Human Iterations

The Relevance of Anarchism

Anarchism is nothing new. Anything we could show you, you've heard already. The touch of Anarchism is in everything around you. A million premises you've already encountered and explored. It's an old idea.

Freedom. Compassion. Ingenuity. Exploration. Things that are good.

We're all on our way to them already. We'll make it or we won't. In every aspect of our lives, before a million separate vistas, we're struggling to make things better.

You're engaged in this struggle. In different ways you've been fighting it your whole life. Perhaps deconstructing gender, challenging faith, inventing new tools...

Why turn aside and get wrapped up in a piece of history? With a dumb name and a bunch of dirty, insipid punk-rockers.

Because anarchism still offers the most basic, radical analysis of society possible, unfettered by clumsy abstractions. And a willingness to take things as far as they need to be taken, a commitment to act rather than retreat.

In short because liberalization isn't enough. The powers of our world may appear to be falling into remission, but they are not going to die without a fight. Sooner or later the hammer will drop. The forces of regression always rear up. It's not enough to obsess over -- to cling to -- some rules only to stand back in shock when those rules are thrown out by the powerful.

To defeat bullies you have to plan, you have to fully understand the underlying realities and you have to be ready.

Power is a social psychosis; a manner of thinking that constricts thought and action for its own sake. So that all who engage in its machinations are left marionettes of their own roles. It stems from a disinterest in active engagement and a longing for a security of mind that might as well be death.

Power is how we control one another and how we are controlled by our very need for control. In building our networks of manipulation and obedience, society has come to resemble bubblewrap. Each of us sealed off from one another by our common bonds.

Resistance, true resistance, is about connecting in new, fluid ways. In solving our problems by thinking about them rather than defaulting on old formulas. But further we must realize that to break down and remake the existent we have to grapple with it.

It's not enough to pay lipservice, to dwell on our occasional flashes of insight, we must be vigilant. In throwing out our idols we must retain our sense of direction. In coming to grasps with the world around us we must not lose our urgency.

Anarchism is not one more chain, but a bellwether.

Our moral urge, clarified and applied.

Because we're not going to get anywhere until we are ready for the full struggle.