My natural journey to anarchism

-edited-

 

I have become such a "fuck you" anarchist that I no longer feel the need to argue the merits of anarchism because when you really care about doing your own thing, you do it, regardless of the people around you and their apparent need for authority.

 

Hey! anarchy doesn't have to be all "fuck you" y'know?
Anarchy is about good behavior, taking matters into our own hands, making up our own rules. On a previous point, i think marx was an anarchist, he thought after "the revolution" there'd be a period called "the dictatorship of the prolitariat" when the proles would get rid of all the enemies of the revolution.* There would then be a state for a while to administrate and nationalise everything, then as marx said "the state will wither away" Lenin also belived this.
However states seldom willingly "wither away" rather they make sure to perpetuate themselves, people given power don't willingly give it up.
Anarchy is Democracy.
peace X
*kropotkin (anarchist philosopher) fell out with marx about this issue at the first international.

 

I dont know about "good behaviour", that sounds like some kinda Straight Edge mentality.

As for Marx and Lenin, fuck em, I hope it burns in hell.

 

Shane, I'm sorry to say you're starting to sound like one of those anarcho-capitalists. Wall St. loves such people.

 

Hi! I'm not straight edge y'know, i'm just smoking a fag (which means something different over here)
We all know what good behaviour, we have empathy, to tell us "do as you would be done by".
The vast majority of human behaviour is co-operative. Look at all the people walking in opposite directions on a pavement, they all move out of the way of eachother, so as to let them all go their way. Cooperation is the norm, exceptions to the rule are news.
People compete when they are forced by circumstance or indoctrination.
Most crime and bad behaviour is caused by social inequality or poverty. Innit?
X

 

Not an AnCap and i don't believe anything that i've stated supports that position, though i am slightly sympathetic to that school of thought at times.

What, anyone who doesn't like Stalin and Marx is a capitalist?
Last i checked Bakunin didn't enjoy Marx's company much either...

 

Agreed.

When i read "good behaviour" i just assumed you were refering to social/cultural norms.

And it was Bakunin at the 1st, not Kropotkin....

 

Is this a Vanity thread or what?

Okay so lately i've been diving into the more abstract and philosophical parts og what we label "anarchism".

Any of you ever checked out Zenarchy or any of the other attempts to fuse political anarchism w/spiritual beliefs?

discordianism?

worth looking into.

Psychoanalysis as well, but i've still got a lot of mixed feelings about that shit.

Primitivism/green anarchism are starting to make a lot of sense.

Not the part about returning to a Gatherer-Hunter kind of life (dont know if that's even possible without killing off 5.5 billion people.) The part about using some critical thinking and analyzing in regard to this sad thing we call civilization.

 

I think you can't take way the laws and state without also, redistributing wealth and putting "the means of production" in the hands of the workers. The state and the powerful will never willingly relinquish power. You can't have a social revolution without an economic one. Discordianism and zenarchy seem to refuse to face these issues.
X

 

Shane, you seem to be exploring a bunch of trends. Good luck to you. A part of me rebels against many of them because they seem frivolous fads and labels. Much of it is just a mish-mash of already existing political thought. Therefore I'd still encourage anyone to read mainstream political thought, including Marx, before they go ahead saying fuck this fuck that.


As for anarchism that is quicker to buck the state than capital, I want no part of it.

 

Agreed, hopefully after reading Marx, Lenin, and Mao they agree with me, fuck Marx.

 

Isn't all political thought a mish-mash of previously existing ones?

Labels? You cried "an-cap", not me, i dont go by labels.

Red, black, or green i'll work with you.

Fads? Depends on which one you're talking about.

A lot of what you would call fads i would call newly evolved lines of thinking aabout the same old problems.

outside the box.
more than one way to skin a cat.

 

Because bucking capitalism by using the State as been so successful?

 

I don't think that's the case guy, it's just a different way of looking at the same issues.

It's all within the same path though.

 

fexurbis


1. since when is marx mainstream? well known? yes. mainstream? you wish.

2. dont you think that there is already too much infighting within both the Left and the Libertarian circles (yes i know, those terms are HUGE umbrellas, not the point though)? I'm not just talking about disagreements, but a stubborn refusal to even consider the merits of other ideas.

 

Well, on the one hand you're right. On the other hand, I think our era suffers from what I like to call "package leftism", which usually includes stuff not even related to politics...like vegetarianism or some other superstition. I don't want part of that.

I would hope there is a way to continue to debate differences within the left without eliminating the possibility of collaboration.

Marx is definetely mainstream political THOUGHT. No mainstream university exists that won't have courses on Marxist thought. However, you would be right in saying that Marxism is not mainstream POLITICS.

 

Socialism is fallible, like capitalism, anarchism, or any political system historically tried and tested. That is why, in fact, I'm an existentialist, and don't subscribe to a single political system.

However, there is a reason capital is always trying to undermine the state. That is because the state has been the only human institution able to curb capital historically. It did not produce some utopia, but it did curb capital.

For that reason I think anarchism has to be weary of playing into the hands of capital as it so often does. It is fine to point out the limitations of the state, so long as it is done alongside the limitations of capital.

Yet anarchists today are quicker to begrudge the state than capital. I don't think that is a conincidence. I think anarchism is largely co-opted, like many other strains of leftist thought and politics.

 

No. If you got something to add, then by all means do it. All political thought is in response to a previous one. But that is different from throwing a bunch of previously existing political thought, and making a gumbo out of it. Because nothing has been ADDED, and therefore only the label remains.

Political thought should not be treated as a commodity. It's not like fashion trends or anything.

 

this lable "an-cap" amuses me coz in england we have a long running un-funny cartoon strip called "andy cap", he's dead lazy and always rowing with his wife.