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Resources & where this fits in anarchism

This project doesn’t come out of nowhere.

The ideas here live inside a long, messy, often embarrassing family called anarchism – and more specifically a strand usually called:

  • mutualism
  • left-wing market anarchism
  • or freed-market, anti-capitalist anarchism

If the word “anarchism” makes you think of:

  • chaos,
  • edgelords,
  • or black-and-red avatars fighting on Twitter,

you’re not alone. The point of this page is to say:

  • what I mean by anarchism,
  • why I think it’s badly misunderstood (including by lots of self-described anarchists),
  • and where to go if you want to read people who’ve spent decades on this.

This is anarchism (in one paragraph)

I’m using “anarchism” in something like Benjamin Tucker’s sense:

“Anarchism may be described as the doctrine that all the affairs of men should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations.” :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

Add the part this project emphasizes:

  • those individuals and associations should not be trapped in a state–corporate complex,
  • markets should be freed from state-backed monopolies and privileges,
  • and wealth/power should not come from rent, usury, or enclosure.

That puts this squarely in the line of:

  • Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (mutualism, “property is theft” / “property is freedom”),
  • Benjamin Tucker (individualist anarchism, the four monopolies), :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}
  • later mutualists and libertarian socialists / left-market anarchists like those around the Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS). :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

It’s pro-market, anti-capitalist, and anti-state.

Why “anarchism” is so badly misunderstood

A few reasons this word is such a mess:

  1. Pop culture turned “anarchy” into “random chaos.”
    The original sense is closer to “no rulers” than “no order.” Proudhon defines anarchy as the absence of a master or sovereign, not the absence of organization.

  2. 20th-century history made “communism vs capitalism” the only story.
    Anarchist and mutualist currents got buried under:

    • state communism (USSR, Maoism),
    • and capitalist “there is no alternative” triumphalism.

  3. Inside anarchism, there’s a huge split over markets.

    • Some anarchists hear “markets” and think “corporations, landlords, and wage slavery.”
    • Some right-libertarians call themselves “anarchists” but keep capitalist property and class structure intact and just swap state cops for private cops.

So you get:

  • “Anarchists” who hate markets so much they can’t imagine free exchange without capitalism.
  • “Anarchists” who love markets so much they can’t imagine challenging landlordism, usury, or corporate structure.

This project is trying to recover the mutualist / left-market line that says:

Markets are tools. Capitalism is a rigged way we currently use them.
We want the tools without the rigging.

A few quotes to hang the vibe on

These aren’t meant as scripture, just little anchors.

Proudhon on property

“Property is theft.”
Proudhon’s famous provocation in What Is Property? – a critique of property based on domination and unearned income, not on personal use or labor.

Later he adds that property can also be freedom when it’s widely distributed, tied to actual use, and acts as a counterweight to centralized power – a tension that runs straight into mutualism.

Tucker on anarchism vs state socialism

Tucker contrasts two paths out of monopoly: - State socialism: abolish class monopolies by centralizing everything in the State.
- Anarchism: abolish monopolies by uprooting authority, freeing up competition, and destroying the legal privileges that make usury and rent possible. :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}

!!! quote "A very short definition" > We don’t admit the government of man by man any more than the exploitation of man by man.

That’s the ethical core this project is trying to translate into 21st-century, freed-market language.

If you want to go deeper: where to start

This is not a complete canon. It’s a biased, practical reading list aimed at the cluster of ideas this project sits in.

1. Short, modern overviews

If you’re “anarchism-curious” but not ready to read 19th-century prose:

  • C4SS – Market Anarchism FAQ
    A modern FAQ that lays out left-market anarchism, answers common objections, and explains why C4SS calls itself a “left market anarchist think tank & media center.” :contentReference[oaicite:9]{index=9}

  • C4SS in general (Center for a Stateless Society)
    Articles, symposia, and podcasts exploring:

    • free-market anti-capitalism,
    • polycentric law,
    • mutualism,
    • and critiques of both state socialism and right-libertarianism. :contentReference[oaicite:10]{index=10}

  • Mutualism Co-op & “Red Mutualism” pieces (via C4SS)
    Ongoing attempts to articulate a more explicitly left, class-aware mutualism. :contentReference[oaicite:11]{index=11}

These are good for getting the vocabulary and seeing how other people think through similar questions.

2. Classic mutualist / individualist anarchist texts

If you want to meet the “great-grandparents” of this project:

  • Benjamin Tucker – State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree, and Wherein They Differ (1888)
    Key text for:

    • the Authority vs Liberty fork,
    • the focus on four monopolies (money, land, tariffs, patents),
    • and the idea of “the best government is that which governs least… and that which governs least is no government at all.” :contentReference[oaicite:12]{index=12}

  • Pierre-Joseph Proudhon – What is Property? (1840)
    Where “property is theft” comes from. A deep dive into:

    • why certain kinds of property claims (especially absentee, exploitative ones) are illegitimate,
    • why he still cares about personal possession and independence,
    • and how mutualism grows out of that tension.

  • Kevin Carson – Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
    A modern attempt to rebuild anarchist economics drawing from:

    • classical political economy,
    • marginalism,
    • and Austrian economics, but landing in explicitly free-market socialist / mutualist territory. :contentReference[oaicite:14]{index=14}

    It’s long and not “entry-level”, but it shows how you can take economics seriously without embracing capitalism as a moral fact of nature.

If you read just one classic essay to “get” the split between state socialism and anarchism, read Tucker’s State Socialism and Anarchism. Then, if you want to see where a lot of my framing comes from, dip into Carson.

3. Broader anti-authoritarian / commons-friendly work

These aren’t “market anarchist” per se, but they slot into the same picture:

  • Elinor Ostrom – Governing the Commons
    Nobel-winning work on how people actually manage commons (forests, fisheries, irrigation systems, etc.) through bottom-up institutions, without needing either privatization or a single central state manager. :contentReference[oaicite:15]{index=15}

    If you’re skeptical that ordinary people can coordinate large-scale resources without a boss, this is the empirical antidote.

  • Noam Chomsky – various talks / interviews on anarchism
    For:

    • a clear “libertarian socialism” framing,
    • the idea that while we’re stuck with existing states, we still fight to improve welfare/rights now,
    • and a strong emphasis on both ceilings (concentrated power) and floors (basic security).

    You don’t need a specific book; talks and essays are enough to see the shape.

4. Organizations and media to keep an eye on

If you want a slow drip of this stuff over time:

  • Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS)
    Left market anarchist think tank: essays, Mutual Exchange symposia, podcasts like Mutual Exchange Radio covering everything from polycentric law to “markets not capitalism” to contemporary politics. :contentReference[oaicite:16]{index=16}

  • Anarchist Library
    Huge archive of anarchist and related texts, including Tucker, Proudhon, Kropotkin, C4SS pieces, and more. :contentReference[oaicite:17]{index=17}

Use these as exploration, not as holy books. Anarchists have no canon everyone agrees on, and mutualists fight with each other constantly. That’s healthy.

How this project fits in that ecosystem

So where does this little site sit in all of that?

Roughly:

  • It takes the mutualist / left-market thread (Proudhon, Tucker, Carson, C4SS).
  • It mixes in:
    • modern concern with tech and IP,
    • right-to-repair,
    • housing and land use,
    • and state–corporate entanglement.
  • It tries to talk about all of that in a way that:
    • a curious non-specialist can follow,
    • without assuming they already cheer for “anarchism” as a label.

If any of this resonates, the resources above are “here’s the bigger conversation this belongs to.”

If you hate it, they’re still useful as context for what, exactly, you’re disagreeing with.

Either way: this page is here so you don’t have to take my word for it that “freed markets” + “anti-capitalist anarchism” is a thing. There’s a whole living, arguing, imperfect tradition behind it. This project is just one doorway into that. ::contentReference[oaicite:18]{index=18}