The Floodgates of Anarchy is a book about anarchy written by two leading figures in the anarchy movement, Stuart Christie and Albert Meltzer who passed away in 1996. The two authors dive into the importance and relevance of anarchy in history such as the French Revolution of 1848 and those who spread its message such as individuals like Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Rosa Luxemburg. The book also covers the anarchy movement throughout the 1960s (the time period in which the text was written) talking about the workers movement and the class struggle. The text also compares and contrasts different forms of government such as communist, capitalist, and democratic as well as explaining the inevitable failure of the government regarding the treatment of its citizens such as Lenin’s Communist Party of Russia transforming into Stalin’s totalitarian dominated state resulting in the deaths of millions of soviet citizens. Tracing through the governments and leaders failures throughout history and modern day the authors come to the conclusion that the only way to be truly and completely free is through total abolition of government.
Throughout the book Christie and Meltzer use very complex and scholarly political language which can be very off putting to a lot of readers. For the multiple references to organizations and individuals involved in the anarchy movement there is a commentary on names at the back of the book which gives you a brief explanation of who or what the authors were talking about. An example of this is, “This, of course, was a fallacy of Lenin’s (xi), whose programme of action was geared up to the circumstances of the First World War.” If the reader doesn’t know who Vladimir Lenin was all he has to do is go to the commentary on names and locate the Roman numeral XI with Lenin’s name next to it and read up on the communist revolutionary. This tool was helpful regarding comprehending and understanding the author’s points which would be very confusing without at the very least a brief knowledge of the history. One of the few things I didn’t enjoy about the book was the structure and the language the authors used. Like most scholarly works the authors dove into the theology and automatically assume that you understand what they’re talking about. This can cause some very confusing moments which results in re-reading then re-re-reading then re-re-re-reading of certain passages and even chapters. But while the text is complex and difficult to decipher at times, it remains very interesting and provoking throughout, constantly drawing the reader in with uncommon opinions and different ideologies such as the conclusion that governments are parasites upon society and religion is a parasite within a parasite. The authors do try to help the reader out in some ways, the commentary on names which was already mentioned and also a few diagrams condensed mainly on pages 63-70. These diagrams aid in explaining the class systems in different types of government set ups i.e. the totalitarian state and the capitalist society. The figures help the reader understand the chain of command in these governmental systems, identifying the bourgeoisie (the upper class/employers) and the proletariats (working class/labour). By identifying the class systems the reader is able to better understand the class struggle of the modern day and how it plays into the eventual abolition of government.
In conclusion The Floodgates of Anarchy is a thought provoking book with a lot of very unconventional concepts. At times the text can become difficult to understand but after weeding through the scholarly political language and intellectually advanced theories the main idea is an intriguing one that is still argued to this day. After reading through the 129 pages of the book the authors leave it up to the reader to decide whether or not civilization would be better off without any form of government and can we only be truly free without it. These are some of the questions you’ll find yourself asking after reading through the anarchist theory of The Floodgates of Anarchy.
The Floodgates of Anarchy is a book about anarchy written by two leading figures in the anarchy movement, Stuart Christie and Albert Meltzer who passed away in 1996. The two authors dive into the importance and relevance of anarchy in history such as the French Revolution of 1848 and those who spread its message such as individuals like Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Rosa Luxemburg. The book also covers the anarchy movement throughout the 1960s (the time period in which the text was written) talking about the workers movement and the class struggle. The text also compares and contrasts different forms of government such as communist, capitalist, and democratic as well as explaining the inevitable failure of the government regarding the treatment of its citizens such as Lenin’s Communist Party of Russia transforming into Stalin’s totalitarian dominated state resulting in the deaths of millions of soviet citizens. Tracing through the governments and leaders failures throughout history and modern day the authors come to the conclusion that the only way to be truly and completely free is through total abolition of government.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the book Christie and Meltzer use very complex and scholarly political language which can be very off putting to a lot of readers. For the multiple references to organizations and individuals involved in the anarchy movement there is a commentary on names at the back of the book which gives you a brief explanation of who or what the authors were talking about. An example of this is, “This, of course, was a fallacy of Lenin’s (xi), whose programme of action was geared up to the circumstances of the First World War.” If the reader doesn’t know who Vladimir Lenin was all he has to do is go to the commentary on names and locate the Roman numeral XI with Lenin’s name next to it and read up on the communist revolutionary. This tool was helpful regarding comprehending and understanding the author’s points which would be very confusing without at the very least a brief knowledge of the history. One of the few things I didn’t enjoy about the book was the structure and the language the authors used. Like most scholarly works the authors dove into the theology and automatically assume that you understand what they’re talking about. This can cause some very confusing moments which results in re-reading then re-re-reading then re-re-re-reading of certain passages and even chapters. But while the text is complex and difficult to decipher at times, it remains very interesting and provoking throughout, constantly drawing the reader in with uncommon opinions and different ideologies such as the conclusion that governments are parasites upon society and religion is a parasite within a parasite. The authors do try to help the reader out in some ways, the commentary on names which was already mentioned and also a few diagrams condensed mainly on pages 63-70. These diagrams aid in explaining the class systems in different types of government set ups i.e. the totalitarian state and the capitalist society. The figures help the reader understand the chain of command in these governmental systems, identifying the bourgeoisie (the upper class/employers) and the proletariats (working class/labour). By identifying the class systems the reader is able to better understand the class struggle of the modern day and how it plays into the eventual abolition of government.
In conclusion The Floodgates of Anarchy is a thought provoking book with a lot of very unconventional concepts. At times the text can become difficult to understand but after weeding through the scholarly political language and intellectually advanced theories the main idea is an intriguing one that is still argued to this day. After reading through the 129 pages of the book the authors leave it up to the reader to decide whether or not civilization would be better off without any form of government and can we only be truly free without it. These are some of the questions you’ll find yourself asking after reading through the anarchist theory of The Floodgates of Anarchy.
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