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Harold Walsby: The "Mass Rationality" Assumption

September 26, 2019

We have now reached the position (a), wherein we recognise that the qualitative-intellectual or ideological development of the individual from mental dependence on the group (politico-ideological collectivism) towards complete mental independence (politico-ideological individualism) necessarily – through the development of its economic content – involves the adoption of what we shall call “the mass-rationality assumption,” and… read more »

Harold Walsby: Political Individualism

September 8, 2012

In contrast to the larger type of political group – which, as we have seen from our brief study, tends on the one hand to adhere to “economic individualism” and, on the other, to “political collectivism” – we now come to consider the smaller type of group: that is to say, to consider those groups… read more »

Harold Walsby: Political Collectivism

September 9, 2012

Paradoxically enough, it is to fascism that we have to turn in order to find the political movement and expression most exclusively representative of the real masses – to find, in other words, the mass movement par excellence, the supreme example of political collectivism. This curious paradox was well expressed by Goebbels when he declared… read more »

Harold Walsby: The Left Wing and Intellectualism

September 9, 2012

With regard to our contention that the Left-wing political outlook represents, or is indicative of, a higher qualitative level of intellectual development than the Right-wing outlook; we might, perhaps, have been forgiven for expecting a clear recognition of its truth on the part of those who actually occupy these higher levels. Yet, curiously enough, when… read more »

Harold Walsby: The Political Groups

September 9, 2012

Is there no solution to this paradoxical and catastrophic state of affairs – for which science is partly, if indirectly, responsible? Or is there a way out? In modern times there has been a tendency for this question to form the background of a great deal of political thought and controversy. As this political strife… read more »

George Walford: The (Anarcho-) Socialist Party (54)

September 12, 2012

CORRECTION A Party member points out an inaccuracy in the concluding paragraph of “Are They Not Anarchists?” (IC 53 p.24): at the time of publication the expulsion procedure had not been completed, although this has since been done. He also thinks it unfair to describe the separation of 25 people from a membership of some… read more »

George Walford: Government Supports Pushers

September 9, 2012

In 1983 the Spanish government (socialist) decriminalised the possession of drugs for personal use while retaining penalties for dealing. An article in the Sunday Times (13 October 1991) now reports the authorities admitting the presence of over 100,000 addicted to hard drugs in Madrid, a demonstration of 20,000 “from five poor suburbs” demanding stronger action… read more »

George Walford: Small is Unsuccessful

September 9, 2012

Some twenty-five years ago Fritz Schumacher, author of Small is Beautiful, launched his Interediate Technology Development Group (ITDG), intended and expected to produce a revolution in ways of living, especially in the less developed countries, by the introduction of small-scale technology. Unlike The World Wildlife Fund and Amnesty, both founded around the same time, ITDG… read more »

George Walford: Doing the Splits (54)

September 9, 2012

Contrasting the anarchistic or libertarian socialists at the tip of the range with the Leninists and social democrats, Frank Girard (an anarchistic socialist) comments: But if they are splintered, our ‘force’ is atomized consisting of small groups and grouplets each with its own publication and small circle of members and sympathizers. Except for the Socialist… read more »

George Walford: What Will Do It?

September 9, 2012

An article in the Observer (15 September) opens with a ringing declaration that under the series of Conservative governments which began in 1979 crime figures have more than doubled, from an annual 2.2 million offences to a “staggering” 5 million projected for 1991. (Why we should be staggered by 5 million and not by 2.2… read more »