ANARCHISM HAS A BAD NAME
Aoife O'Byrne,
Lots of people misunderstand the term “Anarchism”. It’s widely misused and misinterpreted.* It is often taken to mean “total chaos”. This is, of course, untrue. So what exactly is it?
The term is, in fact, quite difficult to define, and straightforward, single sentence definitions often fall short. In the dictionary it states that an anarchist is “ someone who believes that government should be abolished”. This is true: however, it fails to see the bigger picture. To completely cover the topic of anarchism would take a long time, so here’s the basic gist of it: an anarchist is essentially someone who opposes authority and instead favours everyone co-operating and working together.
We live in a State-Capitalist society, one where a minority of people share the power and most of the wealth, the few people on top making decisions on behalf of the rest of the population. It is widely assumed by those who live in this society ( especially those in positions of power ) that in the absence of authority everything would fall apart. There would be absolutely no order and everyone would just run around doing whatever they wanted all the time, leading to chaos, fights, and bombs being thrown left, right and centre. THIS IS NOT HOW AN ANARCHIST SYSTEM WOULD WORK. Anarchism isn’t about chaos, but co-operation.There may in fact be some people who do actually want chaos, but a system can’t be properly run on it.
Of course, even in the absence of authority it’d be important that people act responsibly. Responsibility is necessary for people’s safety, and the whole idea would be nonsensical otherwise. For example; if an adult happens to see a small child playing with matches, they should have the responsibility to take the matches away instead of watching as the kid burns themselves. Anarchism isn’t about following rules; it is about doing what you feel makes sense.
There’s also the notion that once you are aware of issues going on in the world around you, you have the responsibility to influence them. EVERYONE gets their say. This means not turning a blind eye, not putting your blinkers on and pretending bad things aren’t happening, or that they’ll just go away if you don’t acknowledge them. It means not stepping around and ignoring homeless people on the street, not saying things like “ Ah well, it’s a big problem, but there’s nothing I can do about it”. This is why anarchism goes hand in hand with activism.
Some people would argue that Anarchism depicts an unrealistic idea that’s too perfect, and therefore impossible to achieve, but a better system is still something to strive for! Anyway, don’t other ideologies have this in common?
A lot of what is outlined by Anarchism sounds akin to Communism, especially true Communism ( which in fact has never been properly tried- one look at Communist Russia and it’s obvious that it all went wrong somewhere ). The Communism we have seen is entirely based around authority. Another difference between Anarchism and Communism is their attitude to property. Communists believe that property should be divided up equally between everyone. Anarchists on the other hand, believe that there shouldn’t even be such a thing, since shelter is a human need, and they believe that charging people to live in houses is a crime.
This article has very basically outlined the real meaning of anarchism. I’d strongly recommend that anyone interested in the subject reads further into it.
*Before I’d even started writing this article, I was told “ You can write about Anarchism, just don’t do it.” This has proved my point.
Aoife O'Byrne,
Lots of people misunderstand the term “Anarchism”. It’s widely misused and misinterpreted.* It is often taken to mean “total chaos”. This is, of course, untrue. So what exactly is it?
The term is, in fact, quite difficult to define, and straightforward, single sentence definitions often fall short. In the dictionary it states that an anarchist is “ someone who believes that government should be abolished”. This is true: however, it fails to see the bigger picture. To completely cover the topic of anarchism would take a long time, so here’s the basic gist of it: an anarchist is essentially someone who opposes authority and instead favours everyone co-operating and working together.
We live in a State-Capitalist society, one where a minority of people share the power and most of the wealth, the few people on top making decisions on behalf of the rest of the population. It is widely assumed by those who live in this society ( especially those in positions of power ) that in the absence of authority everything would fall apart. There would be absolutely no order and everyone would just run around doing whatever they wanted all the time, leading to chaos, fights, and bombs being thrown left, right and centre. THIS IS NOT HOW AN ANARCHIST SYSTEM WOULD WORK. Anarchism isn’t about chaos, but co-operation.There may in fact be some people who do actually want chaos, but a system can’t be properly run on it.
Of course, even in the absence of authority it’d be important that people act responsibly. Responsibility is necessary for people’s safety, and the whole idea would be nonsensical otherwise. For example; if an adult happens to see a small child playing with matches, they should have the responsibility to take the matches away instead of watching as the kid burns themselves. Anarchism isn’t about following rules; it is about doing what you feel makes sense.
There’s also the notion that once you are aware of issues going on in the world around you, you have the responsibility to influence them. EVERYONE gets their say. This means not turning a blind eye, not putting your blinkers on and pretending bad things aren’t happening, or that they’ll just go away if you don’t acknowledge them. It means not stepping around and ignoring homeless people on the street, not saying things like “ Ah well, it’s a big problem, but there’s nothing I can do about it”. This is why anarchism goes hand in hand with activism.
Some people would argue that Anarchism depicts an unrealistic idea that’s too perfect, and therefore impossible to achieve, but a better system is still something to strive for! Anyway, don’t other ideologies have this in common?
A lot of what is outlined by Anarchism sounds akin to Communism, especially true Communism ( which in fact has never been properly tried- one look at Communist Russia and it’s obvious that it all went wrong somewhere ). The Communism we have seen is entirely based around authority. Another difference between Anarchism and Communism is their attitude to property. Communists believe that property should be divided up equally between everyone. Anarchists on the other hand, believe that there shouldn’t even be such a thing, since shelter is a human need, and they believe that charging people to live in houses is a crime.
This article has very basically outlined the real meaning of anarchism. I’d strongly recommend that anyone interested in the subject reads further into it.
*Before I’d even started writing this article, I was told “ You can write about Anarchism, just don’t do it.” This has proved my point.