Anarchism

Submitted By bagmanandy
Words: 2156
Pages: 9

Anarchism is the political Ideology that, in its most basic of principles, states that the Government that governs the least is the best kind of Government (Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862). When you discuss the idea of Anarchy with the everyday Layperson, they usually think of burning down buildings, crumbling ruins of once great cities and constant rioting on the street. These are the thoughts of people who have been taught to live by a very structured set of rules and that anything outside these rules is tantamount to chaos in our society; however this is a very narrow view. Anarchism stands for more than just destruction of the Government of our time. Instead, anarchists look for the peaceful removal of Government in all three sectors, the Judicial, the Parliament and the Executive, and instead introduce a form of self-governance where people only take what they need from the world around them and are allowed to focus on whatever they desire
Common to all different types of people who identify as Anarchists is the desire to free society of all political and brain washing social institutions (newspapers) which stand in the way of development of a free humanity. In this sense ideologies such as true Communism cannot be regarded as a free society in the same way Anarchism is. True Anarchism means cutting out the idea of one person or group delegating the flow of material and resources, but instead leaving in the hands of the whole.
But when and where did anarchism originate, and what does it really stand for?
Anarchist and philosopher John Zerzan (2011) argues that anarchy is the original state of humankind, way back in the time of time of the Greeks when the movement was given a name, perhaps even before then in the time of the caveman when we didn’t rely on other people to sustain us, where we only took what we needed from the world what we needed to survive. The Caveman never answered to a higher voice and they lived free life unburdened by anyone in a position of power over them dictating their lives bar the needs of their family.
Zerzan also argues against the use of technology and discusses how it has impacted on the growth of the world around us in a massively negative fashion and that “In the U.S., life-threatening obesity is sharply rising, and tens of millions suffer from serious depression and/or anxiety. There are frequent eruptions of multiple homicides in homes, schools, and workplaces, while the suicide rate among young people has tripled in recent decades…” Zerzan blames this on our reliance on technology and our inability to function as independent entities as the sole reason that so many ‘bad things’ happen in the world today. He likens the allure and relative comfort of a Government based in a technological world to the Sirens of the Oddesy by Homer “its focal image of Odysseus forcibly repressing the Sirens song of the Eros is a direct likening of this idea”
Sigmund Freud argues in Civilization and Its Discontents (1989) that non-repressive civilization is impossible in this day and age because the foundation of civilization is a forcible ban on instinctual freedom. To introduce work and culture, the ban must be permanently imposed. Since this repression and its constant maintenance are essential to civilization, universal civilization brings universal ‘oneness’ had already noted that as humankind “advances” with civilization, technology and the division of labor, “the general happiness of society is decreasing.”

"Anarchists, though some may advocate a swift and violent revolution, envision a peaceful and harmonious society, based on a natural order of cooperation rather than an artificial system based on coercion," Brian Crabtree wrote in 1992. "We recognise that man has other needs besides food, and as the strength of Anarchy lies precisely in that it understands all human faculties and all passions, and ignores none, we shall contrive to satisfy all his intellectual and artistic needs