Anarchist Theorist - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (January 15, 1809 - January 19, 1865)

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

• French Politician
• Mutualist philosopher
• Socialist
• Member of the French Parliament
• First person to call himself an Anarchist
• Best known theory "Property is Theft!" contained in "What is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government"
• After this work was published it garnered the attention of Karl Marx, they began a correspondence. After Marx responded to Proudhon's "The Philosophy of Poverty" with the "The Poverty of Philosophy" it led to a split of the International Working Men's Association. 
• He favored workers' associations or corporate possession over private ownership or nationalization of land.
• He believed that social revolution could be achieved peacefully.
• In his work "The Confessions of a Revolutionary" he stated that "Anarchy is Order" a phrase still uttered today in modern anarchist circles. 

Proudhon was born in a rural area and as a boy he herded cows and other animals. He was mostly self-educated until age sixteen when he entered his town's college. Although his family was too poor to buy his school books he was able to borrow them from fellow schoolmates. At age nineteen he became a compositor, which is a writer and one who settles disputes.  He rose as a corrector for his local press, proofreading Biblical works. By doing this he learned Hebrew, Greek, Latin and French. His interests in politics began when he wrote a treatise L'Utilité de la célébration du dimanche which was the beginning of his revolutionary ideas. After this he moved to France where he lived poorly and studied with most of his time. He published another work while there "What is Property". After living through several revolutions and violent uprisings and the violence shocked him, furthering his beliefs of peaceful mediation. Proudhon died and is buried in Paris. 

"Whoever lays his hand on me to govern me is a usurper and tyrant, and I declare him my enemy."

To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place[d] under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.

—P.-J. Proudhon, "What Is Government?",