A sample entry from the

Encyclopedia of and (London & New York: Continuum, 2005)

Edited by

Bron Taylor

© 2005 All Rights Reserved 49 animals, but services to lesser-evolved, inanimate objects Sarkar, P.R. PROUT in a Nutshell. Part VIII. Calcutta: are also undertaken. Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha, 1987. As part of an effort to introduce Neo-Humanism into See also: Boff, Leonardo; Hinduism; India; Radical society, Sarkar advocated that Ananda Margiis maintain a ; Tantra. series of agrarian communities called Master Units. He placed a special emphasis on them during the last ten years of this life. By the early twenty-first century such Anarchism communities had been established in India, Australia, Europe, South America, and the , although at The anarchist tradition has been sharply divided in its that , some entailed little more than land held in the relationship to religion, spirituality and nature. On the one organization’s name. In many of these communities, the hand, the mainstream of Western anarchism has in general ideals of Neo-Humanism, such as rural self-empowerment been atheist, anti-religious and anti-clerical, and has and economic self-sufficiency, have been practically imple- looked upon religion as a supernaturalist negation of the mented. The premier example among them was established natural world. On the other hand, there is a long history of at Ananda Nagar in the Purulia District of West Bengal. It anarchistic thought and practice having strong spiritual or showcases integrated farming techniques, water conserva- religious dimensions, and very often these have taken the tion projects, erosion counter measures, a two-phased form of nature spirituality. The following discussion will afforestation program, alternative energy ideas, and a examine first the more familiar anti-religious perspective variety of related projects, all spearheaded by Sarkar. of modern Western anarchism, then various anarchist It seems to have been Sarkar’s hope that the Master tendencies across history that have held a spiritual view of Units would serve as an example of alternative socio- reality, and finally, some contemporary anarchist views economic organization that would ultimately have politi- that exhibit both standpoints. cal ramifications. In this regard he spoke about a type of Almost all the major European classical anarchist theo- tied to cultural and linguistic factors. rists opposed religion and defended a secularist, scientific He named those regions Samaj, which literally means and sometimes positivistic view of nature against what “society.” They would be decentralized socio-economic they saw as religious obscurantism and other-worldliness. areas. Dividing the world into Samaj, along natural Max Stirner (1806–1856), the major individualist anarch- ecological, cultural, and linguistic lines, was a visionary ist theorist, dismissed religion as a belief in illusory system. Sarkar viewed such bioregional to be more “spooks” that undermined the individuality and self- beneficial than today’s modern nation states. determination of the individual. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Clearly the organization’s socio-spiritual doctrines (1809–1865), the first important social anarchist theorist, have fostered environmentally sustainable behavior. But stated that the of God was contradictory to their association with violence and occasional acts of ter- rational thought and to human freedom, and that social rorism continues in the minds of many people. The crux of progress is proportional to the degree to which the concept the matter is their stated willingness to use force against is eliminated. The anarchist anti-religious viewpoint is society’s “demons” in an effort to establish their concept perhaps most widely associated with political theorist and of social justice. During his lifetime, Sarkar was not silent revolutionary (1813–1876), who pro- on the issue of terrorism. He stated that those who engaged claimed, “I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, and say that, if in it had no understanding of his ideology. In the continu- God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him” ing debate over whether Hindu spiritual traditions pro- (Bakunin 1970: 79–80). mote or detract from ecological awareness and activism For Bakunin, religion denigrates human nature and the Ananda Marga represents affirmative evidence. The extent world, and is a means of oppressing humanity. In his view, to which it will effectively promote its socio-economic and it is a negation of nature, since it exalts a supernatural and political objectives remains an open question. transcendent reality and devalues the material and natural. He claims that there is an objective naturalistic basis for Helen Crovetto religion: it arises essentially out of the human being’s feel- ing of absolute dependence on an eternal and omnipotent Further Reading nature and out of primitive fear of its awe-inspiring Sarkar, P.R. Ideal Farming. Part 2. Calcutta: Ananda powers. He contends that it begins with the attribution Marga Pracaraka Samgha, 1990. of this power to fetishes and ends with its concentration Sarkar, P.R. The Liberation of Intellect – Neo-Humanism. in an all-powerful God, which he sees as the reversal and 2nd edn. Calcutta: Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha, magnification of the human image itself. Religion is thus 1983. essentially a misunderstanding of nature. The system of Sarkar, P.R. Problems of the Day. 4th edn. Calcutta: social domination makes use of this confusion to keep Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha, 1993. people in a state of subjection and submissiveness through 50 Anarchism the alliance between the coercive power of the state and are created in human society by the pursuit of political and the ideological power of the Church. economic power. He declares that “[t]he Way of Heaven The large anarchist movements of the nineteenth and reduces whatever is excessive and supplements whatever early twentieth centuries in general shared the atheism is insufficient. The Way of Man is different. It reduces the and anti-clericalism of its theoretical founders. The insufficient to offer to the excessive” (Lao Tzu 1963: 174). Bakuninists of the First International (International For Lao Tzu, the pursuit of wealth, power and egoistic Working Men’s Association, 1864–1876) fought to make gratification must be rejected in favor of a way of life the workers’ movement officially anti-religious, and the based on “non-action” or “actionless action” (wu-wei), by large anarcho-syndicalist movements in southern Europe which is meant activity that is in accord with one’s own and America defined themselves in part through Tao or way, but which respects the ways of all others. their strong opposition to a generally and Despite these apparently anarchistic or libertarian hierarchical Church and . The Spanish tendencies in Lao Tzu’s thought, some have interpreted (1936–1939), the most important event in the history of him as a defender of the traditional system of rule and the anarchist movement, was marked by fierce opposition even as an advocate of manipulation of the people for to the Church, to the extent of the desecration and burning authoritarian purposes. For example, the eminent Chinese of churches and harsh treatment of clergy. The Spanish scholar D.C. Lau interprets the Tao te Ching as a rather anarchists largely shared Bakunin’s view that religion eclectic collection of writings that has a primarily ethical was based on a denial of the natural world. Yet a kind rather than mystical or philosophical import, and which of nature spirituality emerged even within their milieu. does not question the concept of political rule. In his view, This tendency was expressed in a cult of the natural, passages concerning the sage or ruler apply to any fol- the romanticizing of nature, and practices such as lower of the Tao, but are also specific references to an health-consciousness, nudism and . In this enlightened and skillful “ruler,” in a quite literal sense. regard, the movement was influenced by the anarchist Social ecologists and have philosopher-geographer Elisée Reclus (1830–1905), who contended that ancient Daoism is merely a form of regres- developed a non-theistic but holistic and spiritual view of sive mysticism. They attacked the idea that the Tao te nature, advocated animal rights, and wrote of the sublime Ching has any anarchistic implications and contend that and inspirational qualities of the natural world. all references to rulership should be interpreted in an When one turns to the positive relationship between entirely literal sense. anarchism and spirituality, one finds a wealth of evidence The second great ancient Taoist philosopher, Chuang in many cultures of the world. Some have found one of Tzu, has sometimes been seen as even more radically the earliest anarchist of nature and human anarchistic than Lao Tzu and equally ecological in out- nature in the ancient Chinese classic, the Tao te Ching of look. Chuang Tzu warned against the impulse to eliminate Lao Tzu (ca. fourth century B.C.E). Daoism is the chaos and impose order on the world, which in his view of the tao, or way, a term that refers both to the leads ultimately to great destruction. He took a perspectiv- source of all being, and to the path of self-realization of ist position on knowledge and truth, and emphasized, all beings when they are allowed to act freely and spon- often through humorous or ironic anecdotes, the fact that taneously according to their nature. Lao Tzu presents a each being has its own good and perceives reality from its vision of nature and human society as an organic unity- own ultimately incomparable point of view. He rejected in-diversity in which the uniqueness and creative activity human-centered views of reality and the tendency to pro- of each part of the whole are valued. The natural world is ject human meanings and values onto the natural world. seen as a dynamic balance (symbolized through the com- Though the specifically political implications of Chuang plementary polarities of yin and yang) that produces order Tzu’s thought are far from clear, his Daoism has been and harmony when not disrupted by human aggression interpreted as one of the most consistently anarchistic and domination. Lao Tzu describes this natural harmony critiques of the domination of humanity and nature and of in poetic terms: “Heaven and Earth unite to drip sweet the egocentric and anthropocentric mentality that under- dew. Without the command of men, it drips evenly over lies domination. all” (Lao Tzu 1963: 156). Coercive and authoritarian social Some have also found a deeply anarchistic dimension institutions are shown to destroy natural balance and the in both ancient Buddhism and also in various schools in generosity of nature and produce disaster not only for the later Buddhist history. Original Buddhism as established surrounding natural world, but also within human society by the founder Shakyamuni Buddha (ca. 563–463 B.C.E.) itself. The ideal society is depicted as a decentralized, came out of a questioning of both the social order (the egalitarian community in which all value the “Three caste system) and the ideological basis (the authority of Treasures” of compassion, simplicity, and humility. Lao the Vedic scriptures) of ancient India. It also rejected Tzu was a harsh critic of the violent, hierarchical society of the idea that any authority, whether a person or written his own day, and laments the injustices and inequities that document, could lead one to truth, and that it must instead Anarchism 51 be reached through direct personal experience. The central domination. Zen painting and poetry (much in the tradi- Buddhist idea of non-attachment can be given an anarch- tion of Daoist ) are noted for their focus on nature and istic interpretation. Although historical Buddhism has on the numinous power of things themselves. been to varying degrees influenced by inegalitarian social Anarchistic forms of spirituality have not been limited institutions, its goal of non-attachment can be seen as to Asian traditions, but have also emerged periodically an attack on the foundation of political, economic and through the history of Western religion. The Joachimite patriarchal domination in the desire to aggrandize an tendency in medieval is perhaps the most illusory ego-self. According to such an interpretation, the striking example. Joachim of Fiore spoke of the “Third ideal of the sangha or spiritual community is seen as an Age” of world history, the Age of the Holy Spirit, which anarchistic concept of association based on compassion would supersede the rule of law and authority and usher in and recognition of true need, rather than on economic and the reign of universal freedom and love. The Movement of political power and coercive force. Similarly, Buddhist the Free Spirit, which emerged out of the Joachimite and mindfulness, an awakened awareness of present experi- millenarian traditions, is often considered the most ence, is seen as implying a sensitivity to the realities anarchistic tendency within medieval and early modern of nature and human experience, as opposed to appro- Christianity. The movement originated in the thirteenth priating and objectifying forms of consciousness. The century and spread widely across central and Western Buddhist tradition is vast, and has been developed in Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Its many directions, but it is not difficult to discover in the most radical tendencies rejected the established Church, Buddhist of awakened mind, non-attachment, the state, law, private property and marriage. Its social and compassion an implicit critique of material consump- outlook was at a rather curious combination of a tion and accumulation, coercive laws, and bureaucratic radically anarchistic quest for freedom and an elitism that and technocratic forms of social organization. justified an instrumental view of non-members and of Nagarjuna (ca. second century) is often considered the things in nature, and a ruthless destructiveness toward all most important Buddhist philosopher since Shakyamuni who stood in its way. Nevertheless, it often strongly Buddha. Indeed, he can plausibly be interpreted as the affirmed nature and the natural. The Adamite tendency in most theoretically anarchistic thinker in the history of particular saw believers as existing in a “natural,” pre- philosophy. His radically destructive or deconstructive fallen condition, and others spoke of exercising “natural dialectic reveals the contradictions in any formulation freedom” and following “natural desires.” They practiced of truth or attribution of substantiality to any being. nudism and , held property in common, and The only “truth” for Nagarjuna consists not in ideas waged relentless war against their surrounding enemies. or propositions, all of which lead to contradiction, but The anarchistic interpretation of the Free Spirit is best rather in the practice of universal compassion and non- known from Norman Cohn’s classic work, The Pursuit of attachment. His rejection of the imposition of dualistic and the Millennium. The Free Spirit also plays an important objectifying categories on an internally related and role in anarchist theorist ’s critique of “dependently arising” reality can be seen as an affirmation , Against History, and Situationist Raoul of the non-objectifiable wholeness and self- of Vaneigem devoted an entire book to the movement. being and nature. A more recent expression of an anarchistic spirituality The anarchist tendencies in Buddhism were developed within the Christian tradition is the radical religious furthest and synthesized with certain aspects of Daoism in vision of Romantic poet William Blake (1757–1827). Blake the Chinese Ch’an (meditation) School of Buddhism and stressed the sacredness of nature, its organic qualities, in its Japanese version, Zen. Zen questions all authorities, and the need for humane treatment of other beings. He including political, intellectual and spiritual ones, and was one of the most important early rebels against the insists on the absolute priority of direct personal experi- mechanistic, objectivist, reductionist worldview that came ence. Lin-Chi (Rinzai) (d. 866) the founder of Ch’an, is out of Newtonian science. His rejection of the dominant known for his shocking admonition, “Whether you’re mechanistic worldview is encapsulated in his well-known facing inward or facing outward, whatever you meet up plea, “may God us keep / From Single vision and Newton’s with, just kill it! If you meet a Buddha, kill the Buddha. If sleep!” (Blake 1988: 722). His attack on the patriarchal you meet a patriarch, kill the patriarch!” This iconoclastic authoritarian God and a spiritually degraded world, and maxim is a classic Zen statement of the radically anarch- his creation of a new radically utopian mythology can be istic view that none of our concepts of substantial realities interpreted as an anarchistic critique of the state, early (including even our most exalted concepts) can capture capitalism, and any ideology or social imaginary based on the nature of an ever-changing reality that constantly sur- hierarchy, domination, and the repression of desire, the passes all categories and preconceptions. Inherent in this body, and nature. outlook is a deep respect for the integrity of nature and a Although nineteenth- and early twentieth-century desire to allow nature to express itself without human European anarchism was generally anti-religious, even 52 Anarchism there one finds a more overt religious tendency, primarily on the work of his predecessor, the nineteenth-century under the influence of the famous novelist and pacifist French geographer and revolutionary Elisée Reclus, who anarchist (1828–1910). Tolstoy’s conception had already developed a profoundly ecological philosophy of God was not the naively anthropomorphic image that and social theory. Reclus is one of the most important other anarchists attacked, but referred rather to the whole figures in the development of an anarchistic ecological of reality and truth. Furthermore, he believed that the true philosophy and spirituality. essence of Christianity is found not in a transcendent Reclus came out of a tradition of radical Protestant Supreme Being or an afterlife with rewards and punish- religious dissent, his father having been a minister of a so- ments, but rather in Jesus’ teaching of universal love. For called “free church” that broke with the Reformed Church. Tolstoy, an acceptance of this teaching satisfies the human Though he rejected theism, his anarchism can in some longing for meaning in purpose in life, and has far- ways be seen as a continuation of his religious tradition. reaching implications for one’s relationship to both soci- Central to his philosophy was a belief in universal love, ety and nature. First, it results in a dedication to complete which in his view must be extended to all human beings, in society, including an absolute anarchistic to other sentient beings, and to nature as a whole. His deep rejection of participation in the state, which Tolstoy saw respect for the natural world sometimes reaches a level as the most monstrous form of organized violence and of awe that verges on a kind of nature mysticism. For coercion. Furthermore, it requires a nonviolent stance Reclus, social organization must be based on this love and toward the whole of nature, a refusal to inflict suffering on , expressed through a voluntary commitment to sentient beings, and a practice of ethical vegetarianism. the good of the community and the Earth itself. In such Another important nineteenth-century literary figure a system, each individual would be guided to the greatest in whose work anarchist themes intersect with a spiritual- degree possible by a free rather than by ity of nature is (1817–1862). In his coercion or centralized authority. essay “,” Thoreau proclaimed the Reclus’ outlook toward nature is at once scientific, priority of individual conscience over political authority, moral, aesthetic, and spiritual. In his monumental 16,000- asserting his view that “that government is best which page New Universal Geography, and his magnum opus governs least” and consequently “that government is best of social theory, Man and the Earth, he offers a holistic, which governs not at all.” He refused to pay his taxes to evolutionary vision of humanity and nature. Like later the state on the anarchist secessionist principle that he ecological thinkers, Reclus finds a harmony and balance in could not recognize as his own government one that was nature, in addition to a tendency toward discord and also the slave’s government. Although Thoreau’s philo- imbalance. His investigation of the intimate relationship sophical and religious perspective is usually associated between humanity and the Earth’s regional and local with American “,” it can also be seen as particularities anticipates later bioregional thought. He an anarchistic spirituality with affinities to aspects of emphasizes the moral and spiritual aspects of humanity’s Daoist, Buddhist and indigenous traditions. Thoreau is relationship to nature, condemns the growing devastation best known for his eloquent expression in of such produced by industry and economic exploitation, and themes as the love of and communion with nature, the argues that whenever humanity degrades the natural affirmation of life, compassion for all living beings, and world, it degrades itself. A vehement advocate of the the ills of a materialistic society that is alienated from the humane treatment of animals and of ethical vegetarian- natural world and enslaved by its own possessions. ism, Reclus wrote several widely reprinted pamphlets on His spirituality is perhaps best expressed in the essay on these topics. “,” which contains his famous statement that “in An important though relatively neglected figure in Wildness is the preservation of the world.” Thoreau links early twentieth-century anarchist spirituality is the wildness, freedom, sacredness, and “the gospel according German political theorist and non-violent revolutionary to this moment,” an idea much in the spirit of Buddhist (1870–1919). Landauer is best known mindfulness. His concern for and celebration of the par- as a martyr killed for his leadership in the ticularities of place link him to later bioregional thought, Council Republic of 1919 and as the mentor of the Jewish and contain an implicit critique of political and economis- libertarian and communitarian religious philosopher tic conceptions of reality. (1878–1965). Landauer’s philosophy is The renowned anarchist geographer rooted in German Romanticist thought and is often has often been looked to as the major source of ecological described as having mystical and pantheistic tendencies. ideas among the classical anarchist theorists. His concepts His major concepts are Spirit (Geist), People (Volk), and of the importance of mutual aid, spontaneity and diversity Nation (Nation), and his central focus is on the place of in both the natural world and in human society have been the individual in the larger human community, in nature, important in introducing ecological concepts into social and in a greater spiritual reality. Landauer associates thought. However, Kropotkin was in many ways carrying Spirit with the search for wholeness and universality, and Anarchism 53 interprets it as an immanent, living reality, the underlying effort to avoid inflicting physical or mental injury to any unity of all beings that encompasses both humanity and living being to the greatest possible degree. Accordingly, nature. For Landauer, the great conflict in history is Gandhi advocated ethical vegetarianism and had a deeply between Spirit and the state. In his famous formulation, held belief that the Indian tradition of cow protection was the state is above all a relationship between human beings of great moral and spiritual value. One of his most often- and it can be replaced by creating new relationships based quoted statements is that the greatness and moral progress on cooperation rather than domination. , which of a nation can be judged by its treatment of animals. is what he called the free, society, is not a Although his concern was often expressed in terms of the utopian ideal in the future, but rather something that is welfare of individual beings, he sometimes expressed more already present in all cooperative, loving human relation- strongly ecological concepts, as when he warned of the ships and which can expand to encompass the whole of dangers of human abuse of nature using the image of society as more non-coercive, non-exploitative relation- nature’s ledger book in which the debits and credits must ships are established. Landauer believed that the co- always be equal. operative society would be achieved when people left After Gandhi’s death, Sarvodaya, a movement based the increasingly dominant corrupt and alienated urban on his spiritual, ethical and political principles emerged. society and returned to the land. The new society was to Vinoba Bhave (1895–1982), the leading figure in the be based on village communities rooted in their natural movement for many years, taught absolute nonviolence, regions, in which fair exchange would replace economic social organization based on universal love, decision exploitation, and in which and industry would making by consensus, the replacement of coercion by the be integrated. recognition of moral authority, and the minimization and Undoubtedly, one of the most important influences on eventual abolition of state power. Vinoba’s social phil- modern anarchist spirituality throughout the world is osophy was fundamentally anarchist and communitarian. Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948), who is widely known for In pursuit of the movement’s goals he pursued a policy of his principles of nonviolence, cooperation, decentraliza- asking landowners to donate land to the poor (Bhoodan, or tion, and local self-sufficiency. Gandhi summarized his “gift of land”) and of establishing village cooperative agri- religious outlook as the belief that God is Truth, or more culture (Gramdan or “village gift”). Over a decade, Vinoba accurately, that Truth is God, and that the way to this walked 25,000 miles across India and accepted eight mil- Truth is through love. He also states that God is “the lion acres of Bhoodan land. The history of the Sarvodaya sum-total of all life” (Gandhi 1963: 316). At the roots of movement is recounted in Geoffrey Ostergaard and Gandhian spirituality is the concept of ahimsa, which is Melville Currell’s study, The Gentle Anarchists. often translated as “nonviolence” (paralleling the original Among contemporary thinkers, the celebrated poet and Sanskrit), but is actually for Gandhi a more positive con- essayist has probably had the greatest influ- ception of replacing force and coercion with love and ence in linking anarchism, spirituality and nature. He has cooperation. Similarly, he is sometimes called an advocate also been a major influence on the contemporary of “civil disobedience,” but he defined his approach, movement in showing the ecological implications of satyagraha, as a more positive conception of “nonviolent Buddhist, Daoist and indigenous traditions. Snyder has resistance” to evil, including the injustices of the state. connected the concepts of “the wild,” “wild nature” and Although Gandhi did not absolutely reject all partici- “” with the Tao of ancient Chinese philosophy pation in the existing state, he rejected the state as a and the dharma of Buddhism. For Snyder, the concept of legitimate form of social organization, advocated its “the wild” implies a freedom and spontaneity that are eventual elimination, and strongly opposed its increasing found not only in undomesticated nature, but also in the power. He warned against looking to the state to reduce imagination of the poet and in the mind of the spiritually exploitation, arguing that its concentrated power and vast attuned person. He expresses the anarchic nature of the coercive force necessarily does great harm and destroys Zen mind in his statement: “the power of no-power; this is individuality. In place of the centralized state, he proposed in the practice of Zen” (Snyder 1980: 4). village autonomy or self-government, community self- For Snyder, such concepts have farreaching political reliance, and local production based on human-scale implications. By the early 1970s he had already outlined a , ideas that have been enormously influential bioregional anarchist position that would replace the state on twentieth-century eco-anarchism. Gandhi was also a and its artificial political boundaries with a regionalism critic of Western medicine, which he saw as dependent on based on lived experience and a knowledge of the par- concentrated wealth and sophisticated technologies, and ticularities of place. Snyder links the spirituality of place advocated instead “nature cure” in which the cheapest, with “reinhabitation,” the development of an intimate simplest and most accessible treatments are used. acquaintance with one’s locality and region, and the For Gandhi, the principle of ahimsa was to be extended achievement of a larger sense of community that incor- throughout the natural world. Humans should make an porates other life forms. Snyder finds the roots of such a 54 Anarchism social vision in the Neolithic community, with its Ideas similar to those of Perlman and Watson inspire a emphasis on productive work, the sharing of goods, and the rather large, vigorous and growing anarcho-primitivist or self-determination of local village communities. From the anti-civilization movement. The best-known theoretical standpoint of such decentralized, egalitarian communities, spokesperson for this movement is , who pres- the state, social hierarchy, and centralized power are not ents a withering critique of civilization, industrialism, only illegitimate and oppressive, but also a source of dis- , the state, and even and community. order and destruction in both society and the natural world. Anarcho-primitivist ideas often appear in such pub- The wisdom of traditional societies has been a wide- lications as Green , Live Free or Die, Anarchy: A spread theme in contemporary anarchist thought. This is Journal of Desire Armed and The Fifth Estate. Anarcho- exemplified by a significant “neo-primitivist” current in primitivism plays an important role in the Earth Liberation ecological anarchism that has identified very strongly Front, which practices sabotage in defense of nature, and with many of the values and institutions of tribal societies. in the much larger Earth First!, which is the most impor- Its proponents argue that for 99 percent of human history tant environmental organization. It is also human beings lived in stateless societies in which a significant undercurrent in the anti-globalization nature spirituality was central to their culture. The non- movement. hierarchical, cooperative, symbiotic and ecological Anarcho-primitivists see an inextricable relationship spiritualities of these societies have been taken as an between civilization and the domination of humanity and inspiration for a future post-civilized anarchist society. nature. One of their central themes is the inevitability of A strong influence on this current is anarchist theorist the collapse of industrial society, an event that is often Fredy Perlman (1934–1985), who in his influential work looked forward to with anticipation. Primitivists value all Against His-story, Against Leviathan depicts (in a kind of that remains free from the domination of civilization, radicalized version of the “Myth of the Machine” of social including remaining wilderness areas and autonomous, critic Lewis Mumford [1895–1990]) the millennia-long spontaneous human activity. They look to tribal traditions history of the assault of the technological megamachine and hunter-gatherer economies for examples of an eco- on humanity and the Earth. Perlman describes early tribal logical sensibility, a balanced relationship to nature, and spirituality as a celebration of human existence and an ethos of sharing and generosity. However, they do not nature, and depicts the rise of the ancient despotism that in general propose a simple reversion to such previous destroyed these societies and replaced their spirituality social formations, which are sometimes criticized for with a repressive, patriarchal and authoritarian mono- alienated social practices. Many primitivists find inspira- theism. He interprets the emergence of such spiritual move- tion in various nature-affirming spiritual traditions as an ments as ancient Daoism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism alternative to the narrow technical rationality of civiliza- as a rebellion against social hierarchy and the domination tion. These include the spirituality of tribal people, various of nature, and describes the processes through which these forms of nature mysticism, a general reverence for life and spiritualities of freedom were transformed in nature, pantheism, and neo-paganism. of domination. He also outlines the history of anarchistic Indeed, one finds a continuous and strong anarchist spiritual movements, including such striking examples current in neo-paganism in general in both Britain and as the Taoist Yellow Turbans, a revolutionary, egalitarian the United States in recent decades. In Britain there are movement of the second century. important anarchist and neo-pagan tendencies within the Similar themes are developed by David Watson, a large marginal subculture that centers around the anti- leading contemporary critic of the technological mega- roads movement and defends sites that are of natural, machine. Watson contends in Against the Megamachine cultural and spiritual significance. Both anti-roads that in modern societies an aura of sacredness is con- activists and neo-pagans often form decentralized, centrated in the ego, in the system of technology, and in non-hierarchical organizations practicing such anarchist economic and political power, whereas primal societies principles as direct action and consensus decision making. have seen the sacred as pervading the self, the community Starhawk, one of the best-known neo-pagan theorists and and the world of nature. Primal spirituality was, he argues, writers, and an important figure in ecofeminism, has an integral part of a system of egalitarian, libertarian and emphasized the connection between the nonviolent, egali- ecological social values. Furthermore, the participating tarian, cooperative, anti-patriarchal, anti-hierarchical, consciousness of primal peoples conceives of humans as and nature-affirming values of anarchism and the pagan inseparable from larger natural and transhuman realities. worldview and sensibility. The pioneering ecofeminist Thus, primal peoples have had an anarchistic, non- writer Susan Griffin has inspired thinking about these hierarchical view of both society and nature that consti- interconnections since her wide-ranging landmark work tutes a powerful critique of modern industrial society and Woman and Nature, published in 1978. Even earlier, the offers inspiration for future non-dominating ecological well-known short-story writer and poet Grace Paley had communities. incorporated feminist, anarchist and ecological themes in Anarchism 55 her works, which also expresses a deep but subtle spiritual- are developing an interest in spirituality, and many others ity of everyday life. have been drawn to anarchist political movements and Hakim Bey, one of the most widely read contemporary social tendencies through an initial interest in anarchistic anarchist writers, has developed an “ontological anarch- spirituality. Consequently, spirituality, and more par- ism” that finds inspiration in esoteric spiritual traditions ticularly the nature-affirming spiritualities of Daoism, of many cultures, including Islamic mysticism, sorcery, Buddhism, neo-Paganism, indigenous traditions, and shamanism, alchemy, and primordial myths of chaos. various radical undercurrents within Western religion, Bey’s anarchic sensibility and spirituality encompass play a significant role in anarchism today and can be everything related to joy, eros, creativity, play, and “the expected to do so in the future. marvelous.” His concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ) as a sphere in which such realities can be John Clark experienced is one of the most influential ideas in and has stimulated interest in Further Reading heretical, dissident and exotic anarchistic spiritualities. Bakunin, Michael. God and the State. New York: Dover, There has also been considerable theoretical discussion 1970. of anarchism, nature and spirituality in the context of Blake, William. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William debates within social ecology. Such well-known Blake. David V. Erdman, ed. New York: Doubleday, exponents of social ecology as Murray Bookchin and 1988. Janet Biehl have attacked spiritual as forms of Chuang Tzu. Inner Chapters. New York: Vintage Books, irrational mysticism that often produce social passivity 1974. and sometimes are linked to reactionary or fascist politics. Cohn, Norman. The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revo- On the other hand, proponents of the value of spiritual lutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the ecologies (such as David Watson, John Clark and Peter Middle Ages. New York: , Marshall) have argued for the importance to an anarchist 1990 (1961). social ecology of spiritual values that are ecological, Clark, John and Camille Martin. Anarchy, Geography, holistic, communitarian and socially emancipatory. It has Modernity: The Radical Social Thought of Elisée been argued that some social ecologists have uncritically Reclus. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004. adopted a modernist, Promethean, and naively rationalistic Gandhi, Mohandas. The Essential Gandhi. Louis Fischer, view of the self and its relationship to the world, and that ed. New York: Random House, 1963. spiritual ecologies derived from Asian philosophies and Landauer, Gustav. For Socialism. St. Louis: Telos Press, indigenous worldviews, among other sources, can contri- 1978. bute to a more critical, dialectical, and implicitly anarch- Lao Tzu, “The Lao Tzu (Tao te Ching).” In Wing-Tsit Chan, istic view of selfhood and the place of humanity in nature. ed. A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton, This brief survey is far from comprehensive, and a NJ: Press, 1963, 139–76. fuller account would encompass such topics as Quakerism Lau, D.C. “Introduction” to Tao te Ching. Harmondsworth, and other forms of radical Protestantism, the Catholic UK and New York: Penguin Books, 1963, 7–52. Worker movement and other tendencies within the Lin-Chi. The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi. Boston and Catholic Left, the spirituality of anarchist intentional London: Shambhala, 1993. communities, and the many literary and artistic figures Marshall, Peter. Demanding the Impossible: A History of (including such notable examples as poet Allen Ginsberg Anarchism. London: HarperCollins, 1992. and novelist Ursula LeGuin) who have had important Ostergaard, Geoffrey and Melville Currell. The Gentle insights relating to anarchism, spirituality and nature. Anarchists: A Study of the Leaders of the Sarvodaya However, from the examples discussed, it should be clear Movement For Non-Violent Revolution in India. that anarchist thought and practice have encompassed a Oxford: Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1973. wide diversity of approaches to religion, spirituality, and Perlman, Fredy. Against His-story, Against Leviathan. nature. This multiplicity and divergence continues today. : Black & Red, 1983. Many contemporary anarchists (especially in Europe and Purchase, Graham. Evolution and Revolution: An Intro- in organizations in the anarcho-syndicalist and anarcho- duction to the Life and Thought of Peter Kropotkin. communist traditions) carry on the atheist, anti-religious, Petersham, Australia: , 1996. anti-clerical outlook of the classical anarchist movement. Snyder, Gary. The Real Work: Interviews & Talks 1964– Others, including many of the young people who have 1979. New York: New Dimensions, 1980. been drawn to contemporary anarchism through direct Starhawk. Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority action movements, have neither great interest in nor and Mystery. : Harper & Row, 1988. particular antipathy to religion and spirituality. However, Vaneigem, Raoul. The Movement of the Free Spirit: an increasing number of political and cultural anarchists General Considerations and Firsthand Testimony 56 Anarcho-Primitivism and the

Concerning Some Brief Flowerings of Life in the Middle Jesus’ trope that “Solomon in all his glory” (an allusion to Ages, the Renaissance and, Incidentally, Our Own the Davidic Temple-State, the zenith of Israel’s civiliza- Time. New York: Zone Books, 1994. tional power) was less intrinsically valuable than a single Watson, David. Against the Megamachine: Essays on wildflower (Lk. 12:27). Empire & Its Enemies. Brooklyn, NY: , ii) AP’s perspective on “pre-history” argues that the 1998. late Neolithic of plants and animals led to See also: Bioregionalism; Bioregionalism and the North the domestication of human beings. Agriculture inexorably American Bioregional Congress; Blake, William; gave rise to concentrated populations and increasingly Buddhism; Daoism; Earth First! and the Earth Liberation centralized and hierarchical societies in built urban Front; Ellul, Jacques; Gandhi, Mohandas; Griffin, Susan; environments. These in turn developed into oppressive Kropotkin, Peter; Left Biocentrism; Le Guin, Ursula; city-states, an aggressively colonizing civilization that ; Reclus, Elisée; Snyder, Gary – exerted a powerful centripetal force upon the hinterlands. and the Invention of Bioregional Spirituality and Politics; Thus agriculture is portrayed in Genesis not as a gift of the Social Ecology; Starhawk; Thoreau, Henry David. gods – as in other Ancient Near Eastern myths – but as a curse, the result of human rejection of the old symbiotic lifeways of the “Garden” (Gen. 3:17–19). While pastoral- SP Anarcho-Primitivism and the Bible ism is more sympathetically depicted in the biblical literature, we should keep in mind that during the period “Anarcho-primitivism” (hereafter AP) is an important herders were socially marginalized fringe-dwellers. current of contemporary deep ecological thought which From the Babel story on, the walled city and its archi- responds to contemporary environmental and social tecture of domination is denounced regularly, as Ellul crises with a radical revisionism of the history of civiliza- argues, including the Egyptian “store cities” built by tion. Though there have been few vigorous engagements Hebrew forced labor (Ex. 1:11–14) and the Canaanite fort- between Christian theologians and these radical philo- ress of Jericho (Josh. 6:26). And while much literature of sophical currents (exceptions include and the post-Davidic era romanticizes Jerusalem as the “city Vernard Eller), this entry reflects upon possible points of of God,” the prophetic voice continued to call those contact between AP ideas and certain trajectories found in who “weigh tribute and count towers” agents of terror – the Bible. including Israelite rulers (Isa. 33:18; Ezek. 26:3–9; Zeph. The trenchant AP critique of civilization finds surpris- 1:16; 3:6). This urban antipathy is best captured by the ing resonance in the Hebrew-Christian scriptures – if, that Psalmist’s lament: “Truly I would flee to the wilderness . . . is, they are read as documents of Israelite resistance to for I see violence and strife in the city . . . oppression and Ancient Near Eastern empires from to Rome, rather fraud on its streets” (Ps. 55:7, 9, 11). In the New Testament, than as a legitimating ideology for Christendom. The fol- John’s vision of the New Jerusalem portends a radical lowing eight “talking points” (appearing below in italics), “greening” of the city: gates always open and a river representing salient aspects of the AP perspective as running down Main Street on whose banks grow Eden’s articulated by, for example, John Zerzan, are here correl- Trees of Life (Rev. 21–22). ated with minor and major biblical themes. iii) AP endorses revisionist anthropological studies that i) Civilization represents for AP a pathological regres- offer a more sympathetic assessment of hunter-gatherer sion, rather than an ingenuous progression, of human con- social and economic organization, emphasizing what sciousness. Although mainstream theology has largely called the “original affluence” of stone- bought into the dominant evolutionary narrative of “Pro- age cultures. Up until the last quarter-century, modern gress,” the Bible’s perspective on historical origins is quite anthropologists tended to share Hobbes’ bias that contrary – which is perhaps why it has been increasingly the lives of “uncivilized” humans were “solitary, poor, marginalized since the Enlightenment. The “primeval nasty, brutish, and short.” Since Sahlins, the consensus (as history” of Gen. 1–11, for example, portrays civilization as reflected in, for example, John Gowdy’s collection) has the “fruit” not of human genius, but of alienation from the shifted almost 180 degrees; hunter-gatherer cultures tend symbiotic lifeways of the “Garden.” Its narrative of the now to be portrayed as healthier, more leisurely, freer, “Fall” is one of hard labor, murder, violence and predatory more materially satisfied, less anxious and infinitely more urbanism, culminating in the symbol of Babel’s tower as ecologically sustainable than modern industrial ones. the zenith of human rebellion against God and nature. It In particular, indigenous practices of subsistence and gift can be read not only as a polemic against the Ancient exchange are now being appreciated (particularly by Near Eastern empires that surrounded Israel, but also as Hyde) as a viable, if radically different, economic an archetypal diagnosis of civilization-as-pathology. paradigm. Throughout the rest of the biblical literature this strong This encourages a reassessment of the economic cos- strand of skepticism prevails, summarized perhaps best by mology of the Bible. For example, the story of the manna