On Anarchists

I recently admitted to discovering I was an anarchist, after worrying constantly that I’d lose all my readers because of it. Maybe I have. But read on to learn about my foray into the world of anarchism, however badly it started, and ended happily.

After admitting to myself that I held similar ideals as anarchists was myself an anarchist who chooses to work within the system, but hopes for small communities that are self governed, I decided to poke my head into some anarchist forums and meet some others like me.

The experience was both greatly disappointing as well as having a happy ending. The first forum I joined, turned out to be an “ancap” forum, basically anarchists who still want capitalism but no government to regulate said capitalism, which seems like a horrible idea to me. The second forum I joined was more general anarchist, and I politely introduced myself and began to share my thoughts.

I was shocked at the hostility, intolerance and plain stupidity spewing from the lips of several anarchists. The ideals are intelligent enough: mutual cooperation, true democracy, freedom, tolerance equality, all that jazz. But a great deal of the anarchists on the board seemed to only want to spew childish hatred towards a number of groups: liberals, conservatives, government, cops, BDSM practitioners for some odd reason, anyone who voted, and I didn’t bother reading past that. There was one thread where several anarchists proclaimed that BDSM was evil and could not be allowed in an anarchist society, which was idiotic–it was completely opposite of the goal of anarchism, which is freedom of personal choice. Obviously these people didn’t truly believe in the ideals they preached.

These same people insulted me and called me a murderer and a rapist for wanting to vote. Wait, what? I agree that the government is a violent and exploitative system, but it can also be helpful and it’s what we’ve got right now, and my reasoning is I may as well use it, because voting doesn’t hurt but it may help. And for some reason this made me a murderer, rapist, statist, “bringer of death and chaos”, someone who “aim[s] to be the new dominator”, racist (since apparently voting means I hate all non-Americans), and probably more. I was appalled. I simply wanted to vote to have my voice heard, and because I personally would prefer one candidate over another, even if little would change, but at least that change would be for the better.

I was called on to provide facts to back up my opinion that I wanted to vote, while my accuser simply threw insults at me and the government and relied on no facts themselves. Those of us who were intelligent and simply wanted to debate and discuss our ideas peacefully were fair game to be “pissed on” as one of our usual attackers put it.

I was just about to give up and keep my ideas to myself, when I found a delightful blog who’s viewpoints mostly mirrored my own (and was at least respectful and discussed things rather than screaming “Murderer!” to anyone they disagreed with). I made a few comments, and soon enough a fellow anarchist had emailed me, and we began to talk.

Several emails later, we knew quite a bit about each other and they pointed out a commune they were working on with others, an anarchist community to be founded on mutual cooperation, personal freedom, and self governing. I checked it out, and found my happy ending.

The anarchist crowd may be full of a disturbing amount of angry people who just want to smash things and hate, hate, hate anyone they disagree with, but there are those of us out there who really want to work hard towards a better future. Some of us are willing to work with the state, some of us aren’t–some of us want a communistic type of community, some want primitivism, some want capitalism…but at least we’re (mostly) respectful of eachother and willing to actually be constructive and work for it.

The community is pure gold. I just love the people who are forming it–all of them are civil and intelligent people willing to work hard physical and mental labor, willing to risk a lot, willing to take in the homeless and those running from hate groups like the KKK, willing to create a beautiful place where personal choice is respected and the freedoms we Americans think we have are truly honored. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. We may not be able to make it work, I’ll be realistic about it. But I’ve found others who are tolerant and respectful.

And when I say perfect, I really mean perfect. Vegetarianism is encouraged, but we will hunt our meat if we want it (which I think is fair compared to raising animals). Monogamous and polygamous relationships and people will be honored just as much as traditional ones, and regardless of gender. There’s a few D&D nerds, which absolutely psyched Will and I. There’s already 26 acres and it’s in the heart of a growing KKK territory, and we’re just about agreed on making ourselves known as a safe place for blacks to flee to if they need to (if we do decide to create a defensible community). We’re going as eco-friendly as possible. We’re trying to be independent and grow our own food. We’re all going to kick in and help–some of us can sew and teach others, some of us can build and teach others, some of us can organize, some can fish, some can create items to sell, some can grow food and teach others…

Say what you will about my anarchist ideals (as I’m guessing few of my readers have seen anything but the ranting and small minded sort of anarchist, and will simply leave my blog, which I’ve accepted as a risk for speaking my mind). I’m fine if you don’t agree with them, and I personally want to continue to be active in politics and continue to vote. I want to protest, I want to attend town hall meetings and see if they’ll let me in during  state ones. I’m going to be more open about my beliefs, even if being an anarchist is considered a shameful and disgusting thing in this country. I’ll defend them and, if they are wrong, concede. But I’m happy because I’ve found others who just want to do something constructive and not control others, I’m happy because Will has been so accepting and even agreed with my being an anarchist, and I’m happy because admitting it to myself and believing in it has given me a sense of personal power and conviction that I have never had in my life.