Resistance is Fertile!Anarchist Slogan What's your favorite anarchistic quote or quote from an anarchist?
"All government in essence," says Emerson, "is tyranny." It matters not whether it is government by divine right or majority rule. In every instance its aim is the absolute subordination of the individual." -Emma Goldman, "What is Anarchy?"
“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude” Aldous Huxley 1950 (Foreward to Brave New World)
it is often easier to quote myself then remember what was said by anyone else. always with the disclaimer though that none of us are infallable or even close. "how can it not be obvious, that the last then that can be trusted, is anything that considers itself above question, let alone demands to be so considered?" "i will believe in anything that wants me to believe in it, but i won't believe in its begining and ending with what anyone, including myself, thinks they know about it." "there is no moral mandate for the existence of hierarchy in any form. there is instead, a fiate accompli of hierarchy, and a moral, even self, interest, in the avoidance of causing harm" "our individual priorities create collectively a market for what we experience individualy" "the wise do not seek gratification where there is none to be found, nor encourage others to do so" "honor is never served by vengence" there is one, by a religeous leader, of all things, not perhapse intended to be 'anarchist', of which i am rather fond: "when two people argue about religeon, they are BOTH wrong!" this could also be applied to idiology, because when idiology, any idiology, becomes and end, in and of itself, it is after all, putting itself ahead of the kind of world we all have to live in. =^^= .../\...
human nature is a myth. we have no nature that is not shaired by other creatures. our one claim to uniqueness is a stronger drive to express ourselves creatively (it is this alone, that has led us to surrounding ourselves so completely by our own artifacts, that we have forgotten our connectedness, to the rest of existence) diversity is the nature of reality, it has nor needs no other. the reason to avoid causing harm is not to be a saint, but to live in a world in which less harm is caused, and thereby suffering, including our own, is made measurably less likely. the same diversity of reality that does nothing to prevent the rise of tyranny, does equaly nothing to prevent it's fall no ammasing of tyrannical power has ever made it possible to prevent the grass from growing up between the cracks in the sidewalk somewhere diversity being the nature of reality is the wall that tyrants, and would be tyrannts, beat their heads against. eventualy it undoes them. not quicly enough to prevent them from causing great harm. but just as surely it eventualy does. =^^= .../\...
Not a lot going on in the Anarchy forum so I guess I'll add another quote. -"Do you have any advice for secular Americans who are faced with living in a country that's increasingly governed by religious fundamentalists?" -"If I have any advice, it's that every day that you wake up, don't say, "This is normal." Every day, wake up with this idea that you have to defend your freedom. Nobody has the right to take from women the right to abortion, nobody has the right to take from homosexuals the right to be homosexual, nobody has the right to stop people laughing, to stop people thinking, to stop people talking. If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it's that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same." Marjane Satrapi
I found an awesome interview with Noam Chomsky that pretty much summerizes the objectives of the anarchist mouvement: RBR: First off, Noam, for quite a time now you've been an advocate for the anarchist idea. Many people are familiar with the introduction you wrote in 1970 to Daniel Guerin's Anarchism, but more recently, for instance in the film Manufacturing Consent, you took the opportunity to highlight again the potential of anarchism and the anarchist idea. What is it that attracts you to anarchism? CHOMSKY: I was attracted to anarchism as a young teenager, as soon as I began to think about the world beyond a pretty narrow range, and haven't seen much reason to revise those early attitudes since. I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom. That includes political power, ownership and management, relations among men and women, parents and children, our control over the fate of future generations (the basic moral imperative behind the environmental movement, in my view), and much else. Naturally this means a challenge to the huge institutions of coercion and control: the state, the unaccountable private tyrannies that control most of the domestic and international economy, and so on. But not only these. That is what I have always understood to be the essence of anarchism: the conviction that the burden of proof has to be placed on authority, and that it should be dismantled if that burden cannot be met. Sometimes the burden can be met. If I'm taking a walk with my grandchildren and they dart out into a busy street, I will use not only authority but also physical coercion to stop them. The act should be challenged, but I think it can readily meet the challenge. And there are other cases; life is a complex affair, we understand very little about humans and society, and grand pronouncements are generally more a source of harm than of benefit. But the perspective is a valid one, I think, and can lead us quite a long way. From http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/rbr/noamrbr2.html
Anarchy is based on the observation that since few are fit to rule themselves, even fewer are fit to rule others -Edward Abbey
"Fuck off and die - you pig - go wank a fuckin capitalist off" My mate (Psi) when we were at a riot in London and the police were pushing riot shields in our faces as we all surged forward. Then one of them kicked psi so I grabbed the cops leg and tipped him over.
"If voting could change anything it would be illegal" -One anarchist's comment on the presidential elections in america.
Someone remind me of this guy's name I can't seem to remember. But the quote is "Oh judge, your goddamn laws, the good people don't need 'em and the bad people don't follow them so what the hell good are they?"
Dude! I was planning to post that one. But yeah, the quote is from Ammon Hennacy, a christian anarchist. "A functioning democracy is not supposed to happen in the streets. It's supposed to happen in decision-making."Noam Chomsky (concerning the WTO Protests in Seattle)
"That which governs best of all is that which governs not at all" (or something like that) From "On the Duty of Civil Disobediance, by Henry David Thoreau
The quote you're thinking of is from "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau [1849, original title: Resistance to Civil Government] "I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe--"That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure." Free copy : http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/71 Peace, poor_old_dad
"Anarchy is the true nature of all things. Monarchy, democracy, communism, all useless forms to control the human mind. But a mind cannot be control. It cannot be restrained. It has no boundaries. It has its will. Anarchy is the true nature of all things... " - Alex Battig