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In politics, individualist anarchism is a variety of anarchism that emphasises the importance of the individual. Several anarchist thinkers, such as Josiah Warren, Benjamin Tucker, Lysander Spooner, and Ezra Heywood are known as individualist anarchists.
Their works argue for the sovereignty of each individual within his or her own life. Other such writers include Henry David Thoreau and John Henry Mackay.
Individualist anarchists and private property
Individualist anarchists are claimed as part of their tradition by libertarian socialists (including the anarcho-communists) as well as by anarcho-capitalists, who criticize differently the works of these authors. In turn, modern individualist anarchists claim many works by anarcho-capitalists and libertarian socialists as part of their tradition, though without forcibly fully adhering to them.
It is not surprising that opinion about individualist anarchism is divided, because the classical liberals, too, were divided over the issue of capitalism - some arguing that business could develop into destructive trusts (Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson), and that the people themselves should have political power, while others argued about the primacy of private property and despised any form of socialism (Frederic Bastiat). It cannot be said that all classical liberals were pro or anti- capitalist, just as it cannot be said that all individualists are. In fact, there have been many individualist socialists, such as William S. Burroughs, George Orwell, Mother Jones, and Robert Crumb... and the organization known as the Industrial Workers of the World has had an individualist "act for yourself" attitude - a heavily darwinistic and Max Stirner inspired position that could be called "working class self interest".
Libertarian socialists have pointed out that many individualist anarchists, after and including Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, rejected essential foundations of capitalism, namely the legalism of private property (as opposed to the mere right to use) and the charging of interest or rent.
Anarcho-capitalists focus on the emphasis given by these thinkers on individual rights and liberty. In their opposition to "collectivism"; they agree with Frederic Bastiat in his responses to Proudhon.
Max Stirner who is arguably the most philosophically oriented of the individual anarchists, rejected Proudhon's ideas about property as a collective good, but also rejected all kinds of liberalism and the idea of rights to personal properties as an illusion or "ghost", clearly stating that there is no divine right to own anything, you only have what you have and that's it. In Stirner's view there are no moral obligations attached to property, or anything else for that matter. Thus he deems both Proudhon's concept of "individual property as theft" (paraphrased) and the libertarian idea of property as a natural principle as founded in superstitious beliefs. (In this concept he also explicitly included all "immaterial" or "spiritual" posessions, see The Ego and His Own.)
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