life without law
life without law (2013) via 15 pg kindle version [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/strangers-in-a-tangled-wilderness-life-without-law]
notes/quotes:
Strangers In a Tangled Wilderness – Life Without Law – An introduction to anarchist politics
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I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.
—Emma Goldman, 1931
An anarchist is someone who rejects the domination of one person or class of people over another. Anarch-ism is a very broad umbrella term for a group of political philosophies that are based on the idea that we can live as anarchists. We anarchists want a world without nations, governments, capitalism, racism, sexism, homophobia… without any of the numerous, intersecting systems of domination the world bears the weight of today.
There is no single perfect expression of anarchism because anarchism is a network of ideas instead of a single dogmatic philosophy. And we quite prefer it that way.
The World Today
You’re obliged to pretend respect for people and institutions you think absurd. You live attached in a cowardly fashion to moral and social conventions you despise, condemn, and know lack all foundation. It is that permanent contradiction between your ideas and desires and all the dead formalities and vain pretenses of your civilization which makes you sad, troubled and unbalanced. In that intolerable conflict you lose all joy of life and all feeling of personality, because at every moment they suppress and restrain and check the free play of your powers. That’s the poisoned and mortal wound of the civilized world.
—Octave Mirbeau, 1899
There are those who say that anarchism wouldn’t work, that we need laws and cops and capitalism. But we say that it is the systems currently in place which aren’t working.
Billions go hungry every day across the globe because global capitalism makes it more profitable for the elite of starving nations to grow crops for export than to feed their own people.
We’re told that anarchy can’t work because people are “inherently” flawed and are motivated solely by self-interest. They somehow make the illogical jump from this idea to the idea that we therefore need leaders and government. But if we don’t trust people to lead themselves, why do we trust them enough to put them in charge of everybody?
What if instead of the top-down organizations that have led us into ruin, we created horizontal organizations? What if we made a society in which we collectively confront problems–without ignoring what makes each of us unique and without forcing the individual into subservience to the whole?
perpetuating same song.. hari rat park law et al.. ie: heroin no longer a problem.. solving problems no longer relevant
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Responsibility and Freedom
An anarchist is one who, choosing, accepts the responsibility of choice.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1974
then not legit free.. ursula le guin
One way some anarchists like to think about it is that anarchism is the marriage of responsibility and freedom. In a state society, under the rule of government, we are held responsible to a set of laws to which we did not consent. We are expected to be responsible without being trusted with freedom. There are laws about everything: whom we can love, what imaginary lines we can cross, what we can do with our own bodies. We are not trusted to act on our own authority, and at every turn we are being managed, observed, policed, and, if we step out of line, imprisoned.
responsibility ness as cancerous distraction
The reverse—freedom without responsibility—is not much better, and it forms the mainstream myth of anarchy. Government thrives off this misconception, the idea that it’s only the existence of cops and prisons that keeps us from murdering one another wholesale. But in reality, the people in this world who act with total freedom and no responsibility are those so privileged in our society so as to be above reproach, such as the police and the ultra rich. Most of the rest of us understand that in order to be free we must hold ourselves accountable to those we care about and those our actions might impede upon: our communities and families and friends.
because not legit free dom .. still that raised eyebrow et al
needs to be sans any form of m\a\p to see the dance (sans responsibility ness et al) dance
only think we’ve seen freedom w/o responsibility.. we have not yet tried the legit the unconditional part of left to own devices ness
Anti-Capitalism
Capitalism does not, as is popularly misunderstood, mean an economic system in which people work for money that they can exchange for goods or services. Capitalism is, instead, an economic system in which people can leverage their access to capital to extort money from other people. That is to say, capitalism is the system by which people who own things don’t have to work and everyone else does. The owning class makes money just by already having money. They make money off of investments, off of renting property, off of the value produced by their employees. They live in luxury because they are in the process of dominating everyone who makes money through work.
doesn’t really matter.. if any form of m\a\p.. not legit free
Capitalism is a system by which one class of people dominates another, and we oppose it. Instead, we suggest all kinds of different ways of organizing our economies. Some anarchists argue for communism, in which the means of production are held in common by communes or larger sections of society. Others favor mutualism, in which means of production are owned by individuals or collectives and money is used but money can only be made through work, not through capital. There’s collectivism, which strikes something of a middle ground between the two. There are many more ideas than this besides, and most anarchists believe that any given group of people ought to be free to choose the system that they prefer—as long as these ideas steer clear from demonstrably oppressive systems like capitalism.
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Anti-State
Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.
—Leo Tolstoy, 1894
What is not asked often enough is whether or not we ought to be “governed” at all.
Anarchists do not eschew organization, however. If anything, we spend too much of our time concerned with its intricacies. We are opposed to government because we are opposed to being ruled, not because we are opposed to organizing amongst our peers for our mutual benefit.
Some anarchists say that what they want is a direct democracy–that the people themselves can rule without a state through community councils and other horizontal organizational systems. Others eschew the word democracy entirely, finding it too wrapped up in the systems we have now and suggesting that democracy is a government still, one that makes up a set of laws that everyone is compelled to obey—like when six wolves and four sheep get together to plan what they would like for dinner. Every anarchist, like every person, is different and finds resonance in different ideas and different ways of framing our ideas.
Amongst ourselves, we generally create organizational structures that allow for the full autonomy of every individual, wherein no person can be compelled to go along with the wishes of the group. .
none created to date
A World Without Law
How noble the law, in its majestic equality, that both the rich and poor are equally prohibited from peeing in the streets, sleeping under bridges, and stealing bread!
—Anatole France, 1894
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Some people have an unfortunate tendency to insist that you can’t be against something unless you know what you’re for. We reject that idea. We don’t feel the burden of proof is upon the oppressed to identify what they would like to replace their oppressor with.
A world without law is not a world without guidelines. We are opposed to law because law is a way of understanding human conduct that was designed—and has been implemented—for social control rather than *for the furtherance of justice. Laws are designed to be obscure yet rigid, creating a series of traps for those who are already disenfranchised by society.
*still cancerous distraction
Law is not actually a particularly useful tool for *judging human behavior.
People who are encouraged to act socially tend to act socially, and people who are treated with empathy will, by and large, respond in kind. There will always be exceptions, but for dealing with those people, *guidelines—which remain mutable to circumstance—are a significantly more useful tool than law will ever be. Further, many anarchists work towards what is referred to as transformative justice. This is the concept that, while it is impossible to repair the harm done by the perpetrator of an unjust act, one can work to *help the perpetrator take personal responsibility for what they have done so as to prevent them from returning to such behavior in the future. An anarchist society, like any other, will still defend itself from those who cannot or will not take responsibility for their actions, but this self-defense is done *in the name of protection rather than punishment or revenge. It’s worth acknowledging here that like many of our ideas and methods, transformative justice is practiced—and was developed—not just by anarchists but by a wide range of marginalized groups.
*but still cancerous distraction.. any form of people telling other people what to do
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Mutual Aid & Solidarity
I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.
—Mikhail Bakunin, 1871
none of us are free ness
Mutual aid is a fancy way of saying “helping each other out,” and it’s one of the core anarchist beliefs. We believe that people can interact in meaningful ways by sharing resources freely, without coercion. We share because it helps ourselves and everyone around us live more meaningful lives. We put more stock in cooperation than competition.
help\ing ness as cancerous distraction
Solidarity is a fancy word for “having one another’s backs.” Solidarity is the most powerful force that the oppressed can bring to bear upon their oppressors. Every time they come after one of us, we act as though they are coming after all of us. Solidarity can look like a thousand different things. It can be when someone tackles a cop to free another protester, it can be demonstrations or actions in the names of those whose voices have been silenced by the state. Solidarity can be offering childcare for parents, it can be medical aid. Solidarity is when we show the world that none of us is alone, when we choose to intertwine our struggles.
how is that solidarity? if still us & them ness..
Solidarity is often contrasted with charity. Charity can be understood as a way of providing aid that reinforces the hierarchical relationship between groups. Rich people donating money to charity makes poor people even more dependent upon the rich. Poor people, however, organizing to share resources as equals, are acting out of solidarity.
Consent & Consensus
Since we anarchists are committed to only doing things with people that those people want to do, we utilize a number of methods to determine what those things are.
none legit to date.. need to try the unconditional part of left to own devices ness.. or won’t see legit ‘interests’ie: imagine if we ness via nonjudgmental expo labeling
On an individual level, we’re interested in practices based on consent. It’s rather amazing how little mainstream society teaches us to value one another’s consent.
*Consent is a way of finding out what other people are interested in doing with you. Mostly, this just means asking people before you do things with them. “Do you want to come to this demonstration?” “Can I kiss you?” “Do you want my advice?” “Can I help you with that?” Some people consciously develop non-verbal ways of communicating consent, but the important thing is to not act without knowing if the other person is informed of the ramifications of an action, is in a headspace to make decisions, and is enthusiastic.
*aka: voluntary compliance.. manufacturing consent.. et al
One tool, among many, that we use for finding consent in larger groups is consensus.
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Not all collectives and groups are very formal in their consensus decision-making, and many groups tend to work more on an “autonomy” model in which everyone is trusted to act on behalf of the group and then be responsible to everyone else for the actions and decisions they made on behalf of the group.
Direct Action
Anarchists know that a long period of education must precede any great fundamental change in society, hence they do not believe in vote begging, nor political campaigns, but rather in the development of self-thinking individuals.
—Lucy Parsons, 1890s
Anarchists do not want to reform the existing political system; we want to abolish it. Instead of political advocacy, by which we might appeal to others to change our conditions, we generally practice direct action. *Direct action is a means by which we take control over our own lives, by which we regain the autonomy and agency that is systematically stripped away from us by governmental systems, by which we become self-thinking individuals.
*nah.. because directing action at some assumption.. rather than itch-in-the-soul
Prefiguration
If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be worse than the Tsar himself.
because not deep enough.. didn’t get to root of problem
—Mikhail Bakunin
We participate in direct action because we find “means” and “ends” to be inseparable; it is the act of working towards a better society that shows us what it is like to live in one. It’s quite likely that none of us will live in an anarchist society, but that doesn’t mean we can’t act like anarchists now. To be an anarchist is at least as much about the ways in which you engage with the world and how you treat people as it is about what fantastic utopia you hope to one day live in.
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Sometimes we call this intertwining of the means and the ends “prefiguration.” Anarchists aim to act in ways that maximize other people’s autonomy. Many Leftists, especially Marxists, suggest a vanguard with which to seize power. We’ve no interest in seizing power for anyone but ourselves, and we oppose anyone who thinks they ought to rule us, whether they call themselves “revolutionary” or not.
What’s more, prefiguration means that we don’t put up with oppressive attitudes in our circles, because we seek a world without oppressive behavior.
so has to be sans any form of m\a\p
Prefiguration doesn’t mean, however, that we have to be nonviolent. While we do believe a responsible anarchist world would be more peaceful than the world we inhabit today, most anarchists accept that domination may occasionally need to be met with violent force in order to stop it. Our problem isn’t with violence itself, but the systems of domination that make use of it.
Tactics
An anarchist is anyone who denies the necessity and legitimacy of government; the question of his methods of attacking it is foreign to the definition.
—Benjamin R. Tucker, 1895
The same as there is no unified idea of anarchist economics, there is no universally accepted framework for anarchist tactics. We know we believe in direct action, but what kinds? Almost every individual anarchist or anarchist group might respond to this question differently.
One of the more famous anarchist tactics so far in the twenty-first century is the black bloc. The black bloc is a tactic by which we obscure our identities by wearing identical black clothing and then engage in various direct actions, usually in public.
The other thing anarchists are perhaps best known for today are mutual aid organizations. In some ways, these organizations seem like the exact opposite of militant street demonstrations–instead of attacking the far right and capitalism, mutual aid organizations distribute food, organize medical care, teach workshops, and generally help us, as part of society, take care of that society. Yet these two tactics mutually reinforce each other, and while many anarchists prefer one or the other, many participate in both.
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We advocate what’s called a diversity of tactics, meaning we’ve got as much respect for those practicing nonviolent civil disobedience as we do for arsonists—that is to say, only as much respect as the individual actions themselves deserve on their own merit at the time, place, and social context in which they were used.
there’s a nother way
Strategy
An anarchist strategy is not a strategy about how to make a capitalist or statist society less authoritarian or spectacular. It assumes that we cannot have an anarchist society while the state or capitalism continues to reign.
—Aragorn!, 2005
A lot of broader strategies have been suggested for how we might go about creating an anarchist society—or even just strategies of how we might best live as anarchists here and now. Each has their proponents and detractors, but few people believe that there is one single correct path to take towards freedom, and all of these strategies have in the past and will continue to overlap.
The most famous strategy is that of revolution, in which a single, reasonably organized mass uprising allows for the oppressed classes to seize the means of production and take their lives into their own hands. Many anarchists remain skeptical of how we might go about organizing such a thing in a way that doesn’t simply leave a different class of people, an anarchist government of sorts, in charge.
ie: a nother way.. via a sabbatical ish transition
Revolution does not have the best track record in terms of increasing liberty to those in the revolutionary country. Quite often, state communists or other authoritarian groups have essentially seized control of the revolution at the last minute, stepping into the vacuum of power. This, many anarchists would argue, doesn’t mean that an anti-authoritarian revolution is impossible, only that it faces numerous challenges.
ie: thinking that anti ness is part of legit change
A second strategy is that of fostering insurrections. Insurrections are moments of freedom and revolt, often occurring in times of crisis. These insurrections can allow for areas to be liberated from state control and, if uprisings occur in increasing strength and frequency, allow for a generalized revolt that could break state power. It has been argued that insurrections do not provide lasting change and can often simply serve as an excuse for government repression, but insurrections have also played important roles in numerous anarchist struggles.
but still whac-a-mole-ing ness.. until we org around legit needs
A third strategy that anarchists have historically tried is syndicalism. This method relies on building the power of the working class through organizing workplaces into interwoven, mutually supportive unions. Syndicalism has been incredibly popular and often successful in the past, but the second half of the twentieth century fundamentally changed the way that unions and workplaces organize. Conditions are changing again, however, and workplace organizing is once again a promising strategy.
cancerous distraction.. supposed to’s of school/work et al
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Another strategy is referred to sometimes as the dual power strategy, or “building the new world in the shell of the old.” This is a strategy of building up “counter-infrastructure” along anarchist lines to fulfill people’s needs and desires while simultaneously attacking the mainstream institutions that are destroying the world.
can’t do this if don’t grok legit needs
Other anarchists have no interest in the creation of an anarchist society, but instead are focused on attacking the society that has immiserated the world. These anarchists generally practice nihilism.
None of these strategies are mutually exclusive, of course. Neither is this list exhaustive. Some anarchists find themselves primarily concerned with strategies based around decolonization, education, or intervening in crisis. Others are likely hard at work scheming strategies that have never been tried, ideas that we can’t wait to test.
if only.. nothing new/diff to date
It’s worth distinguishing between Anarchism, with a capital-A, and the broader anarchic tradition (or sometimes “anarchy” as contrasted with Anarchism). Anarchism, as it’s usually discussed, is an ideological position developed in Europe during the 19th century alongside socialism, communism, and other European responses to capitalism. This Anarchism can be seen as a part of a broader anarchic movement–all of the anti-authoritarian, pro-communal traditions that can be found in almost every culture in history, including many non-Western cultures around today.
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As for anarchism itself, it was a French working-class typesetter, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who coined the term in 1840 and was the first to self-identify as an anarchist. The idea spread quickly and grew beyond what one man could have imagined.
Anarchists have played an enormous role in revolutions, labor struggles, uprisings, and culture ever since. In the 1880s, anarchists fighting against wage labor in the United States got caught up in the fight for the eight-hour work day. After a series of labor rights culminating in a fight in Haymarket Square in Chicago, eight anarchists were put on trial explicitly for being anarchists. Four were hanged and one killed himself in jail as a result. Their martyrdom changed labor history across the world, and anarchism continued to be a strong voice in the labor movement. A widow of one of those martyrs, a Black anarchist named Lucy Parsons, went on to help form the most revolutionary union in US history, the antiracist Industrial Workers of the World.
we’ve been involved in numerous art, literary, and music movements—from André Breton’s involvement in surrealism to Crass’s influence on punk and Ursula le Guin’s anarchist pacifist approach to science fiction and fantasy.
But we cannot be weighed down by the past. We have our own history to make.
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But the most important things about being an anarchist are: treating other people with respect, as masters of their own lives; and taking control of your life, seizing freedom, but remaining responsible to yourself and those you care about.
Rather than looking to join “the anarchists,” it’s generally better to join the social movements in your area and look for the anarchists or those with anarchic tendencies.
As a word of warning, there are predators in the anarchist movement. Agents of the state infiltrate our movement and do their utmost to destroy it. They prey upon new people in particular, setting them up to break the law and then sending them to prison for years or decades. Don’t commit felonious crimes with anyone you haven’t known for years. Never let anyone convince you that if you “really cared” about anarchism or some other cause that you’d take some dangerous action.
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Further Reading
People sometimes inquire what form of government is most suitable for an artist to live under. To this question there is only one answer. The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891
Some cool historical anarchists to look up for fun include: Lucy Parsons, Ricardo Flores Magón, Emma Goldman, Peter Kropotkin, Mikhail Bakunin, Errico Malatesta, Kuwasi Balagoon, Ricardo Flores Magón, Jules Bonnot, Maria Nikiforova, Nestor Makhno, Noe Itō, Kaneko Fumiko, Voltairine DeCleyre, Louise Michel, and Francesc Ferrer.
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be you. 