What's the logic behind the Library name?

Anonymous (not verified)

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Just wondering why the name The Anarchist Library was chosen? I feel like there was a missed opportunity to name it something fun or creative or unique

rocinante Sun, 09/11/2022 - 21:38

As some have mentioned, perhaps another name for the library could have been "An Anarchist Library."

To my knowledge, one of the founders of the project, Aragorn! (RIP) advertised the project as such (creating the biggest anarchist library) and it just came to be. At a certain time before the launch, there was some questions raised about the word "the" vs. "an" and what that might imply, but THE prevailed and here we are today. The image was to create a library with ALL the anarchist texts all in one spot.

You mentioned that you feel this was a missed opportunity, what "fun, creative, or unique" names would you have named the project or change it to?

Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 09/11/2022 - 23:30

what "fun, creative, or unique" names would you have named the project or change it to?

"An anarchist library" is much more fitting, but it could have been anything: a made up word, a pun, a play on an ancient or widely-cherished library. Your screen name is Rocinante; something more quixotic would have been great! Even "Roc's Library" or "Aragorn!s Library" or "Bay-area Anarchos Library" would have been more fitting. I'll now explain why, although it seems you are aware of the criticism already. As some have mentioned, perhaps another name for the library could have been "An Anarchist Library" [...] Aragorn! (RIP) advertised the project as such (creating the biggest anarchist library) This is the most "un-anarchist" sounding project when put in these terms. Since when is an aim of anarchy the centralization of all things into a definitive, authoritative, single-source which aims to control the type of disparate and divergent material that it hosts? This would seem to me to be the antithesis of the anarchist ethos, which is why I find the name "THE Anarchist Library" heretical and preposterous. "The Marxist Library"? Sure. "The National-Socialist Library"? Why not. But if anarchy is to be anything, it's not "the" anarchy.

Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/12/2022 - 06:30

The project was started in different times. Back then, most people weren't on the internet. The [internet] Anarchist Library was expected to be just as niche as The Bay-Area Anarchist Library. No one could've imagined it'd one day be the place where most anarchists read anarchist writing.

rocinante Tue, 09/13/2022 - 22:08

Have times really changed that much? I have been around since the very start of the project and the goal always was to be an archive of ALL the anarchist texts. While impossible, the sentiment has always been there. It definitely has been incredible and really nice to see how popular the English language project has become, which is something I didn't really expect.

I'm not sure where these Bay Area Anarchist Library comments are coming from. Yes, a few of the founders of the project were in the Bay Area, but everyone else doing the project, including one of the main librarians for many years are not Bay Area people. The project is very international and some who have tried to critique it have even gone as far as calling it the USA anarchist library. It's not and with the addition of new language projects, the library workers have really spread around the world.

Some comments so far on the forum, not just in this post, but in some others have been pretty ridiculous with Anonymous assuming they know absolutely everything about the project and end up being completely wrong. It's kind of incredible that some commenters think this is okay, but I'm afraid there are also a few known trolls already leaving absurd comments. Or perhaps people are afraid to ask questions? That would be a much nicer thought.

@critic (not verified) Tue, 09/13/2022 - 23:57

"Since when is an aim of anarchy the centralization of all things into a definitive, authoritative, single-source which aims to control the type of disparate and divergent material that it hosts? This would seem to me to be the antithesis of the anarchist ethos"

Could chisel and rocinante respond to this point directly? Thanks

@critic (not verified) Wed, 09/14/2022 - 04:32

Sure, whatever. But that doesn't answer the questions.

Comments like this make it seem like thecollective's not above doing some anonymous trolling themselves

rocinante Wed, 09/14/2022 - 21:27

I will address your comments slightly out of order here for a reason that will become apparent. I doubt that you are the real @critic to be honest as I don't think they would leave such poor comments on this forum. So not only do I think you are trying to impersonate an epic ANews commentator, but you are also leaving comments that remind me of someone specific from ANews comments. fake @critic wrote:

"Comments like this make it seem like thecollective's not above doing some anonymous trolling themselves"

Earlier I unpublished a forum topic that accused this project (SHH!) of just being thecollective (ANews). It's not. This project is extremely small at the moment and as was written in the announcement includes some librarians and other participants. Yes, ANews is clearly our friend as we have listed the website in the footer of all pages (the library does this as well if you haven't noticed). You are over here in the SHH! forums leaving terrible comments because you're mad at a different project or sadly you just enjoy being a total jerk and ruining things by being obnoxious. It's middle school level trolling you're leaving here as comments and most all of it (perhaps all, I don't want to waste my time going through) is not even not factual. You are just assuming like you know everything and then leaving it here as fact. For a second time, to be extremely clear to you - I'm a librarian and this is not an ANews project, nor does thecollective have anything to do with helping to moderate these forums. I have tried to be extremely light in unpublished comments, because I think having anonymous comments is important for many reasons - but I also don't want this to just turn into two 7th graders trying to give each other wedgies of some FortNite game. fake @critic also asked:

"Since when is an aim of anarchy the centralization of all things into a definitive, authoritative, single-source which aims to control the type of disparate and divergent material that it hosts? This would seem to me to be the antithesis of the anarchist ethos"

You are putting words in people's mouth again, trying to spoon feed your ideas into existence. To assume that the aim of anarchy is the centralization of all things and a control over such things and then say that the library believes this or acts upon this is just plain silly, especially because you seem to be coming at this over the word "THE." Perhaps you are the one trying to centralize all things and control everything by saying that any interpretation of the word THE is implies such ideas. **airplane sounds as I fly a spoon around everyone's face trying to feed them apple pie #n3v3rforg3t**

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/14/2022 - 18:05

> Since when is an aim of anarchy the centralization of all things into a definitive, authoritative, single-source which aims to control the type of disparate and divergent material that it hosts?

Since when does The Anarchist Library try to control material? T@L is the least sectarian anarchist project *ever*.

I don't really like the name either, but you can bet your bottom dollar that if A! & friends hadn't called their library THE Anarchist Library, Gillis and his robot bros in the Valley would have, and their library wouldn't even pretend to be non-sectarian.

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/14/2022 - 21:09

Do you not see how this logic is paradoxical?

"Since when does The Anarchist Library try to control material?"

"Gillis and his robot bros in the Valley would have"

Kinda the same logic like how Bush and Blair invaded Iraq before Saddam could use his weapons of mass destruction, no?

chisel Wed, 09/14/2022 - 22:32

Nope, your false equivalency is false.

The Anarchist Library is a project that does not preclude or control other projects. It is non sectarian.

Recognizing that other people would've made a sectarian project with a similar name, is in no way paradoxical.

Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 09/11/2022 - 23:36

Furthermore, I find this to be a symptom and consequence of the "non-sectarian" mentality. The beauty of the anarchs is their sectarianism. In the same way the goal of liberalism or globalism is to place everything under one unifying umbrella or mono-culture, a "non-sectarian" anarchism does similar.

chisel Tue, 09/13/2022 - 21:51

amazing how much power the@library has to control all the other libraries and what people read and all, just by having "the" in the name.

i agree that "an" would've been more humble, but humility isn't the only good in the world. and mostly, what hyperbolic arguments, grandma.

"heretical"?! lol. now i know you're joshin'.

Buttdarling Wed, 09/14/2022 - 06:20

By numbering anonymous contributions - say a hash of the date of the first then adding numbers onto that  - 001, 002, 003, etc the average reader may then learn to recognize good-faith efforts from cynical trolling.

And if they don't like being numbered then they can take a few minutes to think up a pseudonym / nom de plume / nom de guerre that rocks our world.

Reading every anon comment on Reddit style boards is a bridge too far when ' assertions without evidence may be dismissed without examination "

We're already drowning in data - help us Anon-one - you're our only hope. ( Sorry for the Royal ' we " ) 

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