Two Cheers for Anarchism
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A spirited defense of the anarchist approach to life James Scott taught us what's wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary cooperation without hierarchy, Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing—one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions. Through a wide-ranging series of memorable anecdotes and examples, the book describes an anarchist sensibility that celebrates the local knowledge, common sense, and creativity of ordinary people. The result is a kind of handbook on constructive anarchism that challenges us to radically reconsider the value of hierarchy in public and private life, from schools and workplaces to retirement homes and government itself. Beginning with what Scott calls "the law of anarchist calisthenics," an argument for law-breaking inspired by an East German pedestrian crossing, each chapter opens with a story that captures an essential anarchist truth. In the course of telling these stories, Scott touches on a wide variety of subjects: public disorder and riots, desertion, poaching, vernacular knowledge, assembly-line production, globalization, the petty bourgeoisie, school testing, playgrounds, and the practice of historical explanation. Far from a dogmatic manifesto, Two Cheers for Anarchism celebrates the anarchist confidence in the inventiveness and judgment of people who are free to exercise their creative and moral capacities.
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I regularly light a candle at my little shrine to the holy Saint James C. Scott, patron saint of understanding the state. This is largely due to Seeing Like a State, which was basically a jarring PARADIGM SHIFT for my brain. Seriously, that book. It makes you reframe everything: statistics, governments, hill people (NEW HAMPSHIRE), last names, everything. It is a very good book.
It is also a super dense book, and a tome, and thus a bit of a slog. Here is bite sized portion, courtesy John Green.
Anyway, anarchy dances around the undercurrent of James C. Scott's most notable works (much like it does under Kim Stanley Robinson's!), and this book is a little throwaway where Scott decides to FACE UP to this anarchy stuff once and for all.
It starts strong, with nice discussions about anonymous, dispersed, disorganized disobedience - jay walking, foot dragging, shirking, burning stuff, breaking stuff, other forms of low-level sabotage - as the roots of anarchist resistance (LA RESISTANCE!). These forms of resistance - silent non-cooperation, mutually agreed upon via game theory-like behaviors (e.g. the norm of driving 65mph in a 55mph zone) - can really gum up the works of society, and Scott argues that it's healthy to maintain these “anarchist calisthenics” and practice our free thinking rule-breakery whenever we can. Throw yourself onto the wheels, and the gears, and the levers, and make the machine stop!
He discusses how, historically, institutions and formalized resistance (e.g. movements with manifestos, leaders, organizations, minutes) have actually been hindrances and choke-holds on organic, dispersed resistance, and how the latter usually prologues the former (as opposed to the opposite).
Anyway, that was all great, and inspiring, and interesting. But then there are digressions which get progressively more tangential, until he's taking pot shots at the Yale tenure system (yo, and I'm sympathetic to how ridiculous the academic tenure system is) and making points so broad that I started to lose focus.
So. It's not a Seeing Like a State, nor the Art of Not Being Governed. It's okay. I feel like I had more anarchist education in Kim Stanley Robinson's books, honestly!
