Jason Koski/University Photography

James Scott gestures during his talk "On NOT Being Governed," April 4 in Hans Bethe House.

Although not an anarchist, A.D. White Professor-at-Large James Scott has what he termed an "anarchist sensibility," which he defined as "a way of squinting at things that seems a little different."

In his April 4 talk in Hans Bethe House, "On NOT Being Governed," Scott said that he uses this "squint" to view, for example, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.: "It's simply a list of the names of the people who fell … listed in the order in which they fell," Scott said. "It doesn't tell you what to think of the Vietnam War … it's a monument whose meaning is completed by the things that people bring to it and take away from it."

The Occupy Wall Street movement, he noted, "Was an anarchist social movement that had some fairly good consequences. … It was an interesting instance of there being … no one to bargain with, no set of demands. The one thing they did put on the agenda was the huge disparity in concentration of wealth that the political system has created, and they said, essentially, 'What are you going to do about it?'"

Scott delivered his comments in a discussion with Fouad Makki, assistant professor of sociology; Scott MacDonald, professor of philosophy; and Barry Maxwell, senior lecturer in comparative literature.

Scott objected to anarchist rejection of traditional politics: "They believed, along with Lenin, that politics was not necessary," he said. "Once you have science to solve all problems, it is just the administration of things."

He continued, "The anarchist has a faith in the perfectibility of the human being, to the exclusion of the humans beings being embedded in a larger natural system, in which their activities could affect the like chances of all the other species. We're the most successful and most dangerous invasive species the world has ever seen," emphasizing the importance of considering the impact of one person's actions on others.

Scott is a professor of political science and of anthropology at Yale University. In 2010 he was appointed to a six-year term as an A.D. White professor at Cornell; his April 4-6 visit was his first. Both of his public lectures focused on his 2009 book, "The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia" (Yale University Press). His April 5 lecture was titled, "Two Cheers for Anarchism: Autonomy, Dignity and Meaningful Work and Play."

Graduate student Joyanna Gilmour is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.