A long time ago, I thought I was a pacifist. Never touched a gun, never fired one.
Then I learned I am a warrior, and that I am in the middle of a huge battle.
Maybe it is a coincidence, but just a few days ago I translated an old comment I made years ago in my language, and in it - although addressed at the "Occupy Wall Street" hippies - I pointed out how important it is to include "the arch enemies" police and military into "our" peaceful "revolution"; not in their functions as stooges for the elite, but as our fellow humans with the drill and skill necessary to oppose or better even prevent any attempt at silencing the movement by force, as those who will have to decide whether to execute an order or not. No, Sir, no!
As someone else said: an-archy means "without ruler", not "without rules" <- that one is called "anomie".
anarchists appear to have no plan to achieve the extremely lofty goal of the elimination of nation states
Anarchists of all flags and colors will hopefully elaborate better than myself, but there are plans. Not only that, some concepts have even been tried, sometimes quite successfully even.
What exactly would you miss if there would be no-one to rule over you?
Well, in my mind, rule != lead.
I want to follow leaders that I believe in based on my ethos, but I simultaneously want to lead others if they believe in me and my mission (whatever that may be). I fear what will come if natural leaders are shunned by the 'fatalistically cynical', of which I see some of in this thread. I have served with and alongside great men who were great leaders, so I understand what can be accomplished with a brilliant team of fearless individuals.
So, rule over me? I feel like that with the current political class and their IRS arm. But I certainly didn't feel like that on my team because I HAD A VOICE that was considered and often valued highly by my peers and the team leadership, despite being the youngest on the team by about 6 years.
Absolutely! Can you imagine how hard it is to express certain thoughts in my native tongue simply because its word for leader has such a weird aftertaste?
It is "Führer", in case you wondered...
Anarchy and leadership are not mutually exclusive ideas, quite the contrary, the better world depends on leaders to show the ways that have been scouted already.
Nice to find some great solid ground. Thanks for the discussion!
I was in a hurry, I apologize. Here's a little reading list, click anywhere you like, maybe there is an anarchy that resonates with you.
(To circumvent the "Führer" problem, most of the time I use "Lehrer" (teacher) instead, btw. The greatest heroes of anarchy and its principles and ideals have been leaders or teachers or rabbis.)
Personally, I count among my "leaders" Jesse the Carpenter and Siddharta of course, one must mention Proudhon, Lafargue (my Steemit article on him), MLK, Mohandas Karamchand, RAW and many many more. They are all pretty dead (not quite sure about Jesse and Gautama yet) and can't defend themselves anymore, but maybe you can connect with Ken O'Keefe? (youtube him!)
Practical examples are listed on Wikipedia, don't miss the List of anarchist communities, esp. the mass communities: Revolutionary Catalonia or Anarchist Aragon, all were beat down by force, except Rojava so far.
So my thinking was always that the people with the funny flowery hairdos and ideas of peace and harmony and prosperity sort of welcome home those broken, wounded and shattered by the atrocities they have "survived" (sorta-ish /s /i disclaimer iykwim :/ ).
They are our oathkeepers, and only they can speak to their sons and daughters who are still active, explain why not to relay or execute Order 66.
They shall be warriors for the tribe, not soldiers (from Old French soudier, "one who serves in the army for pay") anymore, and fight for the peace that can't be won by bombing and shooting the crap out of each other.
That one would be my personal favourite anarchy, the revolution that is won without a blade drawn.
But it will only work if the people know that military and police won't shoot them, and military and police know the people won't fall into their backs.
I know, this particular one is the weird kind of anarchy, trying to forge a pact between religion, military personel, lower upper class and peace doves (oh yes the plan is big), but I really think except for a few reptilians overlords we're all humans and want the same:
peace and prosperity. And if we're really smart about it, we can do it.
I thank you!