DAVID T. WIECK would be confirmatory or, perhaps, a ground recognizable and acceptable to persons in the middle-privileged strata of society, for whom the perspective of the oppressed, which is the perspective of anarchism, and the anger of the oppressed, to which anarchism gives voice, often stridently, might otherwise be strange, disquieting and frightening, even abhorrent. Doubtfully would such arguments sustain the passion invested in the Idea, a faith for which many have given their lives. The arguments which I see as having priority are, rather than utilitarian, arguments of morality (justice) or arguments of freedom, or, when the argument takes eudemonistic form, appeal to actualization of human being. I am not suggesting inconsistency in an anarchism grounded in utilitarianism, especially if the concept of utility is broad; I do suggest the utilitarianism, well-suited to decision-making in collectivist societies and systems of sovereignty, does not much lend itself to expression of anarchist intent. (d. The Ethics of Freedom) The role of principle in anarchist thought and action, as I understand it, is to liberate the positive ethical life of human beings. Thus the principle of power-negation is rather a constitutive principle of the desired society than a rule for life within that society. Put more concretely: an authentic relationships between persons, as understood by anarchists, presupposes the absence of power of some over others, but 'absence of power' says nothing positive about the content of that relationship, and that content will be the creation of those persons. If such is the meaning of anarchist principles, it would seem to follow that intercourse in an anarchist society would be conducted under conditions of voluntary agreement (often tacit, of course) and personal responsibility- for this seems to be what one would mean by 'absence of power.' Faith in the possibility of anarchist society, then, would signify faith that, in the absence of structured power, of dominant and subordinate classes, and of habits of deference to authority and exercise of power, human beings can use the gift of speech and other subtle forms of communication to resolve their intercourse into mutually beneficial patterns or into intelligent confrontation and disagreement and if necessary pacific disassociation, without need for commandments of morality. One would not, however, say of such a society that it ls post-ethical - as one might of a Marxist society, after the 42
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