In 1874, a group of Frenchmen in revolt against the academic rules of their profession was dubbed “Impressionist”; this attempt at destruction by ridicule failed when the painters turned the intended insult into an honored label. The inflated value put upon their work since has not diminished the honor of the title. Another type of blowing up has had the opposite effect: Anarchism, whose modern emergence was contemporary with Impressionism, has pejorative connotations today. Too often, it is used as a synonym for “anarchy,” and we have been encouraged to think of it as merely a revolutionary creed like communism with, if anything, more nihilistic and destructive overtones. In the empty dialogue of political denunciation, the epithet “anarchist” has become the countercharge to the accusation “fascist,” without the protagonists having much idea what either term means. The height of absurdity was reached when long-suffering Polish workmen were described as “anarchists” by their socialist masters after the economic crisis of Christmas 1970.