Why I'm An Anarchist (And What That Really Means)

Wait...did you say you're an anarchist?

Yup. That's right.

Now hold on, before you hit that "back" button, you should know that whatever you're thinking "anarchist" means, you're probably wrong. Not that I blame you, because almost everybody is...including, as a matter of fact, most of the people who like to call themselves anarchists.

I'll tell you what we're not: we're not angry teenagers trying to rebel against our parents and teachers. We don't read The Anarchist Cookbook (ug!), build bombs, or plan to blow anything up. We're not currently planning some ridiculous militant overthrow of the government and don't intend to at any point in our lifetimes. We don't dumpster-dive, live on the streets, or drop out of society and call it political action. And while some of us may have tattoos, piercings, or enjoy wearing nothing but black, these things are actually not a part of our politics (and personally, I often prefer to wear the fuzzy sweaters my grandma gave me).

We also don't hate anything and everything having to do with government services. As it happens, this author happens to have parents who are employed by the state (as a teacher and a librarian), and I love them and appreciate their work for their community very much. In fact, strictly speaking, we anarchists don't actually have any problem with the idea of government at all.

Wait a minute, you might be thinking, isn't being anti-government what anarchism is all about?

Well, yes and no. We are most assuredly anti-this-government (and, you know, pretty much every other major government currently existing or in history), but the commonly held idea that anarchism wants to create a society without governing systems, without community, without any rules, structures, or social contracts, is complete and utter horse puckey.

I mean, hell...we anarchists love rules. We've got all sorts of them: don't kill or maim or harm or threaten or imprison people (unless you're doing it to defend yourself or others), don't rape, don't neglect those in need, don't destroy the environment, don't impose on someone else's life if they aren't hurting anyone, don't grant one group of people power or deny opportunities to another...and that's just to name a few.

So what do anarchists hate?

Hierarchy.

Now, I don't mean social hierarchies. Teachers and students, leaders of projects, academic, intellectual, artistic or trade authorities, or anyone else you might choose to listen to because, hey, they know their stuff. Those sorts of hierarchies can be great for society, and when they're not, we have the freedom to say, "screw this," and go find a teacher we like better.

No, what we anarchists really hate are the authorities we can't say "no" to. The ones that tell you how to live your life, or what quality of life you're allowed to have. The rules we hate are the ones that enforce slavery or racism or sexism, that require us to follow religious practices we don't want or tell us who and how we can and can't love. We hate any situation where one person is given power over others, power to hurt, restrict, or control without cause, but most of all, power to judge without fear of being judged themselves.

You with me so far? Good, because here's where it starts to get complicated...

Anarchists are anti-capitalists (well, except for the "anarchist capitalists," but that's a whole 'nother sack of potatoes and we won't get into that here). In fact, we're communists...and that's really fantastic of course, because "communist" is the only word better than "anarchist" for making people run in fear from your political ideology, but neveretheles, we're commies, and proud of it.

Again, I'm going to have to ask you to forget everything you think you know about what communism is, because what we're about has very little to do with the governments of the USSR, China, Cuba, or North Korea. Anarchist communism is not state communism, or authoritarian communism. What it is is an extension of our belief in freedom and equality, because we know that economic control is the single greatest source of oppression there is.

Simply put, communism is the belief that the whole idea of private property (or "capital", or "the means of production") is fundamentally unjust. We believe it's wrong for an individual or small group to own and control such a large amount of land, or a factory, or other resources, that they can then control large amounts of people by witholding the stuff we all need to survive.

Now, we don't have any problem with personal property. Keep your toothbrush. Keep your collection of stamps or Doors albums. Heck, keep your house! But if you think you have some right to "keep" all the water that flows in an Indian village, or all the farmland in six US counties...well, anarchists are going to have a problem with that. We believe there should be equality in how we use the resources of the earth. Everyone deserves an equal share, an equal chance at survival.

Now, that idea might not seem like such a good idea because hey, someone has to starve, right? No way there's enough resources on this earth to go around, right? It's not pretty, but survival-of-the-fittest is a fact of life, especially with all this overpopulation...right?

We don't think so.

Think of it this way: you may have heard the statistic that there are probably as many people alive today as there have ever been alive on the face of the earth, ever. That means that if you look into the past, hundreds, thousands of years back in human history, there were way less people competing for resources, right? And yet...it's been the same story in every society in human history that we might call "civilized"; some people are rich, some are poor, some live in luxury while others starve.

Have things gotten worse since then? Were they any better when there were fewer of us around? I don't think they were. That's because poverty is not inevitable: it's something we make, something that the power-hungry use to control the rest of us. Which is not to say we think the world's resources will support an infinite number of people, and that's precisely why we believe in things like sustainability and family planning.

We believe in promoting things that are good for the community. We also support the rights and advancement of the individual (we see no reason why these two goals should be in conflict with each other). We believe in social and economic equality. We're feminists, anti-racists, GLBT rights activists, humanitarians and environmentalists. We believe in immigrants' rights, workers' rights, individuality and the freedom to live the life of one's choosing. We believe in "freedom to" and "freedom from" for all people.

So if any of that sounds good to you, stick around for a while. We're not here to "convert" you to anarchism. We're here to show you how anarchists see the world, to show you that all sources of oppression and injustice are linked, and just maybe, to figure out what it'll take to make things right.