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Anarchism
An Introduction.
Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of imposed social hierarchy, including the state and capitalism. These philosophies use the word ‘anarchy’ to mean a society based on voluntary cooperation of free individuals.
Philosophical anarchist thought does not advocate chaos or anomie — it intends ‘anarchy’ to refer to a manner of human relations that is intentionally established and maintained.
The media is fond of mischaracterizing anarchists, turning us into all sorts of bogeymen — nihilistic terrorists, anti-technology dim wits, chaos-mongering hooligans and maniacal vandals— to the extent that, at least in the American media the term ‘anarchist’ is a dirty word, representing an unreasonable ‘extremist’ point-of-view. But is this true? Are we really all of those bad things?
To understand what anarchists are really about — that is, to escape the trap of media hype, you have to look beyond that caricature and see what anarchists really do. You’ll find that anarchists are a lot like you — everyday working people whom are almost uniformly poor (I’ve yet to meet a rich radical). The difference between anarchists and the rest of society is not our firm commitment to ideas like liberty, equality, solidarity, decentralization, environmentalism, direct democracy, cooperation, community, and federalism. Rather, what distinguishes anarchists from the rest of society is our emphasis on direct action to achieve our goals.
We feel that direct action is the most effective means of social protest, in that it puts power into the hands of everyday people, instead of in the hands of those who claim to represent their interests. Direct action is ultimately direct democracy — it is the direct expression of popular will, in the absence of intermediaries, who have their own agendas.
So, returning to the question, what do anarchists do? The more appropriate question is what issues are important to you? Odds are, an anarchist somewhere is working on those issues now. That’s the simple beauty of the idea: it empowers everyday people to pursue social justice in their own communities, without relying on leaders or representatives to decide what should or should not be done. To give you a sense of what areas are of particular concern to anarchists, here are some of the issues anarchists are focusing on right now: alternative energy, animal rights, DIY, media, earth defence, food politics, gender and race issues, neighbourhood and workplace organisation.
Branches of Anarchism
Strains of anarchism have been divided into the categories of social and individualist anarchism. Individualist anarchism refers to several traditions of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasises the individual and their will over any kinds of external determinants such as groups, society, traditions and ideological systems. Individualist anarchism is not a single philosophy, but refers to a group of individualistic philosophies that are sometimes in conflict.
Social anarchism calls for a system with public ownership of means of production and democratic control of all organizations, without any government authority or coercion. It is the largest school of thought in anarchism. Social anarchism rejects private property, seeing it as a source of social inequality, and emphasises cooperation and mutual aid. These are by no means the only two branches of anarchism. Sub categories can also be found, such as: Anarcho-Primitivism, Cultural Anarchism, Anarcho-Sydicalism, Anarcha-Feminsm and Green Anarchism.
So, in conclusion, we see that the myths about ‘anarchy’ being total chaos are untrue. I would like to finish with a quote from Alan Moore;
“I believe that all other political states are in fact variations or outgrowths of a basic state of anarchy; after all, when you mention the idea of anarchy to most people they will tell you what a bad idea it is because the biggest gang would just take over. This is pretty much how I see contemporary society. We live in a badly developed anarchist situation in which the biggest gang has taken over and have declared that it is not an anarchist situation – that it is a capitalist or communist situation. But I tend to think that anarchy is the most natural form of politics for a human being to actually practice.”
By: maceiteagain
