Milton the Anarchist Re: "post-leftism"

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sat Aug 17 06:10:12 PDT 2002


Gordon Fitch wrote:
>
>
> There is no "founder of anarchism", such that utterances of
> the said person are taken as an authority upon which "the
> whole anarchist structure is grounded", whether on a
> metaphysical claim or on anything else.
>

Yup, I was rather extravagant. But I did say "one of the" not "the." And I continue to see in most anarchism (including often yours) that expectation of the petty producer that of course there would be a use/utility for her act (product, service, skill) if only some malign force blocking that realization were destroyed. The fear of _all_ "institutions" expressed by a fringe of (self-declared) anarchists is an extreme manifestation of this. And in that extreme form it seems merely a mystified affirmation of Smith's "Invisible Hand." In that case Milton was perhaps the first anarchist:

So spake th' Omnipotent, and with his words

All seemd well pleas'd, all seem'd, but were not all.

That day, as other solemn dayes, they spent

In song and dance about the sacred Hill,

Mystical dance, which yonder starrie Spheare

Of Planets and of fixt in all her Wheeles

Resembles nearest, mazes intricate,

Eccentric, intervolv'd, yet regular

Then most, when most irregular they seem,

And in thir motions harmonie Divine

So smooths her charming tones, that Gods own ear

Listens delighted.

(PL, V, 616-27)

This is anarchic heaven (literally!) Each angel dances a pattern internally consulted, but the result is a harmony as though they were following a divine conductor. They have divinity within, and when freed from all external restraint, freely obey that invisible order.

Milton recognized a glitch, however. This dance immediately follows the Father's announcement of the sovereignty of the Son, which triggers Satan's rebellion ("All SEEMD well pleas'd"). It was necessary in the end to call out the cops (the Son who drove the rascals into hell by his very appearance).

Proudhon lives!

Carrol



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