Wholly molly, I think I'm an anarchist!
I'll starting by admitting I was previously quite naive and misinterpreted the definition of meaning of this. Anarchy was never anything I was exposed too, researched or knew enough of about. The only exposure I ever had to the idea was movies like V for Vendetta or other pop culture references and was never anything I though of any further.
I finally got off my ass and took a look deeper down the rabbit hole and really feel like this idea fits perfectly with my current believe system and I want to share this realization with everyone.
But for years, since reaching adulthood and joining the rat race, I craved for another option then the current system. I fantasized about other option then the current political system and hierarchical structures of everything. I moved to a large rural piece of land and followed my dreams and passions to try to be more self -sustainable and independent and tried to get away from as much of it as I could. I spend hours discussing with my friends, cousins and family if there was only a way where were could just form our own group, live off the land and not take part or be bothered with it all.
Of course part of this journey brought me to silver stacking, then of course to steemit and the world of cryptocurrencies. Through my time here on steemit of course I started following as many like minded homesteaders, permaculturealists, gardeners, foragers, meditaters, etc. This group began to be much of my favorite blogs to follow, read and learn from. This is a group of really sharing, loving and peaceful bloggers, so of course I was confused when I read many of them discussion anarchism. Of course it didn't fit with my previous assumptions of the term.
This is when I finally got inspired to find some time to look further into this and of course the first stop was good 'ol wikipedia. Who provided the following definition.
Anarchy is the condition of a society, entity, group of people, or a single person that rejects hierarchy. The word originally meant leaderlessness, but in 1840 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted the term in his treatise What Is Property? to refer to a new political philosophy: anarchism, which advocates stateless societies based on voluntary associations. In practical terms, anarchy can refer to the curtailment or abolition of traditional forms of government and institutions. It can also designate a nation (or anywhere on earth that is inhabited) that has no system of government or central rule. Anarchy is primarily advocated by anarchists, individuals who propose replacing government with voluntary institutions.
So that's just the intro, I'm sure it's not perfect, but the striking thing to me, was no mention of violent overthrow of the government, like my flawed belief.
In fact after reading the entire definition this is the only mention of such I have found,
Some anarchists oppose all forms of aggression, supporting self-defense or non-violence (anarcho-pacifism), while others have supported the use of militant measures, including revolution and propaganda of the deed, on the path to an anarchist society.
As I continued to read the definition the very last paragraph was the most striking to me personally,
Anarchists have been involved in a wide variety of communities. While there are only a few instances of mass society "anarchies" that have come about from explicitly anarchist revolutions, there are also examples of "intentional communities" founded by anarchists.
Now that's speaking my language, intentional communities is something I'm much more familiar with and exactly that kind of thing I find myself gravitating too.
Of course like everything now I need to take a much deeper delve and learn everything I can about the topic, but so far this sounds like exactly what I've been looking for, and something I want to identify with.
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I was surprised too, when I had read this book I went from statist to anarchist, voluntaryist to be specific.
I was always the way I was of course but just had not found the word for it. :)
This book is shorter and shows it from another perspective.
Peace
Hi, @wordsword,
That particular book by Larken Rose also had a dramatic impact on me. I can't recommend "The Most Dangerous Superstition" enough...
Thank you for the reference to "The End Of All Evil," as I had not seen that one yet! :D
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I'll look into this other suggestion as well, thanks alot!
Thanks for the suggestions man, it's much appreciated, I do definitely want to delve a bit deeper.
Excellent observations, and welcome to the "club."
A couple more terms you might look at are "voluntaryism" and "agorism."
Voluntaryism is perhaps a less muddled word than anarchism, with less "baggage." The basic concept is that we don't initiate the use of force to accomplish goals.
Agorism is the idea of completely voluntary free markets, with no "middle-man" - i.e. no government interference either in oppressive regulation or in the theft of taxation.
As a Christian, I approach anarchism from a perhaps somewhat unusual perspective. I'm not truly an anarchist, because I recognize one person with a legitimate claim to be my ruler--namely, Jesus. In my worldview, Jesus, as my creator, has an absolute right to rule me. However, I recognize no human "government" because humans, as peers, have no right to rule one another.
Thanks for a great, thoughtful, insightful article!
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I would argue that someone you voluntarily choose to follow isn't your ruler either. That's your leader. You have made a conscious decision to follow your god and his commandments. As long as you do not demand or force others to do the same and your beliefs do no unjust harm to others, there's absolutely nothing wrong with your beliefs either.
I agree, @finnian...
There is an utterly huge difference between following someone voluntarily and being forcibly coerced to obey someone's dictates.
I guess my point was more focused on the logic of the relationship between a creator and his work. I think there is a legitimate "right to rule" in that case.
Thanks for your observations. :)
Thanks for the feedback and suggestion man, I am really excited to find some time to delve much deeper into this whole realm, it's exciting to finally put a name to what I've been thinking and feeling.
Thank you for this piece. People can actually dwell perfectly well and do things without the help of Government. The Government tend to play a role of being a task master but when people depend less on them then they will loose more power because people can do things on their own.
Thanks to cryptocurrency which i can say is a peaceful anarchy and I have benefited from it especially the steem platform.
Thank you @phelimint for sharing this.
Yeah, cryptocurrencies is definitely a large piece of the puzzle much the same way I though of silver stacking when I started down that path.
I hate that the term has been co-opted by socialists and communists and others on the political left. Anarchy (to me anyway) is an extreme form of libertarianism and the antithesis of socialism/communism. Their attempt to co-opt and pose as 'anarchist' distorts the true principles of the philosophy and makes the layperson think anarchy is just a synonym for anti-establishment/anti-capitalist communism.
I agree it's definitely got a lot of different definitions, uses and sub-classifications. I can see why there is so much confusion over the term.
Glad you made it out of statism.
Thanks! Exciting times for sure.
Yeah it's amazing what life can be like without the people behind a curtain pulling all the strings. So many people think life will just fall apart without government, but from everything I see they make 90% of what they touch worse.
Would like to hear more about what you learn.
Yeah, it's been interested to learn more about this all for sure, I'll definitely be delving deeper into it.
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