Anarchism - An Idea Project, by Ed Whitfield
There is an abundance of material on freethinking and the ills of society that can be found amongst the art and writing of painters, poets, philosophers and musicians. It's as if they know something that everyone else doesn't. Subtle comments on freedom and ones position within society, breaking the surface of mainstream culture every now and then, coming up from the underground (hence subtle), creating a star constellation upon the map of history. People yearning for more, for something else, there has got to be something else!
Anarchism, as a word, symbolises a global movement of people throughout history, fighting for liberation and equality. But, as we all know, as an 'ism' it doesn't even begin to describe the rich tapestry and diverse causes involved in this movement. In essence the word anarchism is only a label and labels are only created to form tangible concepts of abstract notions, an attempt to put the movement in a box and then to put a handle on the box.
Yes, anarchism, meaning without authority, is pretty much exactly what everyone involved in this rich tapestry is looking for, to escape authority and exploitation. Except to understand the movement it is important to understand that anarchism isn't this one big common goal. It is after all, merely a label, describing what we are avoiding, what we are striving to escape from, and not necessarily the end game, for one and all have different views of what their world will be, everyone has a different destiny, unique to everyone else's.
What I'm trying to say here is, when someone says, referring to anarchism, 'your way will never work', anarchism isn't a way, it is a struggle, after that, then it's up to the people, the communities to shape 'their way'. For the most part, people outside the affluent 'West' are fighting the same struggle as anarchists, only all they are trying to do is to survive. Fighting for their own land to live off and live the way their parents did.
Anarchism, as a word, is only a label, a handle to put on the box they want us in, to control us and eliminate us. A word, a banner that can be combated far easier than the truth of the matter, that the movement, a movement of movements, is a global network along a horizontal hierarchy, of emergence politics and swarm tactics, like a hive, decentralized and varied, communicating through horizontal networks and thus achieving greatness surpassing the sum of its parts. And the word, the label, the handle and the box are inventions and all these diverse components are put under this banner, we are put up against a wall, in front of a firing squad, European squatting punks, Brazilian land reformists, Mexican revolutionaries defending indigenous communities, guerrillas fighting in the jungles of Papua New Guinea with bows and arrows. All of us are under this impossible banner in an attempt to shoot us down.
Now that 'they' have formed the face of 'their' enemy 'they' begin to construct the mask that will be placed upon our struggle in an attempt to discredit us as terrorists or people who merely wish to destroy civilization. The propaganda machine is but one of the tools in the creation of this mask, where Palestinians and Iraqis fighting for their lives become evil wrongdoers intent only on killing and maiming, upsetting the peaceful peoples around them, where punks and anarchists only want to smash things and blow up buildings.
Now that many involved in extreme libertarian causes are in the box painted with an 'A' in circle the propaganda machine can begin churning out the new reality 'they' need to maintain control, a position kept by lying and deceiving the mass majority as admitted by some representative of the Bush administration after the fall of the twin towers. "We are going to lie to you!"
The word anarchism conjures crazy images of dissolute landscapes where scavenging refugees of the old world, wild and scruffy, spend their days avoiding pirates and evil megalomaniacs. It provokes scenes of chaos and disorder. Mad Max! Without leaders, how exactly will the world run? With no authority who will maintain roads and build trains?
People! Do you hold no trust for yourselves?!
Basically the propaganda machine has discredited the whole notion of anarchism. The whole concept is seen as the lowest form of politics possible. But ask yourself, what in the hell does that mean? I mean, what is politics? It's supposed to be the daily running of the lives of the people. We vote the people we trust to do good by us and then what happens? Corruption, inflation, poverty. Off shore accounts! Privatisation, leaders allowing unaccountable undesirables to make major decisions in our country's future. And it's present. So what's so good about politics then?
And if you think about it, if you look at the trajectories of both capitalism and democracy, if you come to realise and recognise the neo-liberal agenda you would understand that what it is exactly that we are headed for is anarchism.
The beliefs of the enlightened held liberty as the highest virtue and, to put it simply, economics was one of the ways they devised to govern a free society. The laws of the market system dictate that everything will fall naturally into place. The price of a product is determined by the lowest the majority will pay and so on. The system relies on laws of balance and the natural placement of the products, they get shipped out to the right place at the right price, or the company goes under, it fails due to weakness. The market system allows the survival of the fittest in a world where human intelligence has made redundant Darwin's theories on evolution.
The whole capitalist system is made up of many, many components, all interdependent on each other. It is a fragile system and has developed quite organically, like a complicated ivy plant, over the whole world. As organic as I make it out to be, its roots and origins are contrived and the whole idea is a perversion of nature. The strange thing is, neo-liberals, the world they wish to achieve has many anarchic characteristics. For example the only governing body would be the global economic system. There would be no rulers, so to speak, and everyone would be free to pursue their own destinies, only through financial terms rather than actual life experiences etc.
Yet, whether we are either using money or not, the same rules apply. Local markets are inevitable due to supply and demand, prices will come to a balance due to locally perceived worth and so on. The only thing is the market system gives the rich a huge head start and also creates a mechanism where they can completely separate themselves from the poor.
Nature itself is a giant organism, the planet is one massive organic organisation where all forms of life are all interdependent of each other. Species create ecosystems where if one species was to disappear it would upset the whole ecosystem. And ecosystems then go on to form life as a whole, over the planet. The global market system is just like this, this is what I mean by organic. If we were to take the money away life would go on just the same, people will still be interdependent of each other, only the rich wont have a head start and also, the first drawn economic plans never seemed to account for its limits. As people get 'richer' the planet gets poorer. The market system draws from the earth's resources and we see and feel its limits as the strains on our environment become more dangerous and unstable.
Basically, when one argues against anarchism, stating that liberal capitalism is the best system we have, in essence they are supporting a world where everything is commodified, everything has a price. The air, water, genetics. Life! As governments social roles are reduced at the whims of the giant financial organisations such as the World Trade Organisation, a price will be put on everything as it is sold to private owners. Everything! In essence, governments must comply with the likes of the WTO in taking a country's resources from the people and selling it off, leaving nothing left to govern. So what you are left with is a countries wealth in the hands of corporations and rich people alone, leaving the indigenous people impoverished or wholly transformed to homogenous, consumer lifestyles.
These are the inevitabilities the whole world shall face if we carry on supporting the 'best system we have'. It already is a dog eat dog world, where every one is for themselves. There is very little organisation except amongst the elite as they continue to swoop upon their prey. This is chaos! This is the nightmare people imagine when someone mentions anarchism. And it is completely the opposite idea when an anarchist mentions the word. For what we imagine is a world of autonomy, where power is broken down and left in the hands of everyone. Where whole communities manage themselves under their own law and ideas of justice. And if you don't like it then you are free to roam the earth in search of your own dreams.
If power corrupts let it do so, for what damage can one person do in a world where everyone can feel proud and dignified with the knowledge that they are fully responsible for their own lives and environment, that they have full control over their own destiny and will never have to bow to another.
-- Ed Whitfield, March 2004
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