The May Pamphlet
The May Pamphlet is a collection of six
The pamphlet was originally published piecemeal in small, New York anarchist journals and was first compiled as a set among literary essays in Art and Social Nature (1946). The essays were not well known before Goodman's 1960 book Growing Up Absurd led to a resurgence of interest in his oeuvre, including the pamphlet's republication in Drawing the Line (1962). The May Pamphlet was Goodman's principal contribution to anarchist theory and a primary influence on Colin Ward, who later dedicated Anarchy in Action to Goodman's memory.
Publication
Before he became one of the best-known American literary
The full pamphlet was first compiled and released in Goodman's 1946 book Art and Social Nature.[10] Irving Novick's one-man publishing imprint, Vinco, produced the book,[11] which sold poorly.[12] Art and Social Nature placed Goodman's anarchist essays alongside his literary essays. The author considered the topics to have overlap, as he considered societal order to be mostly a matter of aesthetics.[2] The May Pamphlet was the book's opening section, composed of Goodman's anarchist short essays from 1945.[13] Another publisher, Alexander Katz, read "Revolution, Sociolatry, and War" in Politics and became interested in Goodman. Katz bought the book's unsold copies in purchasing Vinco, which he renamed the Arts and Science Press when establishing his own one-man imprint in the late 1940s.[11]
As Growing Up Absurd (1960) launched Goodman's career as a social critic,[14] Goodman revised the pamphlet for republication and swapped its essay sequence in his 1962 book Drawing the Line.[15] After Goodman's death in 1972, his literary executor Taylor Stoehr used this revised version in the 1977 reissue of Drawing the Line, which Stoehr expanded to include other political essays by Goodman,[3] such as a new essay on "Crisis and New Spirit".[14] The May Pamphlet was translated and published in German (Anarchistisches Manifest) in 1977.[16]
Synopsis
In The May Pamphlet, Goodman discusses the problems of living within a society that impedes individual initiative and imposes on
A free society cannot be the substituting of a "new order" for the old order; it is the extension of spheres of free action until they make up most of the social life. ... Free action is to live in the present society as though it were a natural society.
The May Pamphlet[19]
- "Reflections on Drawing the Line"
- "On Treason Against Natural Societies" – originally published in Retort, Fall 1945[9]
- "A Touchstone for the Libertarian Program" – originally published in Why?, June 1945[9]
- "Natural Violence"
- "Revolution, Sociolatry, and War" – originally published in Politics, December 1945[9]
- "Unanimity"
Throughout The May Pamphlet, Goodman uses the word "libertarian", referring to the
The first short essay, "Reflections on Drawing the Line", describes inventiveness as a necessary condition of libertarianism (anarchism). Goodman sees libertarianism as the fulfillment of "natural powers": that individuals produce art and society by living their
Goodman faults modern society and its focus on industry for man's alienation from nature, thus causing disaffection, coercion, and war.[21] He refers to this trade-off as "sociolatry", that the masses, alienated from nature, enable industrial progress in hopes of a higher standard of living.[22] In this way, their unconscious desires are coerced into behavioral norms in the name of institutional power.[23] Goodman's solution is a return to nature in which individuals reconnect with their natural urges and powers to pursue meaningful work, mutual aid, and direct democracy. The revolutionary potential of this redirection of energies rests in individual decisions,[21] not necessarily collective action.[24]
The second essay discusses the personal, therapeutic benefits of small acts of resistance.[25] To Goodman, "Treason Against Natural Societies" meant the self-betrayal in which an individual internally knows they are being coerced against their nature but instead "cowardly takes leave of his heart" and conforms. This ability to betray one's better instinct, he writes, is what enables a war.[26]
"A Touchstone for the Libertarian Program", the third essay, encourages libertarians (i.e., anarchists) to dilute their prejudices against jailable offenses[27] and in fact advocate on behalf of such offenses which, he wagers, are more likely political in nature.[28] He praises marginalized personal behavior ("acts of liberty") as "our strongest propaganda"[27] and contends that most jailable offenses are political non-crimes: free expressions whose repression encourages timidity. If prisoners were released, he argues, an increase in petty crime would likely deter bigger, more spectacular crime. Goodman notes this proposal as being impossible as moral relations and property depend on the existence of prison.[29]
The fourth essay, "Natural Violence", blames the "sterilization" of natural experiences—such as birth, death, and sex—for aggressive deviance, such as war ("war is unnatural violence").[27]
The May Pamphlet's last two essays are more theoretical. Similar to other essays first published in Politics, "Revolution, Sociolatry, and War", is an anarchist response to
"Unanimity", the sixth and final essay, argues that only invention can resolve natural conflict. "If a man cannot invent a way out", Goodman asks, "what right has such a man to be a libertarian on the issue at all?" He faults negative criticism for unproductively dispiriting individuals where positive criticism—a tenor throughout Goodman's social criticism—can offer possibilities for improvement and self-actualization. He proposes that individuals connect their creative efforts to their deeper, psychoanalytic needs—their nature—and to wider wisdom of the community.[32] Goodman puts special emphasis on unanimity as opposed to rough consensus, and writes that unanimity is found by "sharpening" the point of conflict until a new idea emerges.[33] The act of unifying one's social and political attitudes, he additionally suggests, has therapeutic effects.[32] Goodman views his commentary as standard anarchism to which he has added elements of psychoanalysis.[34]
Themes and analysis
The major themes of The May Pamphlet include how individuals can resist coercive societal conditions and invent solutions to social dilemmas by realizing their natural abilities.[13] Goodman believed that individual initiative—sociobiological drives and animal instinct in defiance of norms—and the everyday conflict it created to be the purpose of living, the foundation for communities, and a trait to nurture.[35] Goodman proposes that individuals realize their natural abilities and apply them creatively rather than letting them be co-opted by coercive pressures within society. Individuals could be free in a coercive society, he wrote, through pursuit of creative work, acts of passion or emotion, and "spontaneous recreation".[13] The duties of citizenship, to Goodman, entail dismantling the institutional barriers that separate people from life's basic circumstances. He wrote about "waging peace" as one would "wage war".[36]
Though the essays do not prompt for specific actions, Goodman generally suggests approaches such as avoiding societal coercion in the manner one avoids anything dangerous in the everyday, or "drawing the line", an ideological delineation beyond which an individual should refuse to conform or cooperate with social convention.
Goodman likely wrote these essays from his need to justify his draft dodging, according to his literary executor Taylor Stoehr. Goodman's politics derived from his personal situation as a meditation on how to cope, which Stoehr described as visible throughout the essays. These principles largely served Goodman well, wrote Goodman's biographer, and Goodman's reliance on instinct was sometimes among his most endearing traits, except when he could not identify his deeper instincts and could neither articulate his confusion nor admit it.[12]
While themes from The May Pamphlet—
Reception and legacy
The May Pamphlet was Goodman's main contribution to anarchist theory.
The essays outlined the conceptual positions and convictions that would undergird Goodman's entire career,
Art and Social Nature and its cornerstone, The May Pamphlet, established Goodman as a noteworthy cultural theorist,[13] despite it being mostly ignored at its release.[36] Goodman would sustain The May Pamphlet's anarchist social critique for the rest of his life[13] and continued to refine its ideas in works including Growing Up Absurd,[36] the 1960 study of alienated youth in America that established his importance as a mainstream cultural theorist and pillar of leftist thought during the counterculture.[45] The May Pamphlet saw a wider audience when Growing Up Absurd brought about a resurgence of Goodman's writing.[36] Through his influence, the stances of the 1940s New York anarchist magazines prefigured the activism and personal empowerment stances of the 1960s New Left.[6]
See also
Notes
- definition of libertarianism.
- ^ Widmer 1980, p. 37.
- ^ a b Widmer 1980, p. 38.
- ^ a b Nicely 1979, p. 170.
- ^ Stoehr 1977b, p. xviii.
- ^ Fisher 2010, pp. 10–11.
- ^ a b c d e Honeywell 2011, p. 10.
- ^ Graham 2007, p. 42.
- ^ a b Cornell 2011, p. 122.
- ^ a b c d Nicely 1979, p. 34.
- ^ Nicely 1979, pp. 33–34.
- ^ a b Stoehr 1994a, p. 61; Nicely 1979, p. 14.
- ^ a b c Stoehr 1977a, p. 376.
- ^ a b c d e f Smith 2001, p. 179.
- ^ a b Stoehr 1994b, p. 512.
- ^ Nicely 1979, p. 34; Stoehr 2010.
- ^ Nicely 1986, p. 159.
- ^ King 1972, p. 86; Fisher 2010, p. 11.
- ^ King 1972, p. 86.
- ^ a b Cornell 2011, p. 112.
- ^ Widmer 1980, p. 39.
- ^ a b c d Honeywell 2011, p. 11.
- ^ Genter 2002, pp. 311–312.
- ^ Genter 2002, p. 312.
- ^ Cornell 2016, p. 163.
- ^ Widmer 1980, pp. 39–40.
- ^ Stoehr 2010, p. 7.
- ^ a b c d Widmer 1980, p. 40.
- ^ Stoehr 2010, pp. 11–12.
- ^ Stoehr 2010, p. 11.
- ^ a b King 1972, p. 85.
- ^ Widmer 1980, pp. 40–41.
- ^ a b c Widmer 1980, p. 41.
- ^ Widmer 1980, pp. 41–42.
- ^ a b Widmer 1980, p. 42.
- ^ King 1972, pp. 86–87; Fisher 2010, p. 12.
- ^ a b c d e f Smith 2001, p. 180.
- ^ Smith 2001, pp. 179–180.
- ^ Stoehr 1994b, p. 511.
- ^ King 1972, p. 88.
- ^ Cornell 2016, pp. 163–164.
- ^ Goodway 2006, p. 322.
- ^ Fisher 2010, p. 12.
- ^ Stoehr 2010, p. 6.
- ^ Stoehr 2010, p. 9.
- ^ Smith 2001, p. 178.
References
- Cohn, Jesse (April 20, 2009). "Anarchism". In ISBN 978-1-4051-9807-3.
- Cornell, Andrew (2011). "A New Anarchism Emerges, 1940–1954". Journal for the Study of Radicalism. 5 (1): 105–131. S2CID 144581597.
- — (2016). ISBN 978-0-520-28675-7.
- Fisher, Michael C. (2010). Introduction. ISBN 978-1-60486-056-6.
- ProQuest 304798813.
- ISBN 978-1-84631-025-6.
- Graham, Robert, ed. (2007). "Paul Goodman: Drawing the Line (1945)". OCLC 154704186.
- Honeywell, Carissa (2011). "Paul Goodman: Finding an Audience for Anarchism in Twentieth-Century America". Journal for the Study of Radicalism. 5 (2): 1–33. ProQuest 921727268.
- King, Richard H. (1972). "Paul Goodman". ISBN 978-0-8078-1187-0.
- ISBN 978-0-00-217855-6.
- Nicely, Tom (1979). Adam and His Work: A Bibliography of Sources by and about Paul Goodman (1911–1972). ISBN 978-0-8108-1219-2.
- — (1986). "Adam and His Work: A Bibliographical Update". In Parisi, Peter (ed.). Artist of the Actual: Essays on Paul Goodman. ISBN 978-0-8108-1843-9.
- Smith, Ernest J. (2001). "Paul Goodman". In Hansom, Paul (ed.). Twentieth-Century American Cultural Theorists. Gale MZRHFV506143794.
- EBSCOhost 11198430.
- — (1977b). "Introduction". Drawing the Line: The Political Essays of Paul Goodman. Free Life Editions. pp. ix–xxxii. ISBN 0-914156-17-9.
- — (1994a). Here Now Next: Paul Goodman and the Origins of Gestalt Therapy. ISBN 978-0-7879-0005-2.
- — (1994b). "Paul Goodman". In DeLeon, David (ed.). Leaders from the 1960s: A Biographical Sourcebook of American Activism. ISBN 978-0-313-27414-5.
- — (2010). Preface. Drawing the Line Once Again: Paul Goodman's Anarchist Writings. By ISBN 978-1-60486-057-3.
- ISBN 0-8057-7292-8.
External links
- Full text in Drawing the Line (1962) from HathiTrust (public domain)
- Full text in Drawing the Line Once Again (2010), borrowable from the Internet Archive