Anarchy

Sirus Kashefi, York University, Osgoode Hall Law School, has published A Look at Anarchism: The Broad, Paradoxical, and Living Ideas and Movements at the Core of Our Hierarchical, Dominative, and Oppressive Societies. Here is the abstract.

As a critical look, this paper analyzes that anarchism is not only a political philosophy (idea), but also a way of life or of protest against State law and existing order (action). Thus, unlike common opinion, anarchism is not a utopia. Indeed, due to the varieties and paradoxes of anarchist thought according to end and means, the anarchist movements have hitherto been heterogeneous and plural. Despite the vagueness, diverse, and paradoxical anarchist concepts, these movements share some common characteristics (freedom, mutuality, anti-imperisliam, and anti-war, for example), and fight against our hierarchical, dominative, and oppressive societies around the world by emphasizing individual and social freedoms, equality, and justice. As a matter of fact, heterogeneity and direct action have constituted two forces that keep alive the anarchist movements. Are they able to present some alternatives to our hierarchical, dominative, and oppressive societies? I will answer this question at the end of my paper through other critical questions.

Download the paper from SSRN at the link.