Dumb Ideas that Changed the World, Episode 3
What if a social movement is anti-social?
Welcome to “Dumb Ideas that Changed the World.” The views expressed are solely those of the host and do not reflect the opinions of this station or its funders.
We don’t hear the word “anarchy” much today, but a century ago it was a worldwide social movement. In 1894 Charles Rodolf wrote: “The true anarchist believes that all human government is usurpation, tyranny, [and] essentially wrong...” In this sense, anarchy simply questions the need for government. In practice, though, look out.
Anarchism was sparked by a worldwide economic collapse in the 1870s. On its heels came the Gilded Age, when the economy caught fire but wealth was highly concentrated among the rich. Disaffected young people resented the “robber-baron” class and its conspicuous consumption. So much so that anarchists were prone to murder.
The Library of Congress records a slew of terrorist acts over 50-years: political assassinations, riots, we’re talking about literal bomb-throwers. True believers like Charles Rodolf placed the blame squarely on the rich and powerful themselves, not the terrorists. Anarchist Leon Czolgosz assassinated president William McKinley in 1901, infuriating the public rather than earning its sympathy. Then leading anarchist Emma Goldman spoke in support of the murderer! Upon taking the oath of office, Theodore Roosevelt condemned anarchy as the nation’s biggest threat.
Anarchism was dumb because liberalism and socialism were already calling-out inequality. These more “constructive isms” delivered labor unions, minimum wage, and social security. Politically, anarchy’s only accomplishment was death and destruction. World-wide, hundreds died, including ten heads of state.
Anarchists thought that teaching each other to make bombs would convince people to throw off all forms of government and live in … “peace.” Historian James Crossland writes that “anyone, from judges to police to people simply eating dinner at a café, was fair game.”
In the 1920s, anarchy withered as a social movement because it wasn’t a social movement at all.
I’m Jeff Gentry
Best reference: Aydinli, E. (2008). Before Jihadists There Were Anarchists: A Failed Case of Transnational Violence. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 31(10), 903–923. https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100802340720
Dumb Ideas that Changed the World copyright 2023 by Jeff Gentry. All rights reserved.
