Everyday Anarchism

Marriage is a patriarchal, capitalistic tool of oppression. But John Milton, the man who made Satan a revolutionary hero, suggested that marriage could be rendered empowering, not oppressive. By divorce! Join me for the everyday anarchism of divorce - as well as a brief history of patriarcho-capitalistic marriage and Emma Goldman's scathing condemnation of it. Also briefly discussed are the castle doctrine and its relationship to marriage, Frederick Douglass's condemnation of chattel slavery, and Michael Warner's critique of gay marriage.

Tolkien expert and fellow podcaster Sam Brock joins me for a discussion of Tolkien's anarchism! In my attempts to convince Sam that anarchism is the true hero of The Lord of the Rings, we discuss Ents as eco-terrorists, the Shire as a conservative anarchist utopia, Aragorn as a monarch who never governs, and power as the true villain.Check out Sam's podcast, Quenya Questions in Quarantine, if you want to go deep into the backstory of The Lord of the Rings with Sam and his cohost Raleigh: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AOvC2rYiJjK9yUGpNYxA7

I answer a question about Tolkien's anarchism, then a series of questions about anarchism, everyday anarchism, and why they matter! Featuring Tolkien's environmentalism, a conventional definition of libertarianism and an anarchist definition of libertarianism, discussion of Robert Nozick and Abdullah Öcalan, Kurdistan, the Paris Commune, the Spanish Civil War, and more!

Tolkien was an anarchist. So was Gandalf. In fact, anarchism is the hero of The Lord of the Rings - or at least, I think so.

In this episode, I answer listener questions, like: Would anarchism actually work? Do we have rights under anarchism? If everything is anarchism, doesn't that mean nothing is anarchism? My examples come from the Iliad, Shakespeare, and Hannah Arendt. Keep the questions coming to [email protected]!

In this episode, I introduce the idea that anarchism is all around you and you're using it every day. In fact, there's nothing more everyday - more normal, decent, and regular - than anarchism. Cooperation, or mutual aid, is how we structure our lives. And when we find alternatives to cooperation (like competition, commercialism, or coercion), we see that those alternatives are actually versions of cooperation, not alternatives to it.Not convinced? Give it a listen. And share your thoughts with me at [email protected] !