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October 13, 2004
Addition: November 28, 2004
The thing that every
anarchist knows about
anarchy, and that no
one else seems to, is This would seem to
that anarchy and chaos make it a terrible Why adopt
aren't synonyms. piece of terminology a label that's
to adopt. guaranteed
Anyone who embraces to confuse?
freedom as an ideal
recognizes that the Compare this
good can arise without to "satanists".
centralized authority. The more
intelligent
Anarchy just takes this ones say things
principle farther: it's like "satan
the notion that it might is the spirit
be better to do away with of rebellion",
the central authority and don't
altogether. appear to
literally
Anarchy is not then the believe in
opposite of order, but this figure
a belief that it's from the
possible and desireable christian
to find ways for order folktales.
to emerge other than For the typical
being imposed from the anarchist, this is They're atheists
top. usually quite who've adopted
theoretical. a very awkward
Skepticism about name.
central authority is Very few claim to know
hardly an extreme everything about what
notion... unless you an anarchist world Of course *some*
take it to an extreme. would look like, nor satanists are out
do they know how to there with
get there. candles and
pentagrams, and
some anarchists
are out tossing
bombs.
But then
there are
also some
"christians"
out there
There's also another blowing
sense of being an up abortion
"anarchist", that's clinics.
more existential and
less theoretical.
Most people go around with some
sort of notion of the "divine
right of kings" extended to
whatever authority they live
under.
The government,
the corporation:
not just raw The nominal source of
power, but sanction differs:
sanctified
power... The will of the people;
Right of ownership;
The anarchist is someone The merit of intellgent hard work;
who questions this Perhaps: paternal love.
sanction, who at least
holds the door open to
the notion that the
existing rule may be an
unjust rule. There are gangs with guns,
and the biggest gangs with
the biggest guns get called
But thinking this governments. "It's the *only*
way does not way to be..."
imply that you're
going to start
throwing bombs.
It could easily be "The peculiar resiliancy of
that the external anarchists, of course, is
behavior of the not mysterious. To the
sensible anarchist extent that they are
and the sensible anarchists they distrust
patriot will be large institutions, the
exactly the same. state, the university, and
its functionaries. They
are less vulnerable to
the corruptions of title
and salary because their
resistance is moral,
almost instinctual."
"This, of course, is what
Marxists charge: anarchists
think ethically, not
strategically. Yet exactly
this reveals their long-run
(and short-run?) strength.
Marxist intellectuals can
and do convince themselves
to subordinate mind and
ethics to a larger goal
or distinct cause that
frequently slips out of
sight."
-- Russell Jacoby,
"The Last Intellectuals"
(1987)
LAST_INTELLECTUALS
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