Philosophical Post-Left Anarchism

Philosophical Post-Leftism believes that the state lacks moral legitimacy and individuals have no moral obligation to obey the state but, doesn't believe that individuals have to take down the state. Emphasizes the individual over another kind of guiding principle. Also believes that the state does not have to be brought down through violence but can be brought down through self-liberation an education in a insurrectionary manner. Doesn't see violence as something rational but doesn't have any moral objections to it. Also follows post left critiques on ideology, morality, organizationalism, work, identity politics and economic systems/planning. Economically is a Economic Nihilist.

History
Egoism is a philosophy and political ideology developed by Max Stirner in 1844. Outlined in his book "Der Einzige und Sein Eigentum" (Translated as "Ego and It's Own" or more accurately as "The Unique and It's Property") Stirner critiques institutions within society such as Christianity, Nationalism, Morality, Humanism, Socialism, Liberalism, and even society itself through a heavily individualist lens. He comes to call these ideas phantasms, or as they are more commonly known, spooks. This name comes from Stirner to describe the actions of these institutions as similar to that of ghosts. They are immaterial, but can still have an affect on, or even possess the individual.

Hegel was a large influence for Stirner as he was a member of the Young Hegelians, a group of thinkers who followed and analyzed Hegel's teachings. Stirner would grow to resent many members of this group, and even antagonize or satirize them in his book. Stirner built off of the Hegelian Dialectic to form these criticisms, and even to criticize the idea of the Hegelian Dialectic. He sought to bring to the individual's attention that many institutions and ideas are of our own creation and entirely dependent on our perception of them. Stirner likens these institutions to the property of the individual, in that the individual is the one who has the real power over them. The ideas of the State, Religion, Family, etc. are all the property of the individual, and as such the individual may do as they please with these institutions. He argues the individual should strive to use their control over these institutions in order to demolish them in the pursuit of becoming truly unique. (hence Der Enzige "The Unique" in the title.)

Stirner's work was criticized with a sort of begrudging respect by many of the Young Hegelians. Including but not limited to: Marx, Engels, and Feuerbach. While each took their own issues with the idea of Egoism, they would still acknowledge the impact and profound nature of Stirner's work. Stirner would respond to these criticisms, often under pseudonyms so he could pretend he wasn't the one responding.

Beliefs
Self

Stirner argues that the concept of the self is something impossible to fully comprehend; a so-called "creative nothing" he described as an "end-point of language." Stirner elaborated this attempt to describe the indescribable in the essay Stirner's Critics, written by Stirner in response to Feuerbach and others (in the custom of the time, he refers to himself in the third person):

In order to understand this creative nothing, Stirner uses poetry and vivid imagery. The creative nothing by its dialectical shortcomings creates the need for a description, for meaning:

The Ego and Its Own opens and closes with a quotation from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that reads "I have taken up my cause without foundation", with the unstated next line of the poem being "and all the world is mine". One of Stirner's central ideas is that in realizing the self is "nothing" one is said to "own the world" because—as the book states in its last line—"all things are nothing to me" [Ibidem, p. 324]:

Stirner describes this world view in brief as "enjoyment" and claims that the "nothingness" of the non-self is "unutterable" (p. 314) or "unnameable" (p. 132), "unspeakable" yet "a mere word" (p. 164; cf. Stirner's comments on the skeptic concepts ataraxia and aphasia, p. 26).

Egoism

Stirner has been broadly understood as a proponent of both psychological egoism and ethical egoism, although the latter position can be disputed as there is no claim in Stirner's writing in which one ought to pursue one's own interest and further claiming any "ought" could be seen as a new "fixed idea". Therefore, he may be understood as a rational egoist in the sense that he considered it irrational not to act in one's self-interest. However, how this self-interest is defined is necessarily subjective, allowing both selfish and altruistic normative claims to be included. Further, rationality as an end in and of itself is another fixed idea. Individual self-realization rests on each individual's desire to fulfill their egoism. The difference between an unwilling and a willing egoist is that the former will be 'possessed' by an empty idea and believe that they are fulfilling a higher cause, but usually being unaware that they are only fulfilling their own desires to be happy or secure; and the latter, in contrast, will be a person that is able to freely choose its actions, fully aware that they are only fulfilling individual desires: The contrast is also expressed in terms of the difference between the voluntary egoist being the possessor of his concepts as opposed to being possessed. Only when one realizes that all sacred truths such as law, right, morality, religion and so on are nothing other than artificial concepts and not to be obeyed can one act freely. For Stirner, to be free is to be both one's own "creature" (in the sense of 'creation') and one's own "creator" (dislocating the traditional role assigned to the gods). To Stirner, power is the method of egoism. It is the only justified method of gaining 'property'. Even love is explained as "consciously egoistic":

Anarchism

Stirner proposes that most commonly accepted social institutions—including the notion of state, property as a right, natural rights in general and the very notion of society—were mere illusions - spooks, or ghosts in the mind, saying of society that "the individuals are its reality". Stirner wants to "abolish not only the state but also society as an institution responsible for its members".

He advocated egoism and a form of amoralism in which individuals would unite in a "Union of egoists" only when it was in their self-interest to do so. For him, property simply comes about through might: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property. [...] "What I have in my power, that is my own. So long as I assert myself as holder, I am the proprietor of the thing". He says: "I do not step shyly back from your property, but look upon it always as my property, in which I respect nothing. Pray do the like with what you call my property!". Stirner considers the world and everything in it, including other persons, available to one's taking or use without moral constraint—that rights do not exist in regard to objects and people at all. He sees no rationality in taking the interests of others into account unless doing so furthers one's self-interest, which he believes is the only legitimate reason for acting. He denies society as being an actual entity: "The conquerors form a society which one may imagine so great that it by degrees embraces all humanity; but so-called humanity too is as such only a thought (spook); the individuals are its reality" (The Ego and Its Own, Tucker ed., p. 329). Stirner never referred to markets and his philosophy on property causes problems for a market system because—according to proponents of markets—property is not considered to be legitimate if taken by force. Stirner was opposed to communism, seeing it as a form of authority over the individual.

Property

Stirner has a concept of "egoistic property" in which he is referring to the absence of moral restrictions on how the individual uses everything in the world, including other people. For Stirner, property comes about through might: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property. [...] What I have in my power, that is my own. So long as I assert myself as holder, I am the proprietor of the thing". He says: "I do not step shyly back from your property, but look upon it always as my property, in which I respect nothing. Pray do the like with what you call my property!". This position on property is much different from the then prevalent form of individualist anarchism, which defended the inviolability of the private property that has been earned through labour. However, American individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker rejected the natural rights philosophy and adopted Stirner's egoism in 1886, with several others joining with him. Since he was a radical anarchist, he preferred a political-economic social condition that was anti-statist, anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian completely void of authoritarian monopolies (whether they positioned themselves as property or sovereignty) which were the enemies of individual liberation. Stirner's egoist anarchism is all about freeing the individual from the domination of property monopolists such as monarchs, governments, or industrialists while at the same time it positions itself against the anti-individualist nature of the traditional political left. Stirner had no concrete dogma on the issue of property and simply urged individuals to stop being ruled by others regardless of the authorities' moral claims about political sovereignty or property rights.

Union of Egoists

Stirner's idea of the "Union of egoists" was first expounded in The Ego and Its Own. The Union is understood as a non-systematic association, which Stirner proposed in contradistinction to the state. The Union is understood as a relation between egoists which is continually renewed by all parties' support through an act of will. The Union requires that all parties participate out of a conscious egoism. If one party silently finds themselves to be suffering, but puts up and keeps the appearance, the union has degenerated into something else. This Union is not seen as an authority above a person's own will.

Anarchy as a Theory & Critique of Organization

Specialization or Professionalism (Those most involved in the day-to-day operation of the organization are selected — or self-selected — to perform increasingly specialized roles within the organization, often leading to an official division between leaders and led, with gradations of power and influence introduced in the form of intermediary roles in the evolving organizational hierarchy.)

Substitutionism (The formal organization increasingly becomes the focus of strategy and tactics rather than the people-in-revolt. In theory and practice, the organization tends to be progressively substituted for the people, the organization’s leadership — especially if it has become formal — tends to substitute itself for the organization as a whole, and eventually a maximal leader often emerges who ends up embodying and controlling the organization.)

Ideology (The organization becomes the primary subject of theory with individuals assigned roles to play, rather than people constructing their own self-theories. All but the most self-consciously anarchistic formal organizations tend to adapt some form of collectivist ideology, in which the social group at some level is acceded to have more political reality than the free individual. Wherever sovereignty lies, there lies political authority; if sovereignty is not dissolved into each and every person it always requires the subjugation of individuals to a group in some form.)

Individual and Group Autonomy with Free Initiative (The autonomous individual is the fundamental basis of all genuinely anarchistic theories of organization, for without the autonomous individual, any other level of autonomy is impossible. Freedom of initiative is likewise fundamental for both individuals and groups. With no higher powers comes the ability and necessity for all decisions to be made at their point of immediate impact. As a side note, post-structuralists or postmodernists who deny the existence of the autonomous anarchist individual most often mistake the valid critique of the metaphysical subject to imply that even the process of lived subjectivity is a complete fiction — a self-deluded perspective which would make social theory impossible and unnecessary.)

Free Association (Association is never free if it is forced. This means that people are free to associate with anyone in any combination they wish, and to dissociate or refuse association as well.)

Refusal of Political Authority, and thus of Ideology (The word “anarchy” literally means no rule or no ruler. No rule and no ruler both mean there is no political authority above people themselves, who can and should make all of their own decisions however they see fit. Most forms of ideology function to legitimate the authority of one or another elite or institution to make decisions for people, or else they serve to delegitimate people’s own decision-making for themselves.)

Small, Simple, Informal, Transparent and Temporary Organization (Most anarchists agree that small face-to-face groups allow the most complete participation with the least amount of unnecessary specialization. The most simply structured and least complex organizations leave the least opportunity for the development of hierarchy and bureaucracy. Informal organization is the most protean and most able to continually adapt itself to new conditions. Open and transparent organization is the most easily understood and controlled by its members. The longer organizations exist the more susceptible they usually become to the development of rigidity, specialization and eventually hierarchy. Organizations have life spans, and it is rare that any anarchist organization will be important enough that it should exist over generations.)

Economic Nihilism/Anti-Economics

Autonomous individuals taking resources as they please or bartering in voluntary associations and mutual aid. Free from debt, contracts, property law, regulations, planning, work and wages.

Personality and Behavior
WIP

How to Draw

 * 1) Draw a ball,
 * 2) Fill the bottom half of the ball in dark magenta (#260000),
 * 3) curvy line going from the lower left to the upper right, staying above the diagonal and having some seaweed-like protrusions going upward. Fill the top half in light magenta (#800040).
 * 4) Add the Stirner glasses, and you're done!

Friends

 * [[File:Awaj.png]] - Best aunt.
 * [[File:Ego.png]] - Free your egos.
 * [[File:Egocom.png]] - Look at me, brother.
 * [[File:Illeg.png]] - Steal things; fuck work.
 * [[File:Insarch.png]] - Fight for your right to party.
 * [[File:Soul.png]] - Cool, but I like my personal property!

Frenemies

 * [[File: Cermon.png]] - He's lazy like me; he knows the power of doing nothing
 * [[File:Anprim.png]] - We want to destroy factories but I don't wanna go "hunting".
 * [[File:Anin.png]] - He won't help me not work.
 * [[File:Neolud.png]] - Weird distant son that never calls.
 * [[File:Ancom.png]] - Nothing personal but I think you get too much into IDPOL & culture war bullshit.
 * [[File:Bckchn.png]]  - I agree with him more than ill say but stop calling me a lifestylist you COMMUNALOID!
 * [[File:Antifa.png]] - You are why I became post-left. You radlibs keep attacking everyone who disagrees with you just because they don't buy your cringe false progressive identity politics.

Enemies

 * [[File:Cap.png]] - I'm.
 * [[File:Nazi.png]] - Not.
 * [[File:ML.png]] - Working!!!
 * [[File:Libertarian.png]] - You're just a republican who does drugs.
 * [[File:Indust.png]] - FUCKING STOP MAKING ME WORK, YOU FUCKING WORKTARD!
 * [[File:Corp.png]] - AS ABOVE! YOU EMBODY EVERYTHING I HATE!
 * [[File:AnSynd.png]] - Culturally anarchist but fiscally fascist. I hate your supporters calling themselves anarchists and your structuralism is cancer
 * [[File:Patcon.png]] - No, you're not a "Post-Leftist" you're just a more racist Succdem.

Literature

 * The Ego and Its Own by Max Stirner
 * Stirner's Critics by Max Stirner
 * All Things are Nothing to Me: The Unique Philosophy of Max Stirner by Jacob Blumenfeld
 * Too Much of Nothing! An Anthology of Anti-Economic Thought by Birdie Joe Hoakes
 * Economic Nihilism An Anarchist Case Against Economic by Bobby Whittenberg-James
 * The Abolition of Work by Bob Black
 * Post-Civ!: A Brief Philosophical and Political Introduction to the Concept of Post-civilization by Strangers In a Tangled Wilderness
 * Toward the Creative Nothing by Renzo Novatore

Wikipedia

 * Egoist Anarchism
 * Max Stirner
 * Union of Egoists
 * Post-Left Anarchy

Videos

 * Post-Left Anarchy: Leaving the Left Behind - Jason McQuinn
 * On the Post-Left and Egoism: Misconceptions and Explanations
 * Desert by Anonymous

Channels

 * Desert Outpost

Online Communities.

 * r/postleftanarchism
 * r/antiwork