James Scott taught us what’s wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary cooperation without hierarchy, Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing—one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions. Through a wide-ranging series of memorable anecdotes and examples, the book describes an anarchist sensibility that celebrates the local knowledge, common sense, and creativity of ordinary people. The result is a kind of handbook on constructive anarchism that challenges us to radically reconsider the value of hierarchy in public and private life, from schools and workplaces to retirement homes and government itself.
Beginning with …
James Scott taught us what’s wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary cooperation without hierarchy, Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing—one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions. Through a wide-ranging series of memorable anecdotes and examples, the book describes an anarchist sensibility that celebrates the local knowledge, common sense, and creativity of ordinary people. The result is a kind of handbook on constructive anarchism that challenges us to radically reconsider the value of hierarchy in public and private life, from schools and workplaces to retirement homes and government itself.
Beginning with what Scott calls “the law of anarchist calisthenics,” an argument for law-breaking inspired by an East German pedestrian crossing, each chapter opens with a story that captures an essential anarchist truth. In the course of telling these stories, Scott touches on a wide variety of subjects: public disorder and riots, desertion, poaching, vernacular knowledge, assembly-line production, globalization, the petty bourgeoisie, school testing, playgrounds, and the practice of historical explanation.
Far from a dogmatic manifesto, Two Cheers for Anarchism celebrates the anarchist confidence in the inventiveness and judgment of people who are free to exercise their creative and moral capacities.
Interesting and engaging book. His examples and "fragments" of an anarchist way of thinking will resonate with most people I think, but they all seem pretty marginal, and they can, and do take place within existing governments.
As an inspiration to question state and corporate overreach, and the tendency of states to simplify and codify messy and complex community interaction, this book makes a good contribution. The author doesn't suggest he's trying to do more than that, but if you are looking for justification of the basic anarchist premise that states should be abolished, you'll find no reason in these pages.
Review of 'Two Cheers for Anarchism' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
[a:James C. Scott|11958|James C. Scott|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1272598101p2/11958.jpg]’s [b:Two Cheers for Anarchism|14891877|Two Cheers for Anarchism Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity and Meaningful Work and Play|James C. Scott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1384020718s/14891877.jpg|20545642] is a good summary of some of Scott’s conclusions about authority’s quest for metrics, legibility, and control, how this backfires, and the ingenious and well-camouflaged ways ordinary people resist it. If you’ve been thinking of reading some Scott but have been intimidated by his more in-depth sociology papers or a thicker book like [b:Seeing Like a State|20186|Seeing Like a State How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed|James C. Scott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1437197404s/20186.jpg|21381] (see my review), this would be a good place to start.
The way he tells it, he noticed himself putting forward ideas based on his research and thinking “that sounds like what an anarchist would argue.” So he decided he ought to familiarize himself with the tradition of anarchist thinking. That accomplished, …
[a:James C. Scott|11958|James C. Scott|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1272598101p2/11958.jpg]’s [b:Two Cheers for Anarchism|14891877|Two Cheers for Anarchism Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity and Meaningful Work and Play|James C. Scott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1384020718s/14891877.jpg|20545642] is a good summary of some of Scott’s conclusions about authority’s quest for metrics, legibility, and control, how this backfires, and the ingenious and well-camouflaged ways ordinary people resist it. If you’ve been thinking of reading some Scott but have been intimidated by his more in-depth sociology papers or a thicker book like [b:Seeing Like a State|20186|Seeing Like a State How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed|James C. Scott|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1437197404s/20186.jpg|21381] (see my review), this would be a good place to start.
The way he tells it, he noticed himself putting forward ideas based on his research and thinking “that sounds like what an anarchist would argue.” So he decided he ought to familiarize himself with the tradition of anarchist thinking. That accomplished, he discovered not that he was necessarily an Anarchist, but that “if you put on anarchist glasses and look at the history of popular movements, revolutions, ordinary politics, and the state from that angle, certain insights will appear that are obscured from almost any other angle.”
Furthermore, “anarchist principles are active in the aspirations and political action of people who have never heard of anarchism or anarchist philosophy.” The first of these principles being “mutuality, or cooperation without hierarchy or state rule.”
His essays explore a variety of topics — including history, education, charismatic leadership, memorials, geographical nomenclature, urban planning, scientific agriculture, playground design, institutions for the aged, traffic lights, the petit bourgeois, and the suppression of politics by bureaucracy — by looking at them through this “anarchist squint.”
He makes a good case that the state, rather than bringing order to an otherwise chaotic and dangerous mass of people, instead erodes the traditions and abilities that naturally bring order to society:
To what extent has the hegemony of the state and of formal, hierarchical organizations undermined the capacity for and the practice of mutuality and cooperation that have historically created order without the state? To what degree have the growing reach of the state and the assumptions behind action in a liberal economy actually produced the asocial egoists that Hobbes thought Leviathan was designed to tame? One could argue that the formal order of the liberal state depends fundamentally on a social capital of habits of mutuality and cooperation that antedate it, which it cannot create and which, in fact, it undermines. The state, arguably, destroys the natural initiative and responsibility that arise from voluntary cooperation.
I enjoyed also his description of “anarchist calisthenics.” He describes watching German pedestrians at an intersection, waiting for several minutes for the light to turn green although everyone can see perfectly well that no traffic is coming on the road for a mile in either direction.
I began to rehearse a little discourse that I imagined delivering in perfect German. It went something like this. “You know, you and especially your grandparents could have used more of a spirit of lawbreaking. One day you will be called upon to break a big law in the name of justice and rationality. Everything will depend on it. You have to be ready. How are you going to prepare for that day when it really matters? You have to stay ‘in shape’ so that when the big day comes you will be ready. What you need is ‘anarchist calisthenics.’ Every day or so break some trivial law that makes no sense, even if it’s only jaywalking. Use your own head to judge whether a law is just or reasonable. That way, you’ll keep trim; and when the big day comes, you’ll be ready.”
Review of 'Two Cheers for Anarchism' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Easy read and good summary of the main political conclusions one can draw from Scott's work. I esp. like his idea of 'anarchist calisthenics', basically to break unnecessary and unreasonable laws regularly to train or grow your anarchist habits. His chapter on 'the petty bourgeoise' is a healthy antidote to much moralism on the left.
