ANARCHIST SYNTHESIS
The selfsame sectarian and factionalist tendencies which urged Sébastien Faure and Voline (Vsevolod Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum) to express the concept of ANARCHIST SYNTHESIS (or ORGANIC ANARCHY, that is: the idea the Anarchism must be characterised by the same creative dynamic, ever-changing equilibria that characterise Life itself) in the early 20th Century have reemerged today.
https://libcom.org/library/anarchist-synthesis
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/sebastien-faure-the-anarchist-synthesis
It is, then, apposite that we may review their monumental theoretical achievement – the Synthesis of all that is worthy and good in the various streams of authentic Anarchy so that we may progress toward the actualization thereof.
Please note: Though the Synthesis is comprehensive and maximally generous of Spirit and mind; there are Anarchist tendencies that it does not recognize as genuine and well-intentioned, to wit: The Platform and Anarcho-Capitalism.
The Synthesis which Faure and Voline envisioned was a Synthesis of three complementary, supplementary and necessarily-existing moments in Anarchism. They are:
1) Anarcho-Syndicalism
2) Anarcho-Collectivism/Communism
3) Anarcho-Individualism
Today, we would include as mutually compatable with these various Moments of Anarchism such ideas as Anarcho-Feminism, Anarcho-Primitivism (which can exist in the same world with various Anarchist hi-tech Communities) and , in fact, all forms of Anarchism that do not contradict the above Principles.
However, let not the disingenuous include themselves. Let us not be deflected from our course by either factionalism or specious argumentation. "Anarcho-Capitalism" is a misnomer and disingenuous. The Platform is naught be Bolshevism rephrased in Anarchist terms so that the poison might be swallowed and then corrode us from within.
Faure, Voline and their contemporaries did not have to grapple with an issue that has become pervasive and invasive in our times. That issue is the deliberate creation of an effete, vapid, spoilt Middle Class that demands instant, cheap and easily-gained satisfaction, particularly among young people. In their time, most Americans and Europeans alike were serious-minded and they possessed the ballast of common sense and responsibility. They had to in order to survive. Today, we must struggle with 'attitude', vapidity, reduced attention span and a generalized light-headedness that was very carefully, and perfidiously, cultivated because the "elite" understands that such minds are not disposed to consider matters seriously or deeply and are apt to quickly find an equilibrium in the simple, diluted and degraded when presented with new, possibly socially-arousing, ideas.
The cultivation of snarky light-headedness among the Middle Class was found to be less bloody, yet far more effective, in preventing unity among groups that might effect social change than the internecine struggles that were fomented in the past to undermine social Movements.
There was no "Spectacle" at the beginning of the 20th Century. We must fight mightily against that phenomenon today. Paradoxically emptiness is, in our times, our most obdurate and obstinate obstacle.
These caveats having been expressed, let us, in the Spirit of Solidarity and Love, consider now the principles of SYNTHESIS (or ORGANIC) ANARCHISM.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
