The rise of reactionary ideas everywhere in the Western world is the revival of very old and traditional confrontations. Before the rise of Marxism and even utopic socialist ideas (for instance with Fourier or Saint Simon), there was an opposition between reformists and reactionaries. If reactionaries are the shadow allies of fascists, reformists are the shadow allies of anarchists. The XXIst century, which is in a lot of things the revival of classical confrontations after the failure of Marxism (the return of wars of religion, of rivalries for supremacy between the United States and China, or oppressions like we live often in western societies today) may be as well the revival of classical reformist and anarchist ideas, which are the inside enemies of Marxists.
Reformist ideas are peculiar ideas compared to liberalism or socialist ideas. They can be seen as relatively socialist as they comply to socialist objectives (for instance fight against poverty and oppression), but at the right of the socialist party as they use a good deal of classical liberalism. Raymond Aron divided the ideas from the right between liberals, bonapartists and conservatives. If reformists have apparent acquaintances with conservatives (they value a sober and austere way of life, even if they are much more openminded in manners than conservatives), they are in reality using a good deal of classical liberal ideas (they value singularity, creativity, innovation, and thinking out of the box). Where reformists, which are then in the center left, can be relatively integrated to the socialist party but can also be seen as allies of classical liberals is that they use methods from these liberals (not the neo liberals, which are actually quite opposed to classical liberals) to reach socialist goals. For instance the way they do it is promoting education and knowledge. Luther, who was reformist in many ways, educated massively the German population, including women (which was revolutionary at his time) and contributed a lot to the renaissance of the Western civilization.
However the particularity of reformism, even compared with socialism, is that it is “breaking” a lot of frameworks. Its promotion of knowledge can be made out of everywhere. It is the reason why a lot of great reformists promoted libraries and constant learning. Libraries are to this extend great places, where you can access a great amount of knowledge for free, and it created for instance great revolutionaries (Luther, Melanchton, Marx or Lenin) and it can also access strategic places of capitalism (for instance the financial markets) only by studying. This studying can be made out of nowhere, and doesn’t need to be inserted in any framework. This possibility to be for instance able to compete with great companies of Wall Street from an old library with only books and an internet connection is a strength of reformism. It can make it also a shadow ally of anarchism.
Anarchism, which is build around the motto “neither God nor Master” is not necessarily atheist. There are anarchist theologians and mystics. However its promotion of a radical freedom is also taking into account the chaotic nature of reality. Hegel, who was a great reformist philosopher, thought that reality finds a sense in the long run, but is chaotic in the short run. Marx confronted Hegel in all his work, because he built his materialistic dialectism and his notion of fight between classes a “scientific way”, actually against Hegel who was his constant implicit opponent. But the Hegelian view is a shadow ally of anarchism, because he promotes the use of the chaotic side of reality. Marx, who fought against the anarchist Proudhon a good deal of time, saw Hegel as the shadow ally of this inside enemy. But it looks that the vision of Hegel and anarchists about reality is more relevant than the idea of Marx : you cannot frame reality a “scientific” a way as Marx think. Hegel is right to think the coherence of reality in the long run, and can contribute to support effectively a lot of anarchist ideas. It is the reason why many reformist intellectual and thinkers, for instance recent ones like Chevènement, can contribute to the promotion of anarchist views and ideas. Clémenceau defined himself as “at the same time conservative and anarchist” and these ideas deserve to be reconsidered at the time of great failure of Marxism in many ways.
The observer 