We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, November 9, 2013

On Anarchism: An Interview with Andrew Gavin Marshall

Click here to access the interview as reported by Devon Douglas-Bowers posted on The Hampton Institute website.

I haven't had a chance to read this article in its entirely until today, and I try very hard not to post articles or videos which I haven't read or listened to myself. In short, I highly recommend it as an excellent overview of the history of anarchism in all its complexity. 

It's clear why anarchists are always targeted for abuse and even violence: it's because they eschew all hierarchical associations. This, of course, offends so many: from those in ruling classes and to those in left oriented anti-capitalist organizations that function in some sort of hierarchy whether overt or disguised.

Marshall also deals with probably the most common articulated objection to anarchism propagated by those who have been thoroughly indoctrinated in hierarchical thinking:
The most common argument against anarchism, from those who typically do not understand what anarchy is, is that without some form of "authority," the world would be chaos, people would be killing each other, and we would have disorder and destruction.

The simplest answer to this, is to ask the person what we have in the world today: we live in a world of extreme authority, of more globalized authority in every sector of human action and interaction than ever before in human history, yet so much of the world is in chaos, disorder, destruction, war, starvation, decimation, division, segregation, exploitation, and domination. It is not a lack of order and authority that has brought this to be, but rather the exercise of authority in the name of order. People see anarchy as a paradox without acknowledging the paradox of the ideology versus reality of the world we currently live in.