The term Anarchy has been used since the French Revolution to describe a society with no government. This is the most basic definition of Anarchy. The word, however, is much misunderstood, as most individuals seem to equate it with violence and chaos. Real Anarchists (not the kind you see in movies, but the ones that exist in the real world) are actually opposed to violence and chaos. This, in fact, is where their resistance to the state actually stems from, as they believe that governments are amongst the worst perpetuators of violence, oppression, and chaos in the world.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Why Anarchists Hate the State
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You can't pretend to hate violence if you advocate a system in which might make right. Anarchists aren't violent, just ignorant.
ReplyDeleteFrom the article:
ReplyDeleteIn any form of government there will always be a percentage of the population, no matter how small, that disagrees with the actions of the government, and those individuals will always be oppressed.
So once government is gone and everyone gets to act in the way they feel is right, there won't be any misunderstandings or conflict? No one will become powerful or strong and oppress someone else, because there won't be any evil state doing it? Of course, then people can just organize mobs in order to exact justice, and we all know those are fair and balanced...
Individualist Anarchists also believe in the absolute sovereignty of the individual.
No, the affluent believe this, because they believe they earned everything they have alone without anyone's help, from the cradle to the grave they did everything without any help, and damned if they're going to help anyone.
If a person wants to use a drug, they should be allowed to.
We need anarchy in order to legalize drugs? Only an American could believe this. It requires someone from a country that had to fight bloody wars just to achieve autonomy and free slaves (things most other Western democracies did without wars).
This is because they see political power and wealth as inseparable.
So just cut the middle man (democracy, voting, government...) and suddenly the wealthy won't exploit people? Capitalism is exploitation, democracy is supposed to be our weapon against it. Anarchy only disarms the populace of their one weapon against the weatlhy few. We have merely failed to wield it properly.
Anarchists are not inherently violent individuals, despite their reputation, and they do not aim to bring chaos to the world.
Very few seek to do bad things, most merely do them while trying to do their version of the right thing. Anarchists may not "aim to bring chaos to the world," they're just happy to close their eyes and fire randomly until they do.
You can't pretend to hate violence if you advocate a system in which might make right.
ReplyDelete??? Ginx, the State is the essence of "might makes right", so what the hell are you talking about?
No one fought to gain power in our government, they were elected (though I agree it is "not a perfect system," see also: fucked up). Anarchy is rule by individual action, and I think you give an awful lot of credit to people for believing we would spontaneously live peacefully... or even more peacefully than in an organized society.
ReplyDeleteAnarchy is more of a temporary state of things before a new government arises, anyway. Prolonged anarchy is indisputably damaging to a region.