ENGL 298 B: Intermediate Writing Social Sciences   Autumn 2011, University of Washington

Emma Goldman would have harsh criticisms for the thick self. The thick self, being defined by its commitments and roles, is the communitarian to the thin self’s individualist. Goldman has little patience for the community as a whole, referring to it as the “ignorant mass” more than once.  She goes on to label those who go along with the community view as “unthinking”.

The thin self acknowledges a “real me” that precedes any other obligations, opinions, or assumed roles. The thin self becomes conscious of himself, of what he believes to be his true self. It was this individualistic ideal of man becoming conscious of himself that Goldman strongly advocated. She criticizes the church, the state, and society – which arguably constitute the community – for repeating the mantra that “Man can have all the glories of the earth, but must not become conscious of himself.” She sees this as an indefensible attack on the thin self, while anarchism promotes this self-consciousness.

Emma Goldman very clearly states that she believes the individual to be the life-blood of the community. In Goldman’s utopian society, the community would flourish because it was filled with thin selves living the lives they wished to live. Conversely, Goldman’s community exists at the individual’s expense, since society fulfills its promises by forcing the individuals within it to submit to their rules, their laws, and their morals.

Goldman calls it a crime to reduce the individual to a cog in the society, while thick selves embrace their identities as cogs. The thick selves sprint into the open arms of the society that Goldman can’t stand. Those who would base their identities entirely on how the ignorant masses view them must, therefore, be at least partly, if not equally ignorant.