx
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 The Euthanasia of Government: Classical Anarchism Reconsidered
- 2 Crowned Anarchy: Towards a Postanarchist Ontology
- 3 An Infantile Disorder: Anarchism and Marxism
- 4 The Horizon of Anarchy: Radical Politics in the Wake of Marx
- 5 Debating Postanarchism: Ontology, Ethics and Utopia
- 6 Conclusion: Postanarchism and Radical Politics Today
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In Chapter 3, I explored the anarchist critique of Marxism – particularly on the question of state power – and elaborated, on the basis of this, the notion of a politics of anti-politics. In opposition to those who confine politics to the statist imaginary – and this includes Schmittian and neo-Schmittian conceptions of the ‘autonomy of the political’ – anarchism points to a politics beyond and against the state. The autonomy of the political, if it is to mean anything, must mean a politics of autonomy. At the same time, however, we can no longer conceive, as did the classical anarchists, of a pure social revolution against power. While we must reject the notion of a political revolution aimed simply at seizing the reins of the state and, in this way, perpetuating it, and while we must reject as entirely inadequate, parliamentary and reformist processes which work within the system of state power – we must at the same time question the idea of asserting an immanent, organic social principle against the impurities of politics. This does not mean that we cannot speak of movements at the level of civil society against the state – this is precisely where a postanarchist politics is situated. But the point is, as we shall see, that the politicisation of social forces involves at the same time a certain displacement of social identities – a certain dislodging or rupturing of normal social processes.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Politics of Postanarchism , pp. 103 - 137Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2010