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# The attractions of mystical anarchism
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/attractions-of-mystical-anarchism/
- Published: 2012-05-07T23:05:00.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:15:40.000Z
- Description: Rousseau, according to Simon Critchley, sees the problem of politics more clearly than many: if political institutions are to be self-created - autonomous - then what will motivate the "violent individualist" to assent to their constraints? Simon Critchley discusses his new book, The Faith of the
- Author: Tony Curzon Price
- Tags: Cultural politics, #Migrated, culture, ideas, #en, #Import 2026-04-09 17:19

Rousseau answers the question of political motivation with the claim that nothing will avoid recourse to some form of socialisation, or what he called "civic religion". **Simon** **Critchley**, in conversation about his new book, goes much further: the understanding, criticism and analysis of all political creeds today should be essentially theological (1hr)