College of Political Knowledge
Subject: Government/Anarchism
Paper #36
Recently in the news I heard a couple of media types mention that protesters were anarchists….and I began thinking about the comment or slur, depending on your thought process……
So you think you know what an anarchist is, right? Believe me, what you think you know is wrong……the very mention of the word conjures up images of crazy eyed, bomb throwing, hairy, smelly social dissenters…..am I right? The idea that an anarchist is somehow a ‘terrorist’, to use a 21st century word, is just wrong and came to be associated with acts of terror in the late 19th century by the media…that is right! The media is the source of the lie….go figure……
The word Anarchy and Anarchism are NOT the same! Anarchy conjures up those images of chaos, confusion and disorder…….few Anarchist actually support this and if anything believe that the elimination of government will incite the very things that they are accused of committing….Anarchists believe that humans have out grown the need for government….if they ever needed it in the first place. Because they believe in human self-government, then they believe it is a pure form of democracy…..an in so they reject any trend that demands that the people submit to a government on what is accepted behavior. In a more generalized way, Anarchists want to maximize human liberty. For that reason, anarchists view freedom as an absolute and freedom to them means an achievement of personal autonomy. So their view of democracy is that it should be direct participation of the people and a radical decentralization.
All forms of authority are unnecessary. It is exploitative, oppressive and destructive. And any so-called ‘checks and balances’ are nothing more than a bogus concept at best.
The entity known as ‘the nation’, to anarchists, is a tainted entity because of its association with the entity known as the state and in so also is equated with oppression. They see the nation as designed to teach and enforce obedience to the ruling class. Thus the state, is coercive, and compulsory and works for the benefit of the propertied, powerful and privileged of any given society and they are ALL a like.
In the economic sphere…anarchist believe that any form of economic control should be rejected out right….while those on the Left believe in common ownership or self-management and those on the Right look for completely unregulated market economy……
For the most part, anarchists are individuals that feel that man has moved past the days for the necessity of government, especially large encumbered government….so those screaming the loudest about a smaller government of less intrusion into personal lives, are in essence ‘anarchists’….like it or not YOU are an ANARCHIST!
Good post and my initial rection is…
Well, yes, in a way. But (there you go…), whilst I agree that the principles of anarchism are an ideal, they are, like so many others, entirely impracticable at the current stage of human development.
Yes, I agree that man MAY ONE DAY outgrow the need for government and that the smaller the interference of government in human affairs the more it encourages human personal development, whilst the opposite is also true – bigger government – more interference – more dependency (which is what politicians – particularly on the left – want because it increases the government’s (and therefore THEIR) importance. Yes I agree that many simply don’t need government at all and yes I don’t think that legislation designed supposedly to control companies actually works to any significant extent either and self reliance and personal responsibility should be preached and encouraged at all times.
So, that makes me an anarchist of a sort – agreed. Yet (makes a change from “but”) I do NOT see humankind as being anywhere near that stage of development in general. Given that old faithful, human nature, as it currently is, if we applied the principles of anarchism today, all we would wind up with is anarchy, which is, as you have pointed out, not what anarchists want at all!
See…I knew you were you just had to have an intervention…of sorts….LOL
I agree with you that it is NOT possible in this present epoch of human activity…..for one thing…I do not believe humans are capable of existing without the authority of the state…does not mean that I want a strong, intrusive state….but….well you get my point….
The problem as I see it is that the US has got to find a way to govern the country…..we are standing at the point in history where the idewals of the Founders are slowly being pissed away….and that cannot be good for the country…
There will be no “outgrowing” of a need for government unless we bring back the idea of the “clan” or something similar where people band together to combine forces against threats.
Because there will always be humans trying to steal from, rape, and murder other humans, there has to be a system of justice and defense, even if it is so archaic as a gentlemen’s code of honor that settles matters through hand-to-hand combat.
But then no matter the size of the authority….somebody will bitch about its size….I will agree that humans are not capable of living without someone enforcing laws…at least not right now….maybe later in our time on earth we can learn to be more self-governing…
You think humanity will last that long???