Carne

by

I realized that states behave in a way that isn’t rational, that is ultimately driven by a need to prove the necessity of their own existence.

And this is what anarchists think about all institutions. Institutions ultimately have their own sets of interests which are ulterior.

War, I’m afraid to say, is one of the ultimate ways that the state proves its own necessity.

–Carne Ross, British ex-diplomat, October 4 2017
From: Does The Establishment Know Anarchy Is The Answer? | Under The Skin with Russell Brand

He goes on to say that the obvious counter-argument is Hobbesian–states and law ARE necessary because man is bad.

And he goes on to point out the fallacies of that counter-argument, one that we live and breathe for decades and sometimes whole lives. I won’t go into that deeply, but think along the lines of:

“Without King Bezos, without Kommisar Biden, without Chancellor Putin and Duchess Ocasio-Cortez, why, there’d be total Chaos!” (This is essentially the argument for feudal monarchy of one sort or another, and ultimately for villainy.)

After that, some other interesting observations …

  • Anarchism has degrees, from the harder almost right-wing libertarian side that says everyone has the right to do whatever they want (like wearing or not wearing a mask or a motorcycle helmet), to more communal forms that embrace direct democracy.
  • Anarchism has a spiritual side that other forms of politics ignore or lack entirely, and that spirituality is rooted in our real-life relationships to others.
  • Organizing politically online is ultimately near-useless because the relationships involved are not relationships of real life.
  • Protesting a thing gives legitimacy to that thing. A better approach, where possible, is to ignore the hateful thing, and create a better alternative to the hateful thing. Don’t die under their tank tracks. Don’t vote for someone slightly less worse. Build something better if you can. It might even be fun.
  • There’s an example of this in Spain, a mega-coop called Mondragon.

There are others too, closer to home; one important one the subject of a post to come shortly.