A Brief Overview of the Life and Views of The First Self-Proclaimed Anarchist - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

He was born all the way back in the beginning of the 19th century.

Young Life

He was a poor child of a poor family. His father’s worked as a tavern keeper and barrel maker, as you can imagine that doesn’t pay well. He often dreamed of a society where the working class could live in freedom and peace.

While working at a print shop he taught himself Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. At the same shop he often met people with many varying views, from socialist to liberal. His greatest influence became a utopian socialist named Charles Fourier. With his gained knowledge he tried to establish his own press. He failed because of bad management.

He used his knowledge and love of writing to write his first book, called Essai de grammaire génerale. Which was a book about language. Sadly he didn’t know much of the history of language and his book didn’t really accomplish much. So little that I can barely even find any results for it on google.

He was still able to win a scholarship from the Academy of Besançon. [1]

His Life

While he was studying at the Academe he continued writing. His next book, called L'Utilité de la célébration du dimanche made no impact. The book is basically about how sundays as a holiday are useful for families. A break from work does allow families to keep themselves and their living areas clean, but it didn’t really change any minds. [2]

His next book was far more interesting. It was called Qu'est-ce que la propriété? or in English, “What is Property?”. This was an extremely popular work. This book was specifically about private property, which he declared as theft. It is the tool that creates separate classes of people and the tool of the oppressor.

“if the liberty of man is sacred, it is equally sacred in all individuals; that, if it needs property for its objective action, that is, for its life, the appropriation of material is equally necessary for all.” - “What is Property?”

He explains the contrast between “Property” and “possessions”. Property is equivalent to the term “private property” used by Marxists today, and possessions are the same as personal property. Property is something owned by one but used by another. A possession is something owned and used by somebody. The former, leads to authoritarian relationships or as Pierre said “the exploitation of man by man”.

“land is indispensable to our existence, consequently a common thing, consequently insusceptible of appropriation”; “all capital, whether material or mental, being the result of collective labour, is, in consequence, collective property”[3]

Later, after finding out about a secret society of weavers, he learned of mutualism. He later acknowledged them by naming his version of anarchy mutualism. This would involve the workers directly controlling the means of production and selling what they produce to the market. Larger workplaces would run on democracy. He believed that interest and rent should not be expressly forbidden, although still viewed them as forms of exploitation. (They are called landlords for a reason) He said that along with the state they would slowly fade away. Unlike anarchists today, he believed that anarchy could be achieved peacefully through worker-run economic transition. [4]

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"To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place[d] under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality. (P.-J. Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, translated by John Beverly Robinson (London: Freedom Press, 1923), 293-294.)"

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