Lifestyle anarchism
Encyclopedia
Lifestyle anarchism is a term derived from Murray Bookchin
's polemical essay "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm
." He used it to criticize those anarchists who dress the look or live in certain ways, but who don't really act on the basic tenets of anarchism at the expense of class struggle
or coherent and effective anarchist social organization. He also directed intense criticism at anarchists like Hakim Bey and John Zerzan
(who has also attacked Bey) as having promoted anti-rationalism. Bookchin gives several documented examples, including a mis-named image by Jean Francisco Goya placed on the Fall/Winter 1993 cover of Fifth Estate - the title, "The Sleep of Reason Brings Forth Monsters" was altered to "The Dream of Reason Brings Forth Monsters" which changed its meaning to an attack on human reason rather than support of it. The term is sometimes used by anarchists as a description of positions that concentrate on specifically superficial changes to personal behavior rather than the wholesale reorganization or abolition of class
and hierarchical society.
Critics of this term have claimed the definition as a form of sectarianism. Anarchist librarian and activist Chuck Munson, for example, who first hosted the book on his infoshop web site, denies that lifestylism exists, and has decried the concept as "one of the most divisive and destructive things inflicted on the anarchist movement in recent years." In Munson's publication, Practical Anarchy
he has said the "lifestylist" debate is "simplistic" and exhorted anarchists to move on from it. Yet when it has come to the use of the term "post-left anarchism," Munson has been an open supporter, though that term was created and popularized by Bob Black in polemical response to Bookchin for writing "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism."
Murray Bookchin
Murray Bookchin was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books on politics,...
's polemical essay "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm
Social Anarchism Or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm
Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm is a polemical essay written by Murray Bookchin and published as a book in 1995. It is a critique of deep ecology, bio-centrism and lifestyle anarchism...
." He used it to criticize those anarchists who dress the look or live in certain ways, but who don't really act on the basic tenets of anarchism at the expense of class struggle
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
or coherent and effective anarchist social organization. He also directed intense criticism at anarchists like Hakim Bey and John Zerzan
John Zerzan
John Zerzan is an American anarchist and primitivist philosopher and author. His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive, and advocate drawing upon the ways of life of prehistoric humans as an inspiration for what a free society should look like...
(who has also attacked Bey) as having promoted anti-rationalism. Bookchin gives several documented examples, including a mis-named image by Jean Francisco Goya placed on the Fall/Winter 1993 cover of Fifth Estate - the title, "The Sleep of Reason Brings Forth Monsters" was altered to "The Dream of Reason Brings Forth Monsters" which changed its meaning to an attack on human reason rather than support of it. The term is sometimes used by anarchists as a description of positions that concentrate on specifically superficial changes to personal behavior rather than the wholesale reorganization or abolition of class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
and hierarchical society.
Critics of this term have claimed the definition as a form of sectarianism. Anarchist librarian and activist Chuck Munson, for example, who first hosted the book on his infoshop web site, denies that lifestylism exists, and has decried the concept as "one of the most divisive and destructive things inflicted on the anarchist movement in recent years." In Munson's publication, Practical Anarchy
Practical Anarchy
Practical Anarchy was an anarchist magazine that was published quarterly by the Alternative Media Project. Begun in 1991 as an irregular publication, for many years it advocated anarchy as practice, such as organizing housing cooperatives, environmentalism, workplaces and DIY media. Its slogans...
he has said the "lifestylist" debate is "simplistic" and exhorted anarchists to move on from it. Yet when it has come to the use of the term "post-left anarchism," Munson has been an open supporter, though that term was created and popularized by Bob Black in polemical response to Bookchin for writing "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism."
External links
- "Evaluating Lifestyle Anarchism" - Libcom.org