Ask an Anarchist

[Flying Pig]

Are they? If they risen to the top, isn't that simply how the world works then? You just can't look the other way and pretend they do not exist.

I much prefer political figures who fought their way into power than talked their way in (as is the case in democracies). Talk is cheap. Fighting directly is always honest, in that you cannot use BS talking to gain power.

I'm not convinced that 'I'm in charge because I'll punch you if you argue with me' is any less 'BS' than 'I'm in charge because you all think I should be'. Quite the opposite, to be honest!

 

[Tahuti]

I'm not convinced that 'I'm in charge because I'll punch you if you argue with me' is any less 'BS' than 'I'm in charge because you all think I should be'. Quite the opposite, to be honest!

Notice how the situation has shifted from gaining power to holding it, as is the case in your quote.

 

[Borachio]

Well, every attempt at seizing power begins with the assumption that one already has it, maybe. You don't attempt it if you think you're going to fail.

 

[Traitorfish]

Tovergieter, please refrain from using this thread as a soap-box.

It's my soap-box, dammit.

On gangs, I wouldn't say that anarchists regard governments as gangs in the sense of a criminal organisation, but rather that we refuse any absolute distinction between their behavior. It's a question of what they do and how they work, rather than whether they are possessed of legitimacy- which, after all, is entirely a question of subjective recognition.

I also realize that I've massively neglected this thread; I'll try to get back to it at some point, when I have a bit less on my plate and I can use this place for discussion rather than just procrastination. (I'm looking at an almost-ready-for-print version of my undergrad dissertation as we speak, for whatever that's worth...)

 

[Tahuti]

I also realize that I've massively neglected this thread

Not before you blamed me first.

 

[Flying Pig]

Notice how the situation has shifted from gaining power to holding it, as is the case in your quote.

Not particularly - if we're talking about gaining power, then it just becomes 'I put your boss in hospital, now I'm going to tell you what to do and if you don't like it I'll do the same to you' versus 'I should be in charge because all of you have said that you'd like me to be in charge'. I really don't see how that's any more legitimate!

 

[Borachio]

Eh? You don't think persuasion is better than brute force? I know which I prefer to be subjected to.

 

[Traitorfish]

Not before you blamed me first.

What doesn't hurt you, etc.

 

[Tahuti]

Eh? You don't think persuasion is better than brute force? I know which I prefer to be subjected to.

Are you sure that persuasian can't be more pernicious than brute force? Brute force is always honest in that regard: You know you are being subjected to it and what to expect. You can be persuaded into your doom and not know it until it is far too late.

 

[Flying Pig]

You sound an awful lot like those ancient Greeks who distrusted democracy because 'those clever philosophers can make you think that a bad argument is actually a good argument' - or the schoolboy in Stephen Fry's autobiography who sneers 'those are just words; you can prove anything with words'.

 

[Phrossack]

I know this is a bit of a bump, but what do our resident anarchists think of the "Rojavan Revolution" in Syrian Kurdistan?

 

[ParkCungHee]

Could you link me to some of the materials you've been reading on it?

 

[Phrossack]

Could you link me to some of the materials you've been reading on it?

I have to admit, I haven't been able to find too much on the subject, but here are a few things, like an editorial, a Wiki page, and the Rojavan Charter of the Social Contract, which looks like their constitution. From what I can gather, they've taken Öcalan's lead and aren't launching a nationalist revolution to create an independent Kurdish state, but rather are trying to establish a confederation of cantons with democratically elected local councils.

EDIT: Going through the Charter more thoroughly, it looks like, at least officially, Rojava isn't anarchist in any way. Huh.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

What was really adorable was how the morons at Libcom denounced the PKK as "Stalinist" once it tried to achieve some formal semblance of organization over territory. If this is representative at all of the Western anarchist approach to the PKK or the Peshmerga in general then I have to laugh at the silliness of their opinion.

 

[ReindeerThistle]

Labels are so five "nevers" ago. There are two sides: them that works; them that doesn't.

YPG and YPJ are ass-kicking reds no matter how you look at it.

 

[Traitorfish]

So this thread is till here, eh? I'm flattered- I would've thought it was bound for the archives by now.

Well, I still feel a sense of obligation to it, so I'll try to roll out a few answers over the next week or so. I doubt anyone actually remembers asking these questions, so you'll excuse me keeping my response brief and, quite probably, philosophical to the point of being completely unhelpful.

Bear with me, fellow students of the black flag, and let's see if I can live up to even my own tremendously lowered expectations.

 

[Takhisis]

Now Kaiserguard and you are both back. What has lowered your expectations, Mr. Fish?

 

[Tahuti]

What has lowered your expectations, Mr. Fish?

Hopefully, it doesn't have anything to do with my avatar.

 

[Borachio]

What does an anarchist think of the EU referendum?

 

[Hygro]

Bear with me, fellow students of the black flag, and let's see if I can live up to even my own tremendously lowered expectations.

What did you think within grasp that now seems unattainable?