E. Armand

Anarchist Individualism as Life and Activity




E. Armand was one of the most consistent advocates and practitioners of individualist anarchism. In this essay there are several brilliant insights, as, for instance, the characterization of the State as the new Church and of laicism as the new religion based on state laws (the civic dogmas). Interesting is also the qualification of socialism as "religion of economics" in so far as most socialists are fixated with the idea that all human activities are motivated by economics and think that, by solving the economic problems, generally through their use of state power, all other problems will magically disappear at once, making room for the wonderful society of the future

The individualist anarchist, on the contrary, takes into consideration all the aspects of life and does not wait for any future palingenesis but tries to implement anarchism here and now, by living and acting in a way that is consonant with his/her aspirations of self-development, freedom, voluntarism, and respect of others.





As the word “anarchy” etymologically signifies the negation of governmental authority, the absence of government, it follows that one indissoluble bond unites the anarchists. This is antagonism to all situations regulated by imposition, constraint, violence, governmental oppression, whether these are a product of all, a group, or of one person. In short, whoever denies that the intervention of government is necessary for human relationships is an anarchist.

But this definition would have only a negative value did it not possess, as a practical complement, a conscious attempt to live outside this domination and servility which are incompatible with the anarchist conception. An anarchist, therefore, is an individual who, whether he has been brought to it by a process of reasoning or by sentiment, lives to the greatest possible extent in a state of legitimate defence against authoritarian encroachments. From this it follows that anarchist individualism - the tendency which we believe contains the most profound realization of the anarchist idea - is not merely a philosophical doctrine - it is an attitude, an individual way of life.

The anarchist individualist is not simply converted intellectually to ideas which will be realized one day some centuries hence. He tries now - for the present is the only time which matters for him - to practise his conceptions in everyday life, in his relations with his comrades, and in his contact with those others who do not share his convictions.


These considerations explain our title: "Anarchist Individualism as Life and Activity". Tending to live his own individual life at the risk of clashing intellectually, morally, and economically, with his environment, the anarchist individualist at the same time tries to create in the same environment, by means of selection, individuals who, like himself, are free from the prejudices and superstitions of authority, in order that the greatest possible number of men may actually live their own lives, uniting through personal affinities to practise their conceptions as far as is possible.


His relationships with his comrades are based on reciprocity, on mutualism, on comradeship, and take numerous forms, all voluntary: free agreements of every type and in all spheres; respect for the pledge word and the carrying out of promises and engagements freely consented to. It is in this fashion that the individualist of our kind practices mutual aid in his species.

A conscious individual - seeking to create and select others - from being determined by his environment he tends to become self-determining, to live his own life fully, to be active in the normal sense of the word. One cannot conceive the anarchist individualist in any other way.



In the first place, then, the anarchist is - in relation to all social conceptions based upon constraint - an individual who negates; anarchism is an individualist concept and a product of individuals. The anarchist is naturally an individualist.


Indeed, society as we know it can be summarized as follows: The ruling classes, through the intermediary of the State, ensure that only their own views on culture, morality and economic conditions, are allowed to penetrate to the masses. They set up their own views in the form of civil dogmas, which no man may violate under pain of punishment, just as in former times, during the reign of the Church, there were severe penalties for daring to challenge religious dogmas. The State - the laic form of the Church - has replaced the Church - which was the religious form of the State - but the aim of both has always been to form, not free beings, but true believers or perfect citizens. In other words, slaves to dogma or law.


The socialists base society upon economics. According to them the whole of life resolves itself into a question of production and consumption. Once you solve this problem you will automatically solve the human problem, with its complexity of intellectual and moral experiences. The individual may be conscious, he may be the greatest drunkard or the worst of comrades, but he is only of interest when considered as a producer or a consumer. The call goes out to all - to those who think and to those who do not. All have a right to the collectivist banquet, all have the right to the result of effort without needing to attempt the effort. It is necessary only to unite and to grasp the power that will permit the seizure of society, and as soon as society has been seized, collectivism will be established and will function, willy-nilly, since any recalcitrant will be compelled to obey, otherwise he will disappear from circulation.



The real truth must surely be that they mingle with and jostle one another; that they alternate and are mutually determined. From reformist socialism to revolutionary anti-parliamentary communism via trade unionism, all these socialist systems make a mockery of the individual and of free agreement between individuals. They give pride of place to the majority, to the economic contract imposed by the greatest number.

The anarchist proclaims that a transformation in mental outlook will always be accompanied by a transformation in the economic system; that a new social edifice cannot be built with stones that are crumbling into dust; that beings who have been moulded by prejudice can never build anything but a structure filled with prejudice; that it is necessary first of all to lay down solid materials, to select individuals.

If he joins a trades union regardless of its colour, the anarchist enters it purely as a member of a particular trade, in the hope of obtaining by collective action an improvement in his own lot - but he will see nothing anarchistic in gaining a wage increase, or a reduction of working hours. From an economic point of view, under present conditions, each anarchist does what he thinks best for himself - one by working for a boss, another by acting outside the law; one benefits from the advantages obtained by association, another by participating in a “free milieu”, yet another by satisfying his needs as an artisan. None of these ways of getting by are more "'anarchist" than the others - they are makeshifts, sometimes "evasions", neither more nor less.




The anarchist knows full well that if his life is to be enjoyed to the full, if it is to be beautiful and rich in every kind of experience, he will not be able to appreciate it if he is unable to master his inclinations and passions. He has no intention of turning his life into a sort of English garden carefully cultivated, monotonous and dismal. No, he wants to live fully and intensely, he attaches a thousand horses to his chariot, but he does not forget to put a bridle on the neck of each one.


But in relation to those whose amorphism, ignorance or interest interferes with his living his life, the individualist feels himself a stranger. Moreover, inwardly he remains refractory - fatally refractory - morally, intellectually, economically (The capitalist economy and the directed economy, the speculators and the fabricators of single systems, are equally repugnant to him.). The full consciousness that none of his acts can debase him inwardly is for him sufficient criterion. Surely the essential thing is that he remains himself, isn't it?

Again, is not the anarchist constantly in a state of legitimate self-defence against constraint and social servitude?



Anarchist work, activity, and propaganda, therefore, do not consist of swaying the crowd, but of creating and selecting -my repetition is intentional - conscious individuals, free from prejudice. It is above all a work of undermining, of irony, of criticism, a work of education, but also a work of reconstruction, of the sculpting of a personality free from dominant spooks. A work of free examination and of independent research in all fields.

Instead of talking of love in general, the anarchist talks simply of unity and alliance between comrades, between friends who feel attracted to each other by affinities of one kind or another, by reciprocity.



Anarchists no more want to be masters than they want to be servants - they no more want to exercise violence than to submit to it. They expose, they propose, but they do not impose. They are pioneers, attached to no party, non-conformists, standing outside herd morality and conventional “good” and “evil” - “a-social”, a “species” apart, one might say. They go forward, stumbling, sometimes falling, sometimes triumphant, sometimes vanquished. But they do go forward, and by living for themselves, these "egoists", they dig the furrow, they open the breach through which will pass those who deny archism, the unique ones who will succeed them.


[Home] [Top]