Anarchist Studies |
Andrew M. Koch
Most political philosophers have argued that Stirner's concerns are compatible with those put forward by Hegel and by those influenced by Hegel. However, there is good reason for disputing this view, and for understanding Stirner as an original thinker, whose ideas in some ways anticipated the concerns of contemporary post-structuralists.
This paper employs the work of Peter Kropotkin to elaborate an anarchist perspective on the 'social production of space'. The general conclusion that can be drawn from Kropotkin's work, most notably from Mutual Aid and The State: Its Historic Role, is that mutual aid diminishes in importance at the institutional level of a social order as the scale of social organisation increases. Giddens' concept of 'time-space distanciation' and Harvey's concept of 'time-space compression' are employed to illuminate the spatial aspects of Kropotkin's historical analysis of European social formations such as village communities and nation-states
Since the invention of comic books in the 1930s, political and economic forces have conspired to keep comics a largely conservative medium. The genre of superhero comics in particular has tended to advocate a conservative, hierarchical view of human society. New economic and creative freedom appeared in the comics industry in the 1980s, prompting the scripters of mainstream comics to experiment with political messages. In the vanguard of these innovative writers were three British comics scripters: Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Grant Morrison. The title character of Moore's V for Vendetta styles himself an anarchist revolutionary and indeed has antecedents in historical anarchist thinkers, but his belief in coercion and manipulation of people renders him a hypocritical anarchist at best. Gaiman's Lord of Destruction is a better example of an antiauthoritarian hero: by resigning his own divine office, he suggests that no one has a right to exercise authority over human beings. Morrison's absurdist villain Mr Nobody delivers another unique critique of the presumptions and institutions of authority. For all their brilliance, however, such comics have not supplemented their critique of social institutions with proposals as to how a reformed society might work. With a renewed conservatism pervading the comics field, we are unlikely to see such constructive critiques
Anarchist Studies |
Andrew M. Koch
Most political philosophers have argued that Stirner's concerns are compatible with those put forward by Hegel and by those influenced by Hegel. However, there is good reason for disputing this view, and for understanding Stirner as an original thinker, whose ideas in some ways anticipated the concerns of contemporary post-structuralists.
This paper employs the work of Peter Kropotkin to elaborate an anarchist perspective on the 'social production of space'. The general conclusion that can be drawn from Kropotkin's work, most notably from Mutual Aid and The State: Its Historic Role, is that mutual aid diminishes in importance at the institutional level of a social order as the scale of social organisation increases. Giddens' concept of 'time-space distanciation' and Harvey's concept of 'time-space compression' are employed to illuminate the spatial aspects of Kropotkin's historical analysis of European social formations such as village communities and nation-states
Since the invention of comic books in the 1930s, political and economic forces have conspired to keep comics a largely conservative medium. The genre of superhero comics in particular has tended to advocate a conservative, hierarchical view of human society. New economic and creative freedom appeared in the comics industry in the 1980s, prompting the scripters of mainstream comics to experiment with political messages. In the vanguard of these innovative writers were three British comics scripters: Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Grant Morrison. The title character of Moore's V for Vendetta styles himself an anarchist revolutionary and indeed has antecedents in historical anarchist thinkers, but his belief in coercion and manipulation of people renders him a hypocritical anarchist at best. Gaiman's Lord of Destruction is a better example of an antiauthoritarian hero: by resigning his own divine office, he suggests that no one has a right to exercise authority over human beings. Morrison's absurdist villain Mr Nobody delivers another unique critique of the presumptions and institutions of authority. For all their brilliance, however, such comics have not supplemented their critique of social institutions with proposals as to how a reformed society might work. With a renewed conservatism pervading the comics field, we are unlikely to see such constructive critiques
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