Jack White’s second wife, decided the manuscript of Misfit II was ‘too outrageous and defamatory ever to be published and consigned it to the flames’.1 Not alone have I not found any evidence to support this, I am confident that this has no foundation. In conversation with the family and from the correspondence I have seen, I would surmise that it is quite probable that the papers are mouldering in some solicitor’s redundant files.
Since I began my research I made a considerable discovery of documents, including what I have termed the Katy English papers (KE). These include a large tranche of correspondence White had with his niece in the last six years of his life (about 300 pages). Katy English is the daughter of White’s correspondent, Pat English, née Napier, whose mother Lady Gladys Napier was one of White’s sisters. Katy English has very kindly allowed me full access to these papers. These include family records, in particular by Rose, White’s older sister, who wrote a history of the White family with great detail on the exploits of her father, Field Marshall Sir George White VC.
Family reminiscences included conversations with White’s two sons, Alan and the late Derrick (who sadly died in 2007 RIP), their wives, and children, and Noreen’s (White’s second wife) nieces and nephew. Rory Campbell supplied reminiscences from his grandparents who knew White socially.
White’s story is representative of something outside, and even opposed to, the dominant narrative of Irish history in the early twentieth century. It is nonetheless a valid one which questions robustly the conventional account of a straightforward struggle between indigenous and coloniser. Here was a man who agonised about divided loyalties and courted no popularity in an adherence to a rare integrity. His particular claim to significance can be justified on two bases: firstly, his involvement in the Irish Citizen Army, which included a considerable amount of contact with James Connolly, probably the most important political thinker in Ireland in the early twentieth century. Secondly, White’s professed anarchism marks him out as one of the few figures of that period in Ireland associated with that system of beliefs. Although it would be at least twenty years after the revolutionary events in which he was involved that White used the word ‘anarchism’ at all, I believe that at that late stage he saw it as an explanation of his earlier outlook. Additionally, I would contend that he was far from being an outsider in his thinking at that time; that at least some of the ideas he adopted in 1913 onwards were shared by others, not least Connolly. Consequently, a study of the writings of anarchists like Proudhon, Bakunin and Kropotkin was called for along with subsidiary analysts and commentators like Georges Sorel. Although E.P. Thompson’s ‘enormous condescension of hindsight’ is always a danger, it was also necessary to assess how the position of those people are viewed today, particularly by those of a poststructuralist leaning, that is, thinkers like Todd May and Saul Newman. Todd May in his seminal work on anarchism – The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism – argues that the robust scepticism against received wisdom that primarily defines poststructuralism is equivalent to modern anarchist theory and terms it postanarchism. Current commentators on Irish counter-hegemonic theory, David Lloyd and Heather Laird, in particular, proved relevant to the analysis. Finally, wherever power is discussed and the nature of its multiple manifestations reviewed, Michel Foucault’s writings cannot be ignored.
Anarchism
An important part of Jack White’s claim for remembrance today is that he is regarded as one of the few self-proclaimed anarchists in Ireland. Unfortunately, anarchism has connotations of violence and bloodshed and, even in the most august of journals, is often used interchangeably with chaos. When it does get a sympathetic hearing, the idea that it supports the general abandonment of governance leads to dismay; how can sophisticated structures like the economy, or institutions like education or medicine, be organised without some central authority? Recently lack of regulation has been blamed on the destruction wrought on the world’s finances.
Accepting a general resistance to a concept that appears initially to be totally at odds with common sense, this account is not an attempt to persuade the reader to adopt at least some of the tenets of anarchism. Rather, during the course of White’s life, it is hoped to demonstrate that there was at least a justification to some of the positions he adopted, and it may surprise to note that these had their roots in anarchist thinking.
Colin Ward, in his book Anarchy in Action,2 attempts to show that quite an amount of anarchistic beliefs are tacitly accepted, and although not appearing to be obviously logical, possess, at least, a resonance of truth. One of his favourite examples is the industrial strike. Nowadays, the more conventional strike by trade unions is not to withhold their members’ labour, but instead ‘work to rule’. In other words, what they are actually stating is that they are now going to put into practise every one of the regulations laid down by the authorities which were initially drawn up to ensure the smooth running of the operation. Instead, everyone accepts that chaos will ensue.
It is far too complex a topic to address fully in a book of this type. Apart from possibly antagonising the reader, the very nature of the concept does not readily acquiesce with a succinct summary. In fact the various strands can even appear to be opposed politically, and quite often charges of subjectivity can be justly levelled at its various exponents. I actually believe there is a nebulous aspect to it that is absolutely necessary, as there appear to be premises that are not susceptible to conventional intellectual analysis.
But, before this is dismissed as nonsense, I would remind the reader of the cutting edge of science today, the world of quantum physics which Arthur Koestler described as ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Here phenomena like the ghostly quark occurs or other extraordinary entities whose behaviour alter as they are being observed. The fabled ‘man in the street’, with his concept of ‘science’, would be aghast at this nonsense.
Lao Tse, the ancient Chinese sage, purportedly wrote a book, called the Tao De Ching, which is seen as personifying anarchism. This basically consists of a collection of seemingly illogical aphorisms, including statements like ‘The sharper the spears the more restive the people’. Although appearing to be irrational and directly opposed to modern state legislation (in effect, it is saying, the more regulation, the less submission) it resonates with a truth beyond logic.
One of the principal thinkers in classical anarchism, Peter Kropotkin, a Russian aristocrat and scientist, argued that it was a fallacy that humankind needed strict control. In his book on evolution, Mutual Aid (1902), he maintained that an innate co-operation existed in all species and that this, more than the notion of ‘survival of the fittest’, was the primary dynamic of evolution. Oscar Wilde, no supporter of the status quo, was an enthusiastic fan and remarked that he ‘wrote like an angel’.
Peter Kropotkin’s entry on anarchism in the Encyclopedia Britannica begins by describing it as:
a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government – harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional.3
The antithesis, that is, a government with an emphasis on law and an authority to enforce it, is questioned by anarchists. In examining Jack White’s outlook and actions this book will confine the criteria for a support for anarchism to the two basic tenets arising from the above: one, a considerable caution against the focusing of power because of its fostering of a central authoritarianism; and, two, a scepticism about what post-structuralist theory terms the meta-narrative.
The former, a caveat about power, acknowledges Lord Acton’s dictum regarding its corrupting effect, and its role in encouraging excessive regulation and interference by the state (power tends to corrupt, absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely). This can result in oppressive government mechanisms of control leading to political structures ranging from the irritating ineffectiveness of a ‘nanny’ state to the horrors of a totalitarian regime.
The second tenet is
