Paul Cudenec draws on an impressively wide range of authors to depict a corrupted civilization on the brink of self-destruction and to call for a powerful new philosophy of resistance and renewal offering a future for humanity in which we are all able to “be what we’re meant to be”. He combines the anarchism of the likes of Gustav Landauer, Michael Bakunin and Herbert Read with the philosophy of René Guénon, Herbert Marcuse and Jean Baudrillard; the existentialism of Karl Jaspers and Colin Wilson; the vision of Carl Jung, Oswald Spengler and Idries Shah, and the environmental insight of Derrick Jensen and Paul Shepard in a work of ideological alchemy fuelled by the ancient universal esoteric beliefs found in Sufism, Taoism and hermeticism.

With a fusion of scholarly research and inspiring polemic, Cudenec succeeds in forging a coherent and profound 21st century world-view with an appeal that will reach out far beyond those who currently term themselves anarchists. The book sets out by exploring the sense of meaninglessness in modern society, exemplified by our alienating dependency on technology and mental manipulation by commercial interests. It follows Guénon, Marcuse and Baudrillard in diagnosing a regression of intellect and the reign of quality over quantity – a condition that Cudenec describes as the disease of modernity.

He argues that the concepts of “progress” and economic “growth” imply the inevitability of one particular future – a continuation of the current system. Although environmental crisis threatens our very existence, change is blocked and democracy is an illusion. The repression of resistance is mirrored by the control of “reality”. The closing-down of language and thought encouraged by the positivist philosophy is, as Marcuse and Jaspers explain, ideal for the capitalist system – denying as it does all possibility of human autonomy. What we need, says Cudenec, is a complete refusal of the system. Anarchism challenges assumptions about the law (Leo Tolstoy), property (William Godwin), employment (Bakunin) and the state (Errico Malatesta).

There are a few things that need clarifying about the text that follows. Firstly, I should stress that in quoting any writer, I am in no way endorsing anything else they may have said or written elsewhere. For instance, as this book was being prepared for publication, Derrick Jensen was being reported as expressing views with which I would not want to be associated, much though I have so far admired his work.

Secondly, much of the emphasis here is on individuals and the way in which we can clear our minds of all the detritus of the ego in order to be true to ourselves. However, this is not to say that the message is an individualist one, as a certain comrade felt it was, having read a draft. The reason why individuals must follow this path is so that they can better channel and carry out the needs of the larger whole. It’s amusing that in a previous essay, Antibodies, the same idea was approached from a different angle and led to the occasional accusation that here individuality was being rejected outright in favour of a collective identity! The point is that individual self-realisation and collective solidarity are two aspects of the same thing. The lack of either one leads to the loss of the other.

The second critical observation made was that not all anarchists are “outsiders” and endure an alienation from society as described. Yes, of course, plenty of anarchists flourish in welcoming social circles and communities and, as active people, are perhaps less likely to exist in a state of personal isolation than others. However, the discovery of like-minded people with whom one can share a life usually comes as a result of an initial alienation and the seeking-out of a reality other than the one prescribed by society as a whole. The anarchist vision is so profoundly at odds with everything on which our current society is based — all that domination, exploitation and control enforced by state-sanctioned violence — that it is not possible to be an anarchist and not feel alienated from that world and the mindset that uncritically accepts it. There may be those who are happy to label themselves “anarchists” for superficial reasons, without ever fully understanding the gulf between their outlook and that imposed by the status quo, but if they are to integrate the label with their inner identity, they will have to accept the enormity of the divide and go through the resulting self-realisation.

There is also an intermediate stage, in which many of us will have found ourselves floundering, where we understand the situation rationally but have not absorbed it emotionally. We still cling to certain insecurities and vanities that are part of the very way of being which we reject. Human communities in which there are no petty personality clashes or pointless disputes will probably never exist, but the frequency with which they occur will be reduced in proportion to the number of those who undergo the soul-searching and inner purification recommended by humanity’s universal inherited wisdom.

Being an “outsider” is thus a stage in a personal transformation which we must all experience if we are ever to emerge from the perpetual self-obsessed adolescence encouraged by contemporary society. Whether this change is sudden or gradual, pleasant or painful, whether it occurs during youth, adulthood or even old age, will vary between individuals. But if we are to align our inner selves with the strength and clarity of the cause we embrace, and thus allow ourselves to offer up our full unoccluded potential, it is a process that no anarchist would want to avoid.

As far as the rest of the content of the essay goes, that can safely be left to speak for itself.

“He who knows both knowledge and action, with action overcomes death and with knowledge reaches immortality”

Isa Upanishad, Bhagavad Gita

• Preface … ii

1. A World Gone Mad … 1
2. Freedom Obstructed … 5
3. Dump the System! … 10
4. The Lie of Democracy … 14
5. Anarchy Is Life … 19
6. The Courage to Exist … 23
7. Our Spirit Is Universal! … 26
8. Cleansing Fires of Revolution … 32
9. The Anarchist Paradox … 36
10. The Poetry of Revolt … 40
11. ¡Viva La Revelación! … 44

About the Author

Paul Cudenec is a writer, poet and activist living in the south of England. His previous writing includes Antibodies: Life, Death and Resistance in the Psyche of the Superorganism and We Anarchangels of Creative Destruction. For more information and contact details visit paulcudenec.blogspot.co.uk

Acknowledgements

For B & J and an end to separation

Copyright

Published by Winter Oak Press, Sussex, England
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Copyright © 2013 Paul Cudenec
The author formally retains copyright over this work but permits non-commercial reproduction or distribution

ISBN: 978-0-9576566-0-4