Why I Am an Anarchist
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In case you were wondering why I chose anarchy.
“Carl?” You begin to ask me.
“Yes, dear reader, what is it?” I reply.
“Why are you an anarchist?”
“Well that’s easy to answer.” I smile and prepare to explain.
Why am I an anarchist? I am an anarchist because I am humanitarian. I’m one of those crazy folks who puts value on the life, rights and comfort of individuals. You know the sort I mean? The sort that is against the death penalty and for people getting hospital treatment when they need it. I’m not really a pacifist but I try to avoid violence and I hate to see people suffer. Yes I’m a regular, modern-day hippy with long hair and a tie-dyed jumper to complete the look. So for me, being a humanitarian works right into being an anarchist.
“Wait a second, Carl. You’ve done got me all confuzzled.” Well that’s alright. I’ll explain a little more and if you have any questions you just jump right in and ask them.
As I said a moment ago: I’m all for the comfort and rights of individuals and I’m for it regardless of who they are, where they come from and what they might have done with their lives. I don’t go looking for revenge and while I think there should be consequences for a crime, we shouldn’t be doing any lasting damage and we should be more focused on rehabilitation than just punishment. Oh and we should really attack the source of crime – we won’t go into that, though.
Now one of the things that makes an individual comfortable in life is freedom and anarchy is the ultimate in freedom. While anarchy is not, as some might think, lawlessness it is distinctly lacking in any kind of emperor (by that name or any other) to dictate what you must do. You make your choices and those choices decide your survival in the anarchist state. It’s darwinian and I know it might sound cruel but it’s not. You see anarchism also demands an community effort. When the government is not there to take care of things for you then you must take care of yourself and those around you. Only when a society is functioning like a web – or perhaps a machine – then do you have some form of utopia. I use that word in a very loose sense, of course.
Are you beginning to see the link? Humanitarianism demands freedom and freedom demands there be no rulers and no rulers demands there be a long forgotten cohesion among neighbours.
“Sounds optimistic, if you ask me.” Well it might be but I like to be optimistic. People are selfish but selfishness can lead to the good of the many. Selfishness is not always such a bad thing. People can work for others out of selfish desires as well. So why not take advantage of that for the greater good?
I’m getting off topic now. Any more questions?
“What if the anarchists decide to have capital punishment? That’s not humanitarian!”
Let’s put this in perspective. You have a community that relies on each other for survival. Everyone has their place in the machine, like a cog, and everything they do is for the good of themselves and, by extension, all others. Now you want to kill one of them? Take a cog out of your clock, any cog, and see if it still works. Capital punishment is not conducive to survival.
And I still hold that people are, at their core, moral by nature. Unfortunately we live in a system where people can be lazy and that… Well, that is for another article. I’ll end here and come back to the original question. Why am I an anarchist? There are several reasons but mostly I am an anarchist because I am a humanitarian. I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with me but from where I’m standing it all makes sense.
Image via Wikipedia
For more on the way I, as an anarchist, see things check out my other articles.
6 Comments
Sounds like a great theory, but we need to learn from history to
avoid repeating it. What generally happens in an anarchist state? Without laws and the enforcement of those laws, humans become animals. Read Lord of the Flies. In my opinion, people are not moral by nature. Visit any preschool to see what nature we are born with. Leave a class of 7th graders without supervision for 5 minutes and see what happens. People like freedom, but society cannot function without authority.
you support anarchy because you’re a humanitarian? humanitarianism is about being concerned for the welfare of others. you want to be free from government control, and i think that is actually quite selfish.
well I totally agree with you. I think I may be an Anarchist, even thou I can’t pronounce it.
It’s pronounce “An-are-kiss-t”
Karen —
>>>Read Lord of the Flies<<>> Visit any preschool to see what nature we are born with. <<>>Without laws and the enforcement of those laws, humans become animals. <<<
People *are* animals. Without laws, people are people. With laws, people are people with guns pointed at them to force them to conform to laws created by rich businessmen.
Jesse Taylor
ahh — my last post got screwed up somehow — here it is in full:
Karen —
—Read Lord of the Flies—
Lord of the Flies is what is known as “fiction”. That means it’s not a true story. What I would do, is recommend reading a good non-fiction history/anthropology book (perhaps “Culture, Man, and Nature” by Marvin Harris, or “Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond.) If you read *non*-fiction (i.e. TRUE stories), you’ll see, contrary to popular myth, that modern civilization with its mechanized warfare and toxic waste is far more “nasty and brutish” (to quote Thomas Hobbes — one of the earliest proponents the myths you’re claiming as fact) than any of the numerous anarchist cultures (such as the Mbuti of the Congo, or the San of the Kalahari, for example).
— Visit any preschool to see what nature we are born with. —
Observe the domineering and cruel way that most parents treat their children in this society, the sick trash that they watch on TV, and the consumerist brainwashing they are exposed to, and you’ll see where that behavior comes from. That’s not human nature. Once again, read an anthropology book (Perhaps the “Forest People” by Turnbull, or “The Dobe !Kung” by Lee), and note how the children behave there. They are not cruel and selfish and greedy and hateful. That is social conditioning, not human nature.
—Without laws and the enforcement of those laws, humans become animals.—
People *are* animals. Without laws, people are people. With laws, people are people with guns pointed at them to force them to conform to laws created by rich businessmen.
Jesse Taylor