The Communitarian, Mystical, Responsible Anarchism of
Gustav Landauer
Gustav Landauer's conception of Anarchism can
be described as communitarian and even mystical. It is also responsible
Anarchism. It places the nature and make-up of the State squarely on the
shoulders of those who make up the State - WE. "We are the State",
declares Landauer.
While I would certainly recommend reading the entire article:
http://tinyurl.com/9t9kj
and this only to whet your appetites to learn more about him and read
the works of this great Spirit, I should like to turn your attention to two
passages from the article.
Quote:
"Note how he does not reify the State by turning it into an object
above us and how he refuses to turn politicians into scapegoats."
Landauer does not bellyache about how politicians are ruining society. We
are the State.
Quote:
"The following quote is probably the only bit of Landauer's
writing that is fairly well known, among anarchists, at least. The State is a
condition, a certain relationship among human beings, a mode of behavior, we destroy it by contracting other relationships,
by behaving differently toward one and other... We are the State and
continue to be the State until we have created the institutions that form a
real community..."(Lunn, Eugene - PROPHET OF COMMUNITY, Univ. of
California 1973, pg. 226)
Anyone who has grasped this principle understands that all of the
critique of regimes in the world, be it at the highest pinnacles of the
academic and journalistic ivory towers or on the lowest, knock-down-drag-out
message boards that occupy so much bandwidth will avail anything.
We are the State and continue to be the State until we have created the
institutions that form a real community.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan,
[email protected]