What is really being discussed when the word anarchy is produced in contexts like this, is power. Those who see themselves as connected to power will of course vote no. Those who do not see themselves connected to power know enough to shut up about it.
Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)
61–70 of 839 posts
Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
We all have to live in this system, it's unrealistic to think all anarchists should be ideologically pure and live in the woods off the land like Kaczynski. I believe thinking and writing and getting these ideas into the mainstream can be a form of praxis. As Zizek says, sometimes the most revolutionary thing to do is nothing at all.
Absolutely. The system is pervasive and we have to live within it. But should you embrace it? While Yale and LSE are no doubt great institutions, to my mind they are also up there as educators of those who go on to become the system's top managers.
LSE has a history as a hotbed of activism ever since it was the focal point of UK student rebellions in the late 60s.
It's not nearly as Conservative as you might think.
Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)
#63A swedish rapper said in 1998; "Den enda sanna demokraten är anarkist", translates to "the only true democrat is anarchist". Not meaning the Democratic party in the US but rather a literal interpretation of the two words. Democrat meaning rule of the people and anarchist meaning no leaders. I was raised to believe in anarchism, and I still do at heart. But if it were ever to work we'd need strict and global regulatio…
Anarchism does not mean no leader. It means no authority. Hence why it is fundamentally different than democracy because democracy implies an authority somehow attributed to the people (directly or indirectly).
Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)
#64The early descriptions reminded me of libertarianism. did anyone else feel that? “Libertarians seek to maximize political freedom and autonomy, emphasizing individualism, freedom of choice and voluntary association.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism
Yes, they are both kinds of libertarianism[1], the main difference is that left wing reject private property (not personal property), which is argued that its existence will create power structures thus defeating the purpose of said libertarianism.
1: “One gratifying aspect of our rise to some prominence is that, for the first time in my memory, we, ‘our side,’ had captured a crucial word from the enemy . . . ‘Libertarians’ . . . had long been simply a polite word for left-wing anarchists, that is for anti-private property anarchists, either of the communist or syndicalist variety. But now we had taken it over..." - Murray Rothbard
Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)
#65“Anarchists are simply people who believe human beings are capable of behaving in a reasonable fashion without having to be forced to.” My anarchist sympathies want this to be true but this is a demonstrably false fairy tale. Just look at how we treat the planet and other living things in the presence of lawful order. Why would you assume that we would act righteously in the absence of law? It is painfully obvious th…
This troll just took over the conversation with troll nonsense. Don't argue with oxymorons.
Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)
#66A swedish rapper said in 1998; "Den enda sanna demokraten är anarkist", translates to "the only true democrat is anarchist". Not meaning the Democratic party in the US but rather a literal interpretation of the two words. Democrat meaning rule of the people and anarchist meaning no leaders. I was raised to believe in anarchism, and I still do at heart. But if it were ever to work we'd need strict and global regulatio…
I break the word 'democrat' into demo and crat. 'Demo' meaning the people, the demos, the citizenry. 'Crat' as in hold in Greek. So, citizen-hold. Or alternatively, 'mob rule'!
Really, IMO, you want individual rule for each individual. No system, no groups - just individuals. Anyone free to do what they want as long as they don't harm another individual. Do unto others, and all that.
That would be a closer definition of anarchy for me.
Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)
#67Is it just me, or does this text seems to pretend as if anarcho-communists are the only kind of anarchists and anarcho-capitalist don't exist? It doesn't seem to talk a lot about property rights, but some phrases about "the way society is organized right now" and "useless professions" are not what all anarchists believe.
Many people, for good reason, believe that anarcho-capitalism is an oxymoron. Wikipedia has a short section of some anarchist criticism of anarcho-capitalism [1].
Anarchists such as Brian Morris argue that anarcho-capitalism does not in fact get rid of the state. He says that anarcho-capitalists "simply replaced the state with private security firms, and can hardly be described as anarchists as the term is normally understood".
Similarly, Bob Black argues that an anarcho-capitalist wants to "abolish the state to his own satisfaction by calling it something else". He states that they do not denounce what the state does, they just "object to who's doing it".
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism#Criticism
Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody aside from hardened sociopaths would do that.
How many hardened sociopaths can an anarchy sustain before it either collapses or becomes a mockery of its own self-direction and mutualism principles?
You should read about how Anarchy treats it's mentally ill before you decide they don't have a solution to that simple problem. The way we treat mentally ill in Capitalism is a crime.
Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)
#69A swedish rapper said in 1998; "Den enda sanna demokraten är anarkist", translates to "the only true democrat is anarchist". Not meaning the Democratic party in the US but rather a literal interpretation of the two words. Democrat meaning rule of the people and anarchist meaning no leaders. I was raised to believe in anarchism, and I still do at heart. But if it were ever to work we'd need strict and global regulatio…
> Because evolution itself is randomness unchecked.
Eloquently put
Re: Are you an anarchist? The answer may surprise you (2000)
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anarchists are not an alien species, nor is there an anarchistan yet. They live among us
Well, I suspect that David Graeber, who quietly self-proclaimed himself as one of the leaders of Occupy Wall Street, was one of those people designed to make 'anarchistan' a distant reality. He would take the energy invested in him and then faceplant before the finish line. By say, proposing that the left wing should be voted for. He was in support of Corbyn etc - this is to say he was happy to work within the system…
Libertarianism was conceived by the anarcho-communist Joseph Dejacque, who first used the term to call Proudhon, the father of anarchism a mere 'moderate anarchist, liberal but not libertarian'.
For about a century libertarianism was exclusive a far left ideology including mostly anarchists and libertarian Marxists.