Conference Papers — American Political Science Association; 2006 Annual Meeting, p1, 29p

Abstract

Long regarded as a dated school of political thought, anarchism has been rejuvenated in the last decade or so. From anarcho-punk bands putting out "noise music" to bands of young people sporting black attire and the circle-A, its cultural symbols are widely present. Self-identified "anarchists" have often taken center stage at protests directed at major political and financial institutions. My central purpose in this paper is to explore the ideological orientations of the new anarchists, as expressed by the movement’s theorists—from Chomsky and Bookchin on the one hand, to Zerzan, Bey, and Black on the other. The paper highlights metaphysical issues raised by today’s anarchism-rationalism versus anti-rationalism, technology versus nature, creeds versus deeds-and concludes by identifying the fundamental principles characteristic of contemporary anarchism. ..