The ‘A Word’: Why Anarchism?

At the risk of sounding defensive, I’ll say most people criticize anarchism without knowing much about it, or even knowing its leading historical figures (such as Bakunin, Kropotkin, Goldman, etc.). Outside of anarchist circles, rarely do people actually read any classic anarchist works, or attribute anything positive to the movement historically. They want to regard it as nothing but abstract, dangerous, foolish. They simply criticize it…