Should We Take Anarchism Seriously?

Anarchism as a political ideology did not emerge until Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) declared himself an 'anarchist' in his book What is Property? in 1840. Before this, the term 'anarchy', deriving from Greek and literally meaning 'without rule', had negative connotations and was often applied to political opponents as a derogatory term with the meaning "advocating chaos", for example the Diggers of the English Civil War and the Enragés of the French Revolution were referred to as 'anarchist' by their opponents. These pejorative connotations are still around today:
In conv…