Colin WardRezensionen

Quando si pensa all’anarchia si pensa automaticamente al caos, tanto che, al di fuori della teoria politica, il termine indica una situazione di scompiglio dove tuttə fanno quello che lə pare senza badare a regole o limiti. Ha preso dunque un’accezione piuttosto negativa perché nell’anarchia generale verrebbero meno anche quelle regole del vivere civile che ci permettono di stare nella società con relativa tranquillità.

Una sorte davvero singolare per un termine che, da etimologia, significa semplicemente “assenza di potere” e per una realtà che vede molte brutture del mondo scatenarsi proprio per lotte di potere. Colin Ward quindi si propone di riportare la nostra attenzione sul fatto che l’anarchia non è tanto un ideale astratto, ma una descrizione di una modalità grazie alla quale gli esseri umani possono organizzarsi.

Ward ci dice che l’organizzazione anarchica già esiste nella nostra società, grazie alla tendenza umana a raggrupparsi per il comune beneficio. Quindi ci mostra degli esempi concreti in vari ambiti di organizzazione anarchica – nell’urbanistica (che conosceva bene, in quanto architetto), nell’istruzione, nel lavoro, nella famiglia… – e senza svicolare dagli ambiti che generano più scetticismo, come la gestione dei crimini e dei comportamenti antisociali.

Certo, realizzare una società anarchica è estremamente improbabile: non tanto per l’impossibilità di mettere in pratica l’anarchia, quanto piuttosto per i requisiti che questo richiederebbe. Anzi, Ward riflette sul fatto che forse non sarebbe nemmeno auspicabile. Ma tra accettare passivamente lo status quo e cercare di allargare gli spazi di autonomia sta tutta la differenza del mondo.

Proprio nella fase in cui «le tendenze irresistibili della società moderna» sembrano condurci inevitabilmente a una società massificata di schiavi dei consumi, quei movimenti sono sorti a rammentarci una verità fondamentale, e cioè che è veramente irresistibile solo ciò a cui non si oppone resistenza. Ma naturalmente una serie di vittorie parziali e incomplete, di concessioni strappate ai detentori del potere, non è di per se stessa capace di farci approdare all’isola felice di una società anarchica. Piuttosto esse serviranno ad arricchire i contenuti dell’iniziativa di base, e contribuiranno a tradurre in realtà le potenzialità di una vita più libera che già esistono in questa società. È vero, d’altra parte, che per un attacco frontale alle strutture del potere sarebbe necessario un tale livello di compromissione delle idee anarchiche, sarebbe indispensabile scegliere compagni di viaggio così autoritari, che agli appelli all’unità rivoluzionaria sarà bene rispondere: «Nel cappio di chi mi invitate a infilare la testa, questa volta?».

Testo che eleva i bambini ad attori sociali di rilievo (cosa a ben vedere negata nella nostra società) e problematizza la relazione fra ceto, cultura, spazio vissuto rispetto all’educazione. Fortemente radicato sull’esperienza inglese ma ricco di riferimenti che lo rendono applicabile a ogni contesto. Buon lavoro curatoriale, con appendici a ogni capitolo.

Not bad, and a nice quick read and introduction (as the title implies). I would have preferred something a bit more objective though.

it works well as an introductory primer for anarchism for some types of ppl, mainly those of a slightly more scholastic bent but who arent too picky abt rigorous method in history, philosophy, or theory

but its summary presentation is incredibly weak or misleading at times, particularly wrt (prison/police) abolition and wrt ecology/climate change. and the chapter on anarchism and work is a little overly focused on traditional industrial occupations rather than those which were most common at the time of writing (let alone in the present day)

This book is an essential read. In fact, I will go so far as to say this should be in the school syllabus, along with concepts like democracy
Anarchic thought is interesting and fascinating but is always doomed to uncertain success. The authorities are always arraigned against anarchists.
It is a misconception to believe that an anarchist is a wild-eyed person who goes around burning buildings and placing explosives under parliament buildings. This is not true.
An anarchist goes against authority, and in doing so fashions new, sometimes radical, philosophy.

In this excellent book, Collin Ward gives us a brief introduction to anarchism, then takes us through the thoughts of some of the key anarchist thinkers. He also brings us up to date with what is happening today, in this important area of "philosophical thought".

A must-read.

I think I tend towards anarchy

Chartres Cathedral avoided damage typical of European cathedrals largely because of its relatively remote location (80km SW of Paris). The Beauce region is agrarian, a plain once known as "the granary of France", and Chartres (the town) did not become a modern metropole, so Chartres (the cathedral) escaped the scale of damage typically suffered from looting, fighting between royalty, and ultimately WWII. (As so often, luck too was involved: A plan by the Revolutionary Committee during the French Revolution was stymied by locals, in particular an imaginative architect. In WWII, a U.S. Army Colonel helped rescind an order to destroy the cathedral, though this bit isn't in Ward's account.) And yet: Ward tells us most damage actually can be linked to "preservationists" who found the Middle Ages aesthetics "ugly" and so attempted to replace statuary and other architectural features with 18th and 19th Century improvements. Today, though, damage from air pollution is unabated.

Ward's Chartres provides a virtual tour, each chapter focusing on one aspect of the cathedral: Here we have the Royal Portal, now we walk down the nave, there the stained glass windows in their glory, here the South Transept ... -- largely an uninspiring account, for all the personal enthusiasm Ward clearly conveys. That said, there is a great deal of factual information here in an economical space, and the images (photographs, drawings, charts in the Folio Society edition) are invaluable.

If I was disappointed in the chapter on sacred geometry (elegant diagrams but a missed opportunity to invoke wonder), the chapter on "Interpreters" snuck up on me and became a favourite. Authors, not only novelists, who took the example of Chartres and infused their own texts with its magic and resonance. In particular I look forward to Huysmans.

According to Wikipedia the author of this brief tome, Colin Ward, is "one of the greatest anarchist thinkers of the past half century." If so, then it is time to despair for anarchism. I have long been interested in and mostly supportive of the ideas behind anarchism and am familiar with many of the basic ideas and principles. I was hoping this book would provide a more structured introduction and overview, as well as bring me up to date on the latest ideas and trends.

In the big picture, the book partially succeeded in doing that. But it was written in such a haphazard fashion and at such an elementary level that I don't feel I learned very much new or interesting from reading it (except perhaps the chapter on anarchist ideas regarding regionalism). On the other hand, if I came to this book knowing nothing about anarchism, I would give this book a 1. Ward makes too many assumptions about what his readers know and fails to explain the basics in a coherent fashion.

Also quite annoying is that instead of providing strong arguments for his positions, Ward falls into the "true believer" trap, arguing than any view of anarchism that doesn't fit his or all the bad stuff some anarchists believe or do is not "true" anarchism. He defends the failures of anarchism as a political movement on its not being truly applied or understood, blaming failure on everyone else but anarchists and their ideology. This polemic takes up a huge part of the book which would have been better spent explaining the ideas of great anarchist thinkers. The most interesting and useful parts of the book are when he does present the ideas of Godwin, Bakunin, Kropotkin et al.

Studying ideological models of society created by great minds is a useful exercise in both understanding and criticizing what is. These models provide important ideas and methods for improving one self and society. However, the flaw of such models is that they almost always assume some idealized form of human nature and try to explain all the ills of society on the fact that humans have been corrupted and misled from their ideology's Truth. In fact these models and ideals need to be treated as limited and approached skeptically. There is a great danger in taking ideologies too seriously and believing that adopting them wholesale will solve all human ills. This has been a recipe for disaster over and over in human history.

Considering that he invokes the Enlightenment as the source of anarchism, you would think Ward would take the more skeptical approach. But he is as fervent a believer in Anarchism as any fundamentalist, and that is the greatest flaw of the book.

In sum, look elsewhere if you want a more interesting, informative and balanced introduction to anarchism.

ISBN: 9028900381

I wanted to re-read some anarchist texts from my youth and thought I should start with a primer. An excellent little book that introduces the history and main theories without dwelling too long on them.

This is a very wide-ranging look at many of the concerns of anarchists including education, federalism, sexuality, urban planning, and revolution. Unfortunately, being "very short", I'm not sure that it was necessary to try to cover all of these. Ward's primary purpose here seems to be to demonstrate the relevance and practicality of anarchism and its superiority as a political ideology in all of these areas. He did this reasonably well. I did not appreciate his dismissal of deep ecology as philosophy exclusively of the privileged who are obsessed with the noble savage, and I was equally disappointed, though not surprised, at the conspicuous omission of any mention of Zerzan, primitivism, or the critique of the megamachine. As if ignoring these things will make them go away.

According to Uri Gordon, "the assumptions and sources for discussion" in Ward's book "remain [...] those of nineteenth and early-twentieth century anarchists". See Uri Gordon: "Anarchism And Political Theory: Contemporary Problems" p. 15-6.