I mentioned this discussion with an angry young man (first year PhD student in international politics)and he sent me the following:
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You might like to mention Marx's deliberate smearing of the anarchists and the effect this had on Proudhon especially , but also on the socialist movement as a whole . The idea that a revolution could be spontaneous was beyond Marx. His battles with Bakunin testify to Marx's pessimism and his authoritarian traits. Unfortunately, the scientific, mechanistic materialism which came out of this was timely, but now that we have had a postmodern turn people are looking to the anarchists for a more holistic and less mechanistic understanding of the social order and what to do about it. The fact that anarchism has been marginalized all these years means it's going to take a monumental effort to bring it up to date. I mean if the left needs reinvigorating, Bakunin and Proudhon, not to mention Stirner and Kropotkin give an entirely new take on the whole thing. Todd May and Saul Neuman are both busily bringing this stuff into political science circles through post-structuralism. There'! s ! plenty going on, just no one reading it!!!
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