Introduction: Anarchism, a Simple and Odd Business?

Abstract

What strikes the ordinary observer of anarchism is the gap between its naïve, simple ideal and the hard, complex reality. Anarchists seem to miss some obvious point about the way people are or to make unwarranted assumptions about the way people can be. Indeed the oddity of anarchism seems to be plain to see. To increase the observer’s puzzlement, the obviousness of the anarchists’ cognitive shortcomings is only proportional to their obduracy in neglecting them.