- 11 Nov 2012 17:53
#14103715
The solution to 1984 is 1973!
I had a request to post on pofo an op-ed entitled 'Why I am an Anarchist' that I wrote for Anarchomedia. Spookily Mike has just started a thread here in the Anarchism section with much the same title. I've already made the arguments in it on a number of different threads so for some there is nothing new in it but it is concise if not comprehensive description of my position. So anyway here it is: -
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Why I am an Anarchist
What is government? Sometimes it is hard to tell what is the essence of it. It muscles its way into so many social activities: health, education, standards, trade, dispute resolution, justice, research and development, media, insurance, investment, defence. Its essence is obscured by these activities like camouflage. But it is none of these activities; they can and have been done without government. When you subtract out all the activities of government that do not require government, can be done and even be done better by civil organisations, then all you are left with is an armed and idle minority bullying and robbing an unarmed working majority. That is the essence of government. It is nothing but a ‘protection’ racket. A local monopoly on the self-legitimised use of violence utilised for fun and profit. It is then an institution of oppression, no matter if it calls itself a republic or a democracy. It is a parasite on society, like a flea on a dog. Lackeys of the government will say in defence of their master that the flea can be reformed; one can plead with it to drink less blood from its host. Fleas can’t be reformed, the cure can only come from their removal. You can’t teach a flea new tricks.
When one finally realises this, that government is a parasite on the host society one must then ask is it an inevitable parasite? Must society always be pillaged and bullied by an armed and idle minority? I would answer no. History does not yield many examples of societies free from this parasitism but there are some. Foremost of these would be the Icelandic Commonwealth which lasted over 300 years and the much shorter lived Ukrainian Free Territories and Revolutionary Catalonia which each lasted only 3 years. Of course all hunter-gatherer societies and most tribal societies are functionally if not philosophically anarchist. This is enough to say that government is not inevitable.
Therefore from this understanding that government is not just unnecessary to fulfil human needs but is actually morally baleful and that it is possible to have a society without its menace then one must recognise one’s political philosophy as anarchism.
One may support capitalism or socialism; neither requires government and both are perverted by its presence. How capitalist is the USA when government robs property and distorts the markets? How socialist was the USSR when the government shoots workers that strike? The USSR was the final proof of the intrinsically evil and unredeemable nature of government. Prior to the USSR all governments had been founded explicitly on the coercion of obedience and the robbing of the wealth of the many into the undeserving hands of the few. The USSR was founded on nobler values yet within a few years became exactly as oppressive as any state before it. No Marxist state that followed has ever differed from this pattern. Socialist or capitalist, recognise your ideals can not be safely entrusted to government.
That then is why I am an anarchist.
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Why I am an Anarchist
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Why I am an Anarchist
What is government? Sometimes it is hard to tell what is the essence of it. It muscles its way into so many social activities: health, education, standards, trade, dispute resolution, justice, research and development, media, insurance, investment, defence. Its essence is obscured by these activities like camouflage. But it is none of these activities; they can and have been done without government. When you subtract out all the activities of government that do not require government, can be done and even be done better by civil organisations, then all you are left with is an armed and idle minority bullying and robbing an unarmed working majority. That is the essence of government. It is nothing but a ‘protection’ racket. A local monopoly on the self-legitimised use of violence utilised for fun and profit. It is then an institution of oppression, no matter if it calls itself a republic or a democracy. It is a parasite on society, like a flea on a dog. Lackeys of the government will say in defence of their master that the flea can be reformed; one can plead with it to drink less blood from its host. Fleas can’t be reformed, the cure can only come from their removal. You can’t teach a flea new tricks.
When one finally realises this, that government is a parasite on the host society one must then ask is it an inevitable parasite? Must society always be pillaged and bullied by an armed and idle minority? I would answer no. History does not yield many examples of societies free from this parasitism but there are some. Foremost of these would be the Icelandic Commonwealth which lasted over 300 years and the much shorter lived Ukrainian Free Territories and Revolutionary Catalonia which each lasted only 3 years. Of course all hunter-gatherer societies and most tribal societies are functionally if not philosophically anarchist. This is enough to say that government is not inevitable.
Therefore from this understanding that government is not just unnecessary to fulfil human needs but is actually morally baleful and that it is possible to have a society without its menace then one must recognise one’s political philosophy as anarchism.
One may support capitalism or socialism; neither requires government and both are perverted by its presence. How capitalist is the USA when government robs property and distorts the markets? How socialist was the USSR when the government shoots workers that strike? The USSR was the final proof of the intrinsically evil and unredeemable nature of government. Prior to the USSR all governments had been founded explicitly on the coercion of obedience and the robbing of the wealth of the many into the undeserving hands of the few. The USSR was founded on nobler values yet within a few years became exactly as oppressive as any state before it. No Marxist state that followed has ever differed from this pattern. Socialist or capitalist, recognise your ideals can not be safely entrusted to government.
That then is why I am an anarchist.
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Why I am an Anarchist
The solution to 1984 is 1973!