Bob Black is an American anarchist and lawyer. He is the author of The Abolition of Work and Other Essays, Beneath the Underground, Friendly Fire, Anarchy After Leftism, and numerous political essays. Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of hierarchy and imposed authority. ... English barrister 16th century painting of a civil law notary, by Flemish painter Quentin Massys. ...

Literary work

Beginning in the late 1970s, Bob Black was one of the earliest people to advocate what is now called Post-left anarchy.His writing style is vociferously confrontational, criticizing many of the perceived sacred cows of leftist, anarchist, and activist thought. An unaffiliated New Leftist in his college years, Black became dissatisfied with authoritarian socialist ideology and after discovering anarchism he spent much of his energy analyzing authoritarian tendencies within ostensibly "anti-authoritarian" groups. In his essay "My Anarchism Problem" he writes: "To call yourself an anarchist is to invite identification with an unpredictable array of associations, an ensemble which is unlikely to mean the same thing to any two people, including any two anarchists.". Though not actually an anarcho-primitivist, he sometimes writes for and has strongly influenced anarcho-primitivist publications. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... Post-left anarchy is a recent current in anarchist thought that promotes a critique of anarchisms relationship to traditional leftism. ... Draft Zebus in Mumbai, India. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... Anarchism is a political philosophy or group of doctrines and attitudes centered on rejection of any form of compulsory government (cf. ... Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Anarchism is a political philosophy or group of doctrines and attitudes centered on rejection of any form of compulsory government (cf. ... Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization. ...

Some of his work from the early 1980s (anthologized in The Abolition of Work and Other Essays) highlights his critiques of the nuclear freeze movement ("Anti-Nuclear Terror"), the editors of Processed World ("Circle A Deceit: A Review of Processed World"), "radical feminists" ("Feminism as Fascism"), and Libertarians ("The Libertarian As Conservative"). The nuclear freeze was a proposed agreement between the worlds nuclear powers, primarily the United States and the then-Soviet Union, to freeze all production of new nuclear arms and to leave levels of nuclear armanent where they currently were. ... The Libertarian Party is an American political party founded in 1971. ...

The Abolition of Work

The Abolition of Work, Mr. Black's most widely read essay, draws upon the ideas of Charles Fourier, William Morris, Paul Goodman, and Marshall Sahlins. In it he argues for the abolition of the producer and consumer-based society, where, as Black contends, all of life is devoted to the production and consumption of commodities. Attacking Marxist state socialism as much as market capitalism, Black argues that the only way for humans to be free is to reclaim their time from jobs and employment, instead turning necessary subsistence tasks into free play done voluntarily - an approach referred to as "ludic". The essay argues that "no-one should ever work", because work - defined as compulsory productive activity enforced by economic or political means - is the source of most of the misery in the world. Black denounces work for its compulsion, and for the forms it takes - as subordination to a boss, as a "job" which turns a potentially enjoyable task into a meaningless chore, for the degradation imposed by systems of work-discipline, and for the large number of work-related deaths and injuries - which Black typifies as "homicide". He views the subordination enacted in workplaces as "a mockery of freedom", and denounces as hypocrites the various theorists who support freedom while supporting work. Subordination in work, Black alleges, makes people stupid and creates fear of freedom. Because of work, people become accustomed to rigidity and regularity, and do not have the time for friendship or meaningful activity. Most workers, he states, are dissatisfied with work (as evidenced by petty deviance on the job), so that what he says should be uncontroversial - except he contends that people are too close to the work-system to see its flaws. The Abolition of Work is an essay written by Bob Black in 1985. ... This article is about the French utopian socialist philosopher. ... William Morris, socialist and innovator in the Arts and Crafts movement William Morris, publisher Davids Charge to Solomon (1882), a stained-glass window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris in Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts. ... There have been multiple well-known individuals named Paul Goodman: Paul Goodman (writer), US author, freethinker, anarchist and Gestalt Therapy contributor (see Paul Goodman page in the Anarchist Encyclopedia) Paul Goodman (sound engineer), winner of multiple Grammy Awards) Paul Alexander Cyril Goodman (United Kingdom politician) Paul Goodman an NHL hockey... Marshall Sahlins (born 1930) is a prominent American anthropologist. ... Consumerism is a term used to describe the effects of equating personal happiness with purchasing material possessions and consumption. ... In Keynesian economics consumption refers to personal consumption expenditure, i. ... Commodity is a term with distinct meanings in both business and in Marxian political economy. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... State socialism, broadly speaking, is any variety of socialism which relies on ownership of the means of production by the state. ... This box:      Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately [1] owned and operated for profit and in which distribution, production and pricing of goods and services are determined in a largely free market. ... Etymology: Latin homicidium, from homo- human being + caedere- to cut, kill Homicide refers to the act of killing another human being. ...

Play, in contrast, is not necessarily rule-governed, and is performed voluntarily, in complete freedom. Black effectively treats "play" as identical with non-instrumental activity and with a gift economy. He claims that hunter-gatherer societies are typified by play, a view he derived from the work of Marshall Sahlins; he recounts an alleged fall through which work is cumulatively imposed, so that the compulsive work of today would seem incomprehensibly oppressive even to ancients and medieval peasants. He responds indirectly to the view that work is necessary to get important but unpleasant tasks done, by claiming that first of all, most important tasks can be rendered ludic, or "salvaged" by being turned into game-like and craft-like activities, and secondly that the vast majority of work does not need doing at all. The latter tasks, he claims, are unnecessary because they only serve functions of commerce and social control that exist only to maintain the work-system as a whole. As for what is left, he advocates Charles Fourier's approach of arranging activities so that people will want to do them. He is also sceptical but open-minded about the possibility of eliminating work through labour-saving technologies. He feels the left cannot go far enough in its critiques because of its attachment to the category of workers, which reintroduces a valorisation of work. A gift economy is an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange is for goods and services to be given without explicit agreement upon a quid pro quo (the Latin term for the concept of a favor for a favor). Typically, this occurs in a cultural context where... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... Marshall Sahlins (born 1930) is a prominent American anthropologist. ... In classical economics and all micro-economics labour is one of three factors of production, the others being land and capital. ...

Anarchy After Leftism, and the Bookchin controversy

Beginning in 1997, Black became involved in a debate sparked by the work of anarchist and founder of the Institute for Social Ecology Murray Bookchin, an outspoken critic of the post-left anarchist tendency. Bookchin wrote and published Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm, labeling post-left anarchists and others as "lifestyle anarchists" - thus following up a theme developed in Philosophy of Social Ecology. Though he does not refer directly to Black's work (an omission which Black interprets as symptomatic), Bookchin clearly has Black's rejection of work as an implicit target when he criticises authors such as John Zerzan and Dave Watson, whom he controversially labels part of the same tendency. 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Institute for Social Ecology is an educational institution in the United States offering courses related to social ecology, an anti-capitalist strain of ecology closely related to anarchism. ... Murray Bookchin[1] (born January 14, 1921) is an American libertarian socialist speaker and writer, and founder of the Social Ecology school of anarchist and ecological thought. ... John Zerzan John Zerzan (born 1943) is an American anarchist and primitivist philosopher and author. ...

For Bookchin, "lifestyle anarchism" is individualistic and childish. "Lifestyle anarchists" demand "anarchy now", imagining they can create a new society through individual lifestyle changes. In his view this is a kind of fake-dissident consumerism which ultimately has no impact on the functioning of capitalism because it fails to recognise the realities of the present. He grounds this polemic in a social-realist critique of relativism, which he associates with lifestyle anarchism as well as postmodernism (to which he claims it is related). Ludic approaches, he claims, lead to social indifference and egotism similar to that of capitalism. Against this approach, he advocates a variety of anarchism in which social struggles take precedence over individual actions, with the evolution of the struggle emerging dialectically as in classical Marxist theory. The unbridgeable chasm of the book's title is between individual "autonomy" - which for Bookchin is a bourgeois illusion - and social "freedom", which implies direct democracy, municipalism, and leftist concerns with social opportunities. In practice his agenda takes the form of a combination of elements of anarchist communism with a support for local-government and NGO initiatives which he refers to as Libertarian Municipalism. He claims that "lifestyle anarchism" goes against the fundamental tenets of anarchism, accusing it of being "decadent" and "petty-bourgeois" and an outgrowth of American decadence and a period of declining struggle, and speaking in nostalgic terms of "the Left that was" as, for all its flaws, vastly superior to what has come since. Postmodernism is an idea that has been extremely controversial and difficult to define among scholars, intellectuals, and historians, because the term implies to many that the modern historical period has passed. ... Bourgeois at the end of the thirteenth century. ... Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy,[1] comprises a form of democracy and theory of civics wherein sovereignty is lodged in the assembly of all citizens who choose to participate. ... Anarchist communism is a form of anarchism that advocates the abolition of the State and capitalism in favor of a horizontal network of voluntary associations through which everyone will be free to satisfy his or her needs. ... Libertarian municipalism was a term first used by the well-known anarchist Murray Bookchin, and is used to describe a system where there would exist libertarian institutions of directly democratic assemblies that would oppose and replace the State with a confederation of municipalities. ...

In response, Black published Anarchy After Leftism which later became an important post-left work. The text is a combination of point-by-point, almost legalistic dissection of Bookchin's argument, with bitter theoretical polemic, and even personal insult against Bookchin (whom he refers to as "the Dean" throughout). Black accuses Bookchin of moralism, which in post-left anarchism, refers to the imposition of abstract categories on reality in ways which twist and repress desires (as distinct from "ethics", which is an ethos of living similar to Friedrich Nietzsche's call for an ethic "beyond good and evil"), and "puritanism", a variant of this. He attacks Bookchin for his Stalinist origins, and his failure to renounce his past affiliations with what he denounced as "lifestylist" themes (such as the slogans of France 1968). He claims that the categories of "lifestyle anarchism" and "individualist anarchism" are straw-men. He alleges that Bookchin adopts a "work ethic", and that his favoured themes, such as the denouncement of Yuppies, actually repeat themes in mass consumer culture and fails to analyse the social basis of capitalist "selfishness"; instead, Black calls for an enlightened "selfishness" which is simultaneously social, as in Max Stirner's work. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) (IPA: ), a Prussian-born philosopher, began his academic career as a philologist and produced critiques of religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science. ... Joseph Stalin. ... A straw man or man of straw is a dummy in the shape of a human created by stuffing straw into clothes. ... Work ethic is a set of values based on the moral virtues of hard work and diligence. ... Yuppie is short for Young Urban Professional. It is used to describe a demographic profile: people, usually between their late twenties and early thirties, generally with graduate degrees. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Bookchin, Black claims, has misunderstood the critique of work as asocial, when in fact it proposes non-compulsive social relations. He argues that Bookchin believes labour to be essential to humans, and thus is opposed to the abolition of work. And he takes him to case for ignoring Black's own writings on work, for idealising technology, and for misunderstanding the history of work.

He denounces Bookchin's alleged failure to form links with the leftist groups he now praises, and for denouncing others for failings (such as not having a mass audience, and receiving favourable reviews from "yuppie" magazines) of which he is himself guilty. He accuses Bookchin of self-contradiction, such as calling the same people "bourgeois" and "lumpen", or "individualist" and "fascist". He alleges that Bookchin's "social freedom" is "metaphorical" and has no real content of freedom. He criticises Bookchin's appropriation of the anarchist tradition, arguing against his dismissal of authors such as Stirner and Paul Goodman, rebuking Bookchin for implicitly identifying such authors with anarcho-capitalism, and defending what he calls an "epistemic break" made by the likes of Stirner and Nietzsche. He alleges that the post-left "disdain for theory" is simply Bookchin's way of saying they ignore his own theories. He offers a detailed response to Bookchin's accusation of an association of eco-anarchism with fascism via a supposed common root in German romanticism, criticising both the derivation of the link (which he terms "McCarthyist") and the portrayal of romanticism itself, suggesting that Bookchin's sources such as Mikhail Bakunin are no more politically-correct than those he denounces, and accusing him of echoing fascist rhetoric and propaganda. He provides evidence to dispute Bookchin's association of "terrorism" with individualist rather than social anarchism. He points to carnivalesque aspects of the Spanish Revolution to undermine Bookchin's dualism. There have been multiple well-known individuals named Paul Goodman: Paul Goodman (writer), US author, freethinker, anarchist and Gestalt Therapy contributor (see Paul Goodman page in the Anarchist Encyclopedia) Paul Goodman (sound engineer), winner of multiple Grammy Awards) Paul Alexander Cyril Goodman (United Kingdom politician) Paul Goodman an NHL hockey... A 1947 comic book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning of the dangers of a Communist takeover. ... Romanticism is an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ... Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (Russian — Михаил Александрович Бакунин, Michel Bakunin — on the grave in Bern), (May 18 (30 N.S.), 1814–June 19 (July 1 N.S.), 1876) was a well-known Russian revolutionary, and often considered one of the “fathers of modern anarchism. // In the spring of 1814, Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was born... In Spanish history, there have been several revolutions. ...

Black then rehearses the post-left critique of organisation, drawing on his knowledge of anarchist history in an attempt to rebut Bookchin's accusation that anti-organisationalism is based in ignorance. He claims among other things that direct democracy is impossible in urban settings, that it degenerates into bureaucracy, and that organisationalist anarchists such as the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo sold out to state power. He argues that Bookchin is not an anarchist at all, but rather, a "municipal statist" or "city-statist" committed to local government by a local state - smattering his discussion with further point-by-point objections (for instance, over whether New York is an "organic community" given the alleged high crime-rate and whether confederated municipalities are compatible with direct democracy). He also takes up Bookchin's opposition to relativism, arguing that this is confirmed by science, especially anthropology - proceeding to produce evidence that Bookchin's work has received hostile reviews in social-science journals, thus attacking his scientific credentials, and to denounce dialectics as unscientific. He then argues point-by-point with Bookchin's criticisms of primitivism, debating issues such as life-expectancy statistics and alleged ecological destruction by hunter-gatherers. And he concludes with a clarion-call for an anarchist paradigm-shift based on post-left themes, celebrating this as the "anarchy after leftism" of the title. In law, rebuttal is a form of evidence that is presented to contradict or nullify other evidence that has been presented by an adverse party. ... The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour or CNT), founded in Barcelona, Spain, in 1910, was at one time that countrys largest labour union. ... Compare Moral relativism, Aesthetic relativism, Social constructionism and Cultural relativism. ...

Bookchin never replied to Black's critique, which he continued in such essays as "Withered Anarchism," "An American in Paris," and "Murray Bookchin and the Witch-Doctors." Arguably, Bookchin conceded Black's point by repudiating anarchism in favor of a form of direct democracy he calls "communalism" - suggesting that he accepts Black's characterisation of his prior position as "city-statism".

Controversy

One altercation between Black and writer and alleged drug addict Jim Hogshire (author of the Loompanics book Opium For the Masses and the Feral House books Pills A Go-Go) resulted in Hogshire's arrest for possession of poppy pods with intent to manufacture opium. Black subsequently acknowledged that he had informed on Hogshire to the police, a claim that led to his alienation from some anarchist circles. Jim Hogshire is a counterculture author who has had several books published with Loompanics Unlimited. ... This image appears on the cover of every Loompanics catalog. ... Feral House is a publisher of high quality books on forbidden topics owned and operated by Adam Parfrey, but named by Boyd Rice. ... Opium, or opïum is a narcotic analgesic drug which is obtained from the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L. or the synonym paeoniflorum). ...

It is alleged that during the course of a dispute over religion (Hogshire then being a Quasi-Mulim), Mr. Hogshire aimed an M1 rifle at Mr. Black while demanding that he leave. According to Black, Hogshire became incensed after Black "expound[ed] hermeneutics to Hogshire"[1]. Using Hogshire's wife as a human shield, Black maneuvered himself out of the house and escaped. Despite later accounts to the contrary, it was in fact Hogshire who first reported the incident to the police[2]. A month later, Black wrote a letter to the Seattle police claiming Hogshire was operating an illegal drug lab.[3] After news of this event became known, several bookstores, including Philadelphia's Wooden Shoe and Boston's Lucy Parsons Center stopped carrying Bob Black's books. Mike Hoy, owner and operater of Loompanics, sided with Hogshire and circulated a letter of support signed by himself and the ownership of Feral House. A legal defense fund was established and requests for donations were publicized by Loompanics. The M1 Garand (more formally the United States Rifle, Caliber . ... Hermeneutics may be described as the development and study of theories of the interpretation and understanding of texts. ... Nickname: The Emerald City Location of Seattle in King County and Washington Coordinates: Country United States State Washington County King County Incorporated December 2 1869  - Mayor Greg Nickels Area    - City 369. ... Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Cradle of Liberty, the City That Loves You Back, the Quaker City, The Birthplace of America Motto: Philadelphia maneto - Let brotherly love continue Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Mayor... Wooden Shoe Books & Records is an all-volunteer democratic collective, run by consensus. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... The Lucy Parsons Center, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is an all-volunteer, nonprofit collective, operating as both a radical, independent bookstore and a community center for individuals to drop in, as well as a free meeting and event space for local activist groups. ...

Hogshire was indicted on the felony charge. Following his initial arrest bail was posted and Hogshire was released, after which he fled and was declared a fugitive. After a few months, his new lawyer negotiated his surrender and a guilty plea to a misdemeanor. The sentence was a fine, probation and community service. Hogshire and his wife later divorced and Hogshire (rumored to be addicted to heroin now) has not been heard from publicly since. Heroin, also known as diamorphine (BAN) or diacetylmorphine (INN), is a semi-synthetic opioid. ...

On another occasion, a member of the Church of the SubGenius, John Hagen-Brenner sent Black an "improvised explosive device consisting of an audio cassette holder wired with four cadium-type batteries, four flashbulbs, and five firecrackers" [4], as described in the charging document filed in Federal District Court. According to Black, he thought the package looked suspicious, then on impulse "threw it against the wall. There was a flash (the flashcubes) and a puff of smoke but the firecrackers did not go off." [5] Black turned the device in to the police. Black believes this is because of criticism Black made of the Church, and he has repeatedly brought up the incident in his writings concerning the Church. Ivan Stang and other members of the Church have denied any involvement in this incident, and no one else was charged. J. R. Bob Dobbs The Church of the SubGenius is a satirical postmodern religion, originally based in Dallas, Texas, which gained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s subculture, with a large presence on the Internet. ... Rev. ...

On a previous occasion a member of Processed World allegedly assaulted him by slamming his head against a sidewalk because he did not like Black's criticism of the publication. Police records show it was Black who was arrested for assault - a fact which Black puts down to the individual in question calling the police after the incident. He subsequently sued the same individual for libel, in a case which he eventually dropped but which cost the defendant financially. Such incidents are sometimes represented by Black's opponents as a propensity to seek revenge by using the police and the courts, though this is contested by his supporters.

Quotes

• "Free time is a euphemism for the peculiar way labor as a factor of production not only transports itself at its own expense to and from the workplace but assumes primary responsibility for its own maintenance and repair."

• "Cleansed of its leftist residues, anarchy - anarchism minus Marxism - will be free to get better at being what it is."

• "A libertarian is just a Republican who takes drugs."

• "I made a forced landing on the Moebius Strip, and now I want to know, which side are you on?"

External links

• Collection of essays by Bob Black
• My Date With Jim Hogshire - Bob Black's account of the Hogshire affair
• The entire text of Bob Black’s 1986 collection The Abolition of Work and Other Essays at Inspiracy
• Another page of Bob Black's writing
• Gerry Reith archive at Inspiracy
• Future Nexus
• Listen Anarchist! a critique by Chaz Bufe