How to put some Anarchy into your Life

Discussion in 'Anarchy' started by green_revolution, Apr 13, 2006.

  1. Shane99X

    Shane99X Senior Member

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    Maybe you missed it the first time i provided you with info on anarchism and capitalism:

     
  2. green_revolution

    green_revolution Member

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    Couldn't have said it better. The only way we can ever defeat the current culture is to create a counter-culture. Fighting isn't enough. We have to be building something new at the same time. Now you don't have to recycle plastic bottle or compost your kitchen left overs in order to do this, but the more you do, the more you spread the idea of an alternative society.
    Anarchists aim to destroy the current system. People tend to think that the system is some big scale mechanism that can only be pictured in our heads. It's not. The system is made up of all the little things that we do day in and day out. It's by making small changes that were able to affect bigger things, and more often than not, it's a lot harder to change the small things that rule our everyday lives, than the big things that rule our society.
    At least that's my take on things... But who is to say what Anarchism is or isn't. Anarchism is a personal thing, it's a journey towards freedom that can take you anywhere you desire. But the first step in that journey is self-liberation. In other words, freeing yourself from your everyday routine, which along with everybody else's makes up the system we live in.
    (Don't mean to sound all philosophical and preachy but yeah... :sunglasse )
     
  3. Pointbreak

    Pointbreak Banned

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    That's the problem with cut and past answers, and the problem with ideologies like anarchy which are vague and tend to represent whatever people want them to represent.
    Capitalism has been quite happily coexisting with counter cultures for some time now. This is another attempt to classify ideas which have nothing at all to do with anarchy as anarchist simply because they sound good. Does capitalism force you to consume? No, it doesn't. You can spend all your money on eco tours or buying up acres of wilderness or giving it to any charity you desire. hell, take it home and burn it in the fireplace. This does not contradict capitalism in any way. Or you can choose to lead the simplest possible life and live on a commune. It is whatever you want it to be.
     
  4. Shane99X

    Shane99X Senior Member

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    No that's the beauty of philosophy.
    It encourages further interpretation.

    As far as anarchy representing whatever you want it to be...

    Anarchism (like all political, philosophic, or economic ideas) branches outward.

    Traditions
    Anarcha-feminism
    Anarchist communism
    Anarcho-primitivism
    Anarcho-syndicalism
    Christian anarchism
    Collectivist anarchism
    Eco-anarchism
    Green anarchism
    Individualist anarchism
    Anarcho-capitalism

    Labels like "anarchist" are just that, labels.
    in the end no person is strictly this or that.

    There will always be degrees. That in no way negates the central tenents of a belief sytem.





     
  5. cynical_otter

    cynical_otter Bleh!

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    I guess it's safe to assume that if someone breaks into your home and steals your computer, you won't be calling the police?


    Not that they could come, mind you, you let all the air out of their tires.

    This whole lifestyle is illogical. I'm all about limited government but there has to be someone and something to stop people from hurting others, stealing, killing, raping children...ect. And mob rule has already been proven ineffectual as that it is governed by emotion rather then facts.

    Humans are incapable of existing together without leadership and rules.
     
  6. Shane99X

    Shane99X Senior Member

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    really?

    Here are a societies that did alright:

    http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158582

    And human beings are more than capable of funtioning within an anarchist society:

    A.2.15 What about Human Nature?
    A.2.16 Does anarchism require "perfect" people to work?
    A.2.17 Aren't most people too stupid for a free society to work?


    Are laws the only thing keeping you from murdering, stealing, ect?
     
  7. cynical_otter

    cynical_otter Bleh!

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    Your resource is Wikipedia? Seriously? Did you know that Wikipedia is written by other internet users? Anyone can write an entry for them. I prefer books, lots of printed books written by historians, anthropologists, and others with PH.Ds.

    And all of the examples you listed that DID exist, not just polisocial theories you listed, all had a form of government.

    The Celtic people had a very rigid form of leadership consisting of tribal elders, warriors, and Druid priests. There was a clear heirarchy. They had a military and trading routes. They had laws that were unbendable and people who went against them were executed. The Celts also practiced human sacrifice. While they were definitely not primitive, they weren't that peaceful and enlightened of group. Though they were less violent and strict then their Scythian counterparts, who's women had zero rights.

    People give to much credit to extinct tribal nations. They were just people and obviously, they didn't meet the Darwinian criteria for survival of the fittest.

    There has never been a tribe or civilization of people that didn't exist without leadership, laws, and some sort of military(whether it be local men and boys fighting to defend or warriors sent to attack a neighbor for resources)

    Human nature would make it impossible for a truly free society. Why? Because human history has proven that people will always want for what others have. We, like other animals, are programmed to compete for resources. There will always be mental illness that causes people to hurt others and be destructive. There will always be someone greedy enough to kill for what they desire.

    Humans are not meant to be without leadership and rules, just any other species does not live without leadership. From the tiniest insect to the biggest whale, there is a heirarchy in their world.

    To think otherwise is greatly overrating the human species. We are an advanced animal but an animal nonetheless.
     
  8. Shane99X

    Shane99X Senior Member

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    You don't like wikipedia, fine.
    But at least look at the other 3 links i provided before condemning humanity as greedy shortsighted aggressors.
     
  9. streamlight

    streamlight Member

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    Actually yes, if it weren't for laws, I'd steal shit all of the time.
     
  10. green_revolution

    green_revolution Member

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    I highly doubt that... I mean, first of all, what are you gonna steal? If everyone decides to share resources, what's the point? Why steal something when you can just ask for it? or say, you feel lazy so instead of doing the work you decide to steal the result of some other guy's labour. You might get off a few times, but sooner or later people find out, and eventually justice will be served in some form.
     
  11. Pointbreak

    Pointbreak Banned

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    Somehow you haven't convinced me that the United States would work under anarchy based on this example.
     
  12. cynical_otter

    cynical_otter Bleh!

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    But, but, they're pirates.

    Pirates of the Carribean? Can Jack Sparrow be the wild band leader?

    Arrrr me mateys.
     
  13. madlizard

    madlizard Senior Member

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    Hehehe..

    This list isn't too bad.

    But, I must say, what you had to say about it made me laugh.

     
  14. napolean inrags95

    napolean inrags95 Member

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    "Actually yes, if it weren't for laws, I'd steal shit all of the time."

    see streamlight there's the difference between you and us anarchists. you do what the state tells you to. you've just proclaimed that there is something you want to do, something you would do ALL THE TIME in fact, but you don't, becaue they convinced you that it's wrong with their universal morality and uncompromising protection of property and capital. i do steal shit all the time. i never go hungry, i'm always comfortable and i don't hold anyone else down by doing it.

    anarchy is a political ideology, but it can also be a lifestyle, a mentality, a general perspective. you obviously don't even have a grasp of the basic concept, let alone the extrapolations of those ideas anarchists apply to ther social structures we create, or the way we interact with mass society.

    oh and one MAJOR clarification...that list DID NOT say "doing these things makes you an anarchist." obviously, many, many people who do not identify as anarchist do those things. it said ways to put a little anarchy in your life. all your arguments were based on the fact that they were exclusively anarchist ideas. so...you had no reasoning for saying anything at all? more or less?
     
  15. rainbowedskylover

    rainbowedskylover Senior Member

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    to me anarchy is nothing but being a concerned person. it is being so concerned with the world around you, you try to solve the problems yourself instead of making up excuses and hiding behind governmental institutions who are supposed to deal with them but CAN'T as they have proven over the centuries.

    the suggestions made at the start of this thread are solutions for certain developmenst and the world that are seen as problems by large groups of anarchists. they are made up by anarchists to make this world a better place, that is what anarchism is all about. it is a view on how the world could work and anarchists believe it is the best way, otherwise they wouldn't call themselves anarchists. all of the solutions can be applied by allmost everyone and so they are anarchist solutions, because they are free to use.

    mabey you don't what is the idea about certain suggestions. but for example the idea behind visiting older people would be something like: in our society old people are put away in old people's homes, which is extremely disrespectful, because they are responsiblefor our society the way it is now. it is a sympthon of a sick society with no healthy community spirit, which is a key factor to a anarchistic society in my opinion to prevent chaos. so visiting elders would be a way to improve community spirit and prevent them from being lonely and bittered
     
  16. anarchypeace

    anarchypeace Member

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    you are twisting the words to fit your own agenda. all of the above practically are inherintly anarchistic. anarchism isnt a poltical movement. its a social adventure into a life worth living.
     
  17. Gormur

    Gormur Member

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    -Think for yourself
    -Turn off your TV
    -Write a letter to a prisoner
    -Grow your own food
    -Have your neighbors over for dinner
    -Consume less
    -Share your car
    -Go to a rally against the death penalty. Talk to your friends and neighbors about the death penalty and how you can stop it.
    -Advocate that your community spend less money on police
    -On summer nights, hang out on the front porch of your house and talk to your neighbors. If you don't have a porch, stand out in the yard. Better yet, build a porch, and get rid of your lawnmower.
    -Research your local corporations and find out what they do and how they affect your community.
    -Start your own pirate radio station. Get you friends and neighbors involved
    -Boycott corporate bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble. Support your local independent bookstore, or, if you don't have one, start your own
    -Don't cross picket lines
    -Pick up all of the trash from McDonalds in your hood and then return it to the nearest store
    -Fight against new chain stores in your community
    -Don't participate in state-sponsored lotteries
    -Buy a cop a bagel. Talk to them about finding a new line of work.
    -Let the air out of police car tires
    -Eat less meat, or try switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet
    -Fill out misleading information on any surveys which have been sent to you by marketing scum
    -Ride your bike to work, if you can (I like to walk places, too, when possible)
    -Fight against gated communities in your town. If one already exists, find creative ways to ridicule it
    -Organize the workers in your workplace into a union. Then fire your bosses.
    -Compost your kitchen leftovers
    -Start a Food Not Bombs chapter in your town
    -Don't vote
    -Fill those annoying "business reply" envelopes with anarchist literature and send them back; you'll make some bored mail room employee happy.
    -Support radical envrionmentalist groups like Earth First!
    -Oppose new highway construction in your town.
    -Take the bus.
    -Join the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)
    -Spend some time hanging out with old people.
    -Oppose the construction of new super box strip malls.
    -Don't let people tell you how to live
    -Be a person, not a personality
    -Learn to create the things you need instead of buying them at a store.
    -Organise an affinity group and start an anarchist zine.
    -Pass out leaflets in your area to bring awareness about issues that matter to you.


    I highlighted the things I've done/do..which I don't consider to be enough. Unfortunately, taking mass transit or cycling isn't possible where I currently live, and I live in an apartment (which makes it difficult to grow much, tho I manage to grow a few things indoors).
     
  18. anarchypeace

    anarchypeace Member

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    heres a good one.


    punch a cop in the face
     
  19. Mike21484

    Mike21484 Member

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    Dear Streamlight, Green left out some things. First off,forget your TV,Food,car,mower,bike,composter and probibly your porch..cause if your successful at eliminating the police, thugs are gonna relieve you of them anyway. And as for the idea of "not letting someone else tell you how to live" ,then, how irrelevant is the post in the first place? And as for letters to inmates?hmmmmm,I worked in a prison for a while and I must say,save a few exceptions, Id much rather they spent their time deciding to do better next time, as opposed to reading letters trying to convince them there just there cause of poor potty training....they're there to make a decision "not" to do the things which got them there in the first place(like stealing Greens tv,food,car,mower,bike cosposter etc....and of course with no cops,they wouldnt be there in the first place,who's to catch'em and who's to care???? A society I'm ready for???...ummmm, no. Now, as for some ofthe other points..right on,I agree,but most of those are things that I(as a Christian)should be doing anyway so they shouldn't be all that unique!
     
  20. Hiptastic

    Hiptastic Unhedged

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    Kind of ironic, since since half the list involves telling people how to live (don't shop at chain stores, don't eat meat, don't build malls, dont' buy lotto tickets, etc etc...)
     

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