Punk.of.Ages

First off, I'd like to point out that this thread is titled "Ask An Anarchist...", not "Attack An Anarchist...". I understand that most people think I'm overly idealistic and don't agree with my beliefs at all, but I created this thread to give some insight into what I believe because of the misconceptions surrounding the word anarchist.

I'm not here to convert you, so please don't try to convert me.

I feel that the way the human race lived before we "rose up" and created government and law was a better way of life than what we do now. I'm not proposing anything new, but I am trying to have as much of the old idea in my life as I can.


Actually, you'd be surprised at what I can do with a tire iron...

Also, I've spent plenty of my life living on the streets to understand what fending for yourself is like.

Thanks for the presumptuous insults, though. They really benefit the basis of my thread.

Rules that tell me how to live my life. I shoot some Heroin. Prison. Why? I hire a prostitute. Jail time. Why? There's a couple examples.

The point is, I didn't have a say in the rules, why should I have to follow them? Furthermore, I don't feel we need established laws or law makers. I think we'd all be a lot better off if we were left to handle our own business the way we see fit.
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I did not take any offense to your first post. The OP was written pretty anemically. To be fair, though, I was quite drunk.


There is no strict law with wild animals. Everything is situational, and if there's a dispute it's handled by the strongest.

I didn't mean to come off that way. I was simply trying to say that I understood when I made the thread that I was leaving myself open to being attacked from all different sides.
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You didn't pose any question to me, but I want to respond to what you have to say.

As I said earlier, I am not against social structure, I am against governmental systems.

Animals don't have to deal with concepts such as money, establishment, government, or corporation. These are the things I'm against.

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ring

Social structures are govermental systems.
Animals form and deal with an 'establishment' order, every day.

Your definition of anarchy, includes all forms of attack.

Yet you claim the thread was to 'ask', but not attack the anarchist.

It seems as if your angst and disillusionment are soley aimed against your
fellow human animal brethren. The disconnects you are struggling with,
many of us have pondered as well.

There are many good books on this subject, that might illuminate the darker corners,
that you seem blinded by.

I have a request for our fellow TFP ites who know more about this than I do.

Please list the books, that at the moment , have escaped my aged brainpan.

PZ.

DaniGirl

I love this thread, it is so P.O.A. Go Anarchists!!

new man

Oh don't worry, I know I cannot convert you. I can only show flaws in your ideas and you have to decide whether to accept them.

As the two legal points you mentioned, I would be happy to legalize prostitution. But under your standards, it wouldn't matter if she or he had AIDS. It's your fault for bedding down with a disease carrier. Or, they could be licensed and monitored with testing and standards.

If you had said pot, then ehhh, drugs are stupid but pot's pretty mild. But heroin? Sure, make heroin legal only after mankind has gotten smart enough to not want or crave one of the most dangerous drugs around. But while we have people stupid enough to want heroin, then society can create laws regulating it's usage.

You do have a say in the laws. Get out and vote, organize and so forth. But when your actions affect other people, then they have a say in your activity as well.

mrklixx

bui j,urjfnc vnbnvyaweghsxfc vft6cvh?

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MSD

How would you react to the following statements?

Consumption of a commodity implicitly condones its production.

Participation in a system is a de facto acknowledgement of its legitimacy.

cellophanedeity

Wiki suggests that Anarchy is the absence of organized government. It doesn't say that people get to go around kicking the shit out of one another for the fun of it, and it doesn't imply chaos and destruction.

Anarchy simply implies that there is no organized government. It doesn't imply that there would be no a social contract or system of societal maintenance.

In an anarchy, as in any social system, you would have people with differing of knowledge and charisma that others turn to for advice and suggestion. These people would likely be looked upon as very valued members of the community, but these gifted people would not force law or action upon anyone else, unlike our current government state.

Anarchist society would be one in which each person has the personal freedom. If people were wise, they would be respectful of others in exercising their freedoms. While this could mean that you would be free to steal and kill, others would be free to steal from and kill you as well.

In an anarchy, you must provide value to your society in one way or another. You must make it so that others respect you, rather than simply assume that you are to be respected by default.

Anarchy is not currently available to the world, and is seen as dangerous as we are so entrenched in beliving in the value of the governments that so poorly reflect our actual beliefs.

Our current governmental systems are too big and wide and impersonal to be effective. Few people are allowed all of the freedoms they believe they should have, and as such, we are held prisoners of a system we do not entirely agree with.

For instance: I enjoy consuming marijuana. It is a personal choice, and I strongly belive that my consumption does not harm anyone but myself. In order to do this harmless thing that I enjoy, I must become a criminal of the state. In an anarchy, I'd be allowed, as long as no one felt that I was infringing on their personal freedoms.

I could go on forever. Pardon my long post, but I feel strongly about this, even if I don't call myself an anarchist. I do believe that an ideal social situation would be anarchist, though.

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ASU2003

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I use Linux, which was written by people around the world for fun an something to do. It works great.

I would work for NASA, even if I wasn't getting paid. I would love to launch satellites, design space telescopes, or build rovers.

The closest working example of an Anarchist society I would say are the Amish. They are self-sufficient, have a few rules they follow because it's the right thing to do, and don't buy many corporate made products. They do need a lot of land, and I think if they used electricity and reduced the religious influence their lifestyle wouldn't be half bad.

QuasiMojo

You're outta your element Donnie.

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AzAbOv ZoBeLoE

rahl

The amish are still subject to law and order, and are governed by the same people who govern everyone else. They have specific religious beliefs that isolate them from most people but they are not anarchists.

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ASU2003

But if the government structure went away, they wouldn't change. They are not dependent on corporations, power companies,or many government services.

That brings up the question, can you be an Anarchist and believe in God? You can't belong to an organized religion can you?

Spiritsoar

Actually, this is an interesting example I'm going to focus on. I came from an area with an active Amish community. Complete with regular field trips in vans to Wal-mart and stopping by McDonalds on the way home. I predict that within a few generations, the Amish won't exist as we know them today, as more and more of their children leave the community for the outside world.

Along the same lines, I speculate that any small group of anarchists, in a few generations, would turn into at very least what we see in any small town across the country, complete with town hall and city government.

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