Anarchism of the Limit. Utilitarianism of Negative Separateness, Reactive Symmetry, and the End of Command

This record contains the foundational text of the Anarchism of the Limit, a normative anarchist framework grounded in Utilitarianism of Negative Separateness (UNS). The central thesis is that freedom does not consist in the availability of options, nor solely in the absence of arbitrary interference, but in the symmetry of the costs of refusal. Where social organization functions by rendering refusal predictably catastrophic—through the loss of housing, subsistence, care, legal status, or agency itself—moral justification collapses into command. The text integrates a critique of merit as a justificatory infrastructure of domination, introduces the concept of equifelicity as equal protection from exposure to maximal suffering (Smax), and defends reactive symmetry as the minimal condition for non-dominating cooperation. Rather than proposing a utopian blueprint or policy program, the Anarchism of the Limit offers a negative and non-negotiable moral criterion: no social order is justifiable if its ordinary functioning requires the foreseeable collapse of even a single agent’s capacity to refuse. The accompanying image is the symbolic mark of the framework: a mutilated circled “A”, representing the refusal of unilateral command and the limit beyond which justification no longer applies. The symbol is not decorative but conceptual, expressing visually the core thesis of the text. This work is intended as a foundational theoretical contribution to anarchist thought, designed to dialogue rigorously with contemporary political philosophy while remaining irreducibly anarchist in its implications.