“The soul never thinks without a mental picture.” — Aristotle
A is for Anarchism.
So far, in The R-Word (as best I can recall), I have not mentioned the A-word. It comes as loaded as the R-word does—which is to say that almost everyone has an image of the A-word, and these images are incredibly diverse. More often than not, in our contemporary world, the A-word is associated with violence. And there are good historical reasons for this association, since some (and very few) historical anarchists enacted a “propaganda of the deed” which included bombings and assassinations.
I’ve made it perfectly clear in The R-Word that this publication is never to advocate for violence as political practice/praxis. It’s just not our style. We who gather here are committed to non-violence as political practice. And we—whether or not we identify as anarchists—do so in alignment with the mainstream of anarchist theory, generally, which theory generally accepts that the ends and means must be aligned. If we wish to have a society which is non-violent, and we do, then we must use non-violent means toward that aim. Period. Full stop.
I’m speaking here of violence in relation to political practice. Violence in support of a political goal is — by definition — terrorism. Here in The R-Word we explicitly eschew terrorism. We find terrorism not only ugly, stupid and horrific, but always counterproductive. That said, I don’t think any of the writers and participants (participants because The R-Word is a conversation involving all who wish to speak up) here are at all opposed to the use of purely defensive violence to protect ourselves or others from violence. But that’s a whole different topic than the one which is presently at hand. What’s presently at hand is that I want to come right out and say that anarchism deeply informs my political orientation—even to the extent that sometimes I will call myself an anarchist.
But anarchism is profoundly misunderstood by most people in my society, and so I rarely say “I’m an anarchist.” Not only do most people associate anarchism with violence, but they tend to believe that anarchists want a society without rules, regulations, organization…. The popular image of an anarchist is that of a person who hates social organization and who prefers chaos and disorder. This is all untrue. What we want, in fact, is a better ordered society, a society and culture in which we are politically and socially equal, and where domination and oppression have been swept away. But not swept away in a violent purge. No. Most contemporary anarchists are not interested in a violent overthrowing of the dominator culture. We’re not insurrectionaries. Our revolutionary praxes are not caught up in the image or narrative of “overthrowing” the government/s. That would be just dumb. It would also lead to great suffering without liberation — and not to liberation. Violence never leads to liberation. It just leads to more violence and oppression.
Actual anarchism is richly complex, and has little to do with the images we have of it. It’s a conversation! It’s an ongoing, ever-forming, emerging dialogue. It isn’t a singular thing we can capture in a photograph. And it’s basically harmless, and nothing to be feared. And so I’ll not continue here without acknowledging the A-word as something which deeply informs my political thought. I may not tatoo an A on my arm today, but nor will I turn away from it. The A-word is important. It should be a part of our vocabulary. It isn’t the enemy.
I was watching and listening to this — Anarchist Analysis | A Modern Anarchism (Part 1) - YouTube — when I decided to make this brief mention of the A-word. Perhaps you will watch and listen with me. The story and image of the A-word is rich, complex, and worthy of our attention.