THE NATURE OF SOCIAL DESIRE
71
Brethren of the Free Spirit, like many hedonistic sects of the time, had begun to
explore the utopian and social dimensions of sensuality, articulating the
relationship between ideas of freedom and desire. As Bookchin points out, the
Free Spirit’s "concept of freedom was expanded from a limited ideal of
happiness based on the constraints of shared needs, into an ideal of pleasure
based on the satisfaction of desire.”3
Over the next several centuries more formal expressions of the anarchist
impulse developed, articulated in less hedonistic terms. Nonetheless, the
Brethren
of the Free Spirit’s desirous
tendency,
retained within many
contemporary expressions of anarchism, linked the demand for desire to the
demand for social freedom.
SociAlANARckiSM: UlE DiAlECTiC
Of
DESiRE
An