Two Cheers for Anarchism

Two Cheers for Anarchism by James C. Scott (Princeton University Press, 2012) In this series of short explorations of anarchist thought, James C. Scott proposes a “process-oriented” view of anarchism, or what might be termed anarchism by doing rather than theory. He sees anarchism especially in everyday practices of freedom and in the refusal to submit to higher, unjust, authorities: the foot-dragging, insubordination, desertion, poaching, sabotage, absenteeism, and so on which undermine empire and authoritarian rule often better than any mutiny can, and with less blood. And he sees that same anarchism in places of improvisation and experimentation that create conditions for living while also building know-how and solidarity: small, chaotic but fertile farms; mixed-used city neighborhoods; shopkeepers who answer to their community rather than a boss. Perhaps accordingly, the book comes together more as a collection of interconnecting parables than as any unified theory—not a plan but…