PublicHealthInnit reviewed Anarchism by Colin Ward
Review of 'Anarchism' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
I've been interested in learning more about anarchism for a while. I would describe myself as a socialist but am intrigued by the idea of self-sufficiency without government. I'm also a great fan of Noam Chomsky's writings and he's regularly cited as in support of anarchism.
Without knowing the details of anarchist ways of thinking, I have some concerns - without government, how is inequality reduced? How do you stop strong self-governing groups from exploiting weak groups? If a group fails, how do they prevent annihilation? How are resources distributed within/between groups? If resources are based on luck of geography, does that mean some anarchist groups live in squalor while others live in luxury? In short, how do you prevent the anarchist ideal from descending into the same problems caused by capitalism or worse? I assume that thinkers in anarchist history must have thought about these questions, or would be …
I've been interested in learning more about anarchism for a while. I would describe myself as a socialist but am intrigued by the idea of self-sufficiency without government. I'm also a great fan of Noam Chomsky's writings and he's regularly cited as in support of anarchism.
Without knowing the details of anarchist ways of thinking, I have some concerns - without government, how is inequality reduced? How do you stop strong self-governing groups from exploiting weak groups? If a group fails, how do they prevent annihilation? How are resources distributed within/between groups? If resources are based on luck of geography, does that mean some anarchist groups live in squalor while others live in luxury? In short, how do you prevent the anarchist ideal from descending into the same problems caused by capitalism or worse? I assume that thinkers in anarchist history must have thought about these questions, or would be able to explain why they don't need asking; so I was looking forward to finding out some answers to my questions.
This book didn't answer my questions at all. Some of the history left me intrigued to explore the ideas of Godwin and Kropotkin, but the rest of the book left me feeling frustrated. As has been mentioned in other reviews, Ward takes anything positive and progressive in the recent history of politics as evidence of anarchist victory and anything negative as evidence of the evils of the state. As such, anarchism takes credit for suffrage, environmentalism, protest, the end of corporal punishment, the NHS etc. I found this a little far-fetched - he often cites obscure anarchist writings with little wider influence as having in some way caused all these things.
It's a great shame since I have really enjoyed others in the VSI series. I'm now left to face the prospect of having a go at the mighty tome that is "Demanding the Impossible"... but that's about as far from very short as you can get!