existentialist anarchism or anarchist existentialism?

[Shane99X]

So i was reading up on Max Stirner(one of my favorite bizzaro philosophers)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner

When i noticed that a couple sites listed this father of individualist anarchism as a sort of literary grandfather to existentialism, and it got me thinking....

Is there a common thread between anarchism and existentialism? or at least anarchism and nihilism?

[sentient]

yes very much so. You will find the Paris uprising of 1968 was the work of existentials who also were anarchists. The works of both kinds of thinkers can be seen to meld as it were. However, if you take sartre you will see that he describes . He gave a description of human life whereas anarchism prescribes a way of living -0 it gives a prescription for human life. Sartre - in some perhaps more tenuous way - can be linked to anarchists rather like marx can be linked to communists - but as I said its maybe a little tenuous to say that. Guy Debord a great french anarchist certainly thought sartre was a worthy thinker.
Certainly in the new wave of anarchists since the 70's sartre would be seen as a bourgeois intellectual but theres no doubt he does inspire many anarchists because he delivers reasons for how it comes to be that at the end of the day, man is a socially responsible being that is capable of reconfiguring what he was into what he becomes
But if you must watch USA films you may like this film - read this review that is very detailed and full of historical fact
http://www.aboutfilm.com/movies/w/wakinglife3.htm
its best to read the above link before going to the official site below BTW
In Waking Life, the unnamed protagonist (Wiley Wiggins) realizes that he is dreaming when he is unable to do simple things like read an alarm clock or turn lights off. In his dreamscape, he floats from person to person and conversation to conversation, listening to the assorted musings, theories, and rantings of a wide cross-section of scientists, activists, street philosophers, and barroom oddballs--well over 30 of them. Some conversations don't even include the protagonist, as the film occasionally drifts around on its own. Waking Life mentions many Great Thinkers as it ruminates on existentialism, psychology, quantum physics, evolution, and so on. According to the official Waking Life site (http://www.wakinglifemovie.com/), The ideas of the following thinkers and philosophers influenced this film: Jean Paul Sartre, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Alexander the Great, Stephen La Berge, Robert Solomon, Plato, Nietzsche, Benedict Anderson, Albert Schweitzer, Andre Bazin, Francois Truffaut, Guy Debord, Robert Louis Stevenson, DH Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Philip K. Dick, WB Yeats, Garcia Lorca.

paris 1968 - google it for great images
of the beginning of the european revolution
the one we will soon win
http://www.investigatemagazine.com/archives/Paris%201968.bmp

ps in answer to the title I believe the correct way is to say existential anarchist - since according to sartre and reason dictates - we are primarily existentialist before we are anything else. Existentialism describes mans relation to the world, whatever the circumstances of the world

anarchists at work !
http://www.aboutfilm.com/movies/w/wakinglife7.jpg

[fexurbis]

Yes, there is a certain connection. When people ask me what political system I subscribe to, I say all systems are fallible. Then they ask me, are you an anarchist? I say, I'm influenced by it, but if I had to give it a label, I'd say I'm an existentialist.


I am currently reading both Stirner and Sartre. Quite a coincidence. I'm not sure, but I think the connection is that existentialists are skeptical of prescribed methods whatever they are. Existentialists view the world primarily through the lens of individuals, and "shoulds" and "ought tos" become more and more a matter of laughter and clearly "social superstitions" (as Max Stirner would say).

I do not subscribe to anarchism entirely because it is utopian. That is when I take a step back. Much the same with Marxism.

Life is meant to be messy and imperfect. Suffering and "injustice" is necessary and indelible.

[sentient]

Life is meant to be messy and imperfect. Suffering and "injustice" is necessary and indelible.
an idealism if ever I saw one, usually expounded by right wing capitalists who exploit on one hand and say - things will soon be better - we promise !

[fexurbis]

an idealism if ever I saw one, usually expounded by right wing capitalists who exploit on one hand and say - things will soon be better - we promise !Well, the difference is that I maintain that things will NOT get better. The idealism is precisely in denying that, and, like all idealism, it covers up for the messy stuff people are afraid to admit to or accept. I still say, fight oppression and injustice tooth and nail, but like everything, do it playfully. The notion that your struggle will lead to an idyllic utopia somewheres in the future is cowardly and self-serving. Suffering is a part of the human (and not only human) condition, I don't care what political system you come up with.