Why Aotearoa Needs Anarchy

The concentration of power in the hands of the elites who control governments, corporations and other power blocs allows the interests of 'the people' to be sacrificed on the alter of profit and control. But we fail to challenge this system effectively because we still believe portions of the propoganda that the only alternative is chaos and barbarism. Why?

A monarchy has a monarch as its ruler. An aristocracy has aristocrats as its rulers. An oligarchy has oligarchs as its rulers. A democracy has 'the people' (from the Greek 'demos' from whence we also get such words as 'demographic') as its rulers. The Greek word 'archos' meaning 'head' has been adapted into English to mean ruler.

So it follows that an anarchy has no ruler/s ('an' = 'without'). But surely in practice this means the same things as democracy? After all if 'the people' are *all* rulers then no one is more a ruler than anyone else so effectively nobody is a ruler. But in anarchy/ democracy there are still rules. Rules emerge as a natural property of social interaction. Which is precisely why we don't need a dictator or an elite to makes rules for us and we certainly don't need testosterone-boosted men with big sticks to make sure we follow them.

'But there's never been a successful anarchist society' say the apologists for heirarchy.

To me this quote above all illustrates the degree to which people miss the point. It's not a case of having a revolution, throwing a switch and suddenly there is an anarchist society. Anarchy is not a black/white dichotomy, not something that a society either is or isn't.

Significant portions of our society are and have always been anarchy. When you have a girlfriend/ boyfriend you decide things together. If one partner dominates the other the relationship is generally considered to be abusive. When a group of friends goes out together they all agree on where to go and what to do and ammend this plan as necessary as the night progresses. If one person puts on a uniform and beats the others with sticks if they don't stick to the original plan it would be seen as assault and dictatorship and unacceptable in a democracy.

So why does the same analysis not apply to the political/ economic sphere? Why is it not acceptable for me to make rules for my wife without her consent or beat my friends for changing their plans, yet if I become an MP I am part of an elite that can make rules for an entire country without their unanimous consent and have the police beat people up and lock them up on my behalf if they break my rules?

Although this is not a universal anarchist view I see the anarchist 'revolution' as an ongoing process of applying the way we make decisions with partners and friends and the respect we have for their autonomy to as many areas of our lives as possible. To try and colonise the political sphere, economic sphere etc with true democracy rather than the current pseudo-democracy - majority rule, with the majority more often than not manipulated and given limited options by a minority. Part of that includes identifying and challenging the counter-revolution in forms like Destiny Church etc which try to do the reverse, to apply state-capitalist dictatorship to the functioning of spiritual fellowship and family. A significant portion of radical feminist analysis focuses on this.

Anarchist revolution is constant struggle, not with molotovs in the streets against cops (not usually anyway), but primarily in NZ society against the headful of propoganda, ideology and bollox that we have been fed by our parents, school etc and continue to be fed by the mass media. Propoganda that says we need people to be tortured in Guantanamo Bay to defend our freedom. Propoganda that says we need to ingest and coat ourselves in drugs and poisons to be clean and healthy. Propoganda that says democracy is voting for near-identical major parties or marginalised minor parties every 3 years and maybe sending ignored letters or submissions to MPs in between.

This propoganda makes up the Spectacle - the Matrix - that blinds us to the truth. What truth? That our society is a capitalist-controlled dreamworld designed to turn human beings into an energy source. Once we understand this we have a choice. Take the blue pill and climb the ladder of the system with willfull ignorance... or take the red pill and take the risk of rocking the boat and being patronised by parliamentarists.

See you in Zion?

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