Why Anarchy?

What is anarchism anyways?

“I am an Anarchist! Wherefore I will Not rule, and also ruled I will not be!”

John Henry Mackay

Anarchism is the absence of authority, by consequence a lack of hierarchy. You will not lead me, nor I you. None shall subjugate another, for the autonomy of the individual is of utmost importance. There is no person of more value than any other, we are all uniquely worthy of commanding ourselves. To rule over another is a cruel robbery of their whole world. Anarchism is the realization of the self, of the innumerable powers acting unto it. With no need to obey, you may finally foster free thought and possess total control of your will.

Anarchists tend to reject most schools of traditional thought. As we are entrenched in a hierarchical existence, a majority of norms and customs are reflective. Law, government, family, religion, and gender might encompass some of the ideas an anarchist chooses to negate. You will seldom find agreement from anarchist-to-anarchist. We all wield our own lens with which to analyze the world. Government is largely seen as unnecessary and a farce; Law as a cold and indifferent detachment; Money an arbitrary valuing of our time and reality; Religion a deception to control. Many anarchists hold that these concepts form hierarchy by virtue, that these are merely the present tools of authority we are told to be needed.

I am an individualist anarchist, an egoist, and an illegalist. My anarchy is that of self-realization, of the liberation of my Ego from all that would seek to control it. I see these forces primarily as Capital, the Church, and the State. My senses form the basis for my interpretation of reality; the world turns around me. Who else to know of myself when no one else can experience my wake? Law is the State’s justification for violence, ergo illegal acts are an important component of my defiance. My story is immoral! I place significance in Propaganda by the Deed, that through individual acts of terror Anarchy can be realized and that said act may invite all to follow. Go rob a store; be gay, do crime.

Thus, Anarchy could be my serial robbery of stores, Czolgosz’s murder of President McKinley, bombing a politician, burning down your local grocer, or tending your local garden – and so much more! An anarchist will not be ruled, nor shall they rule! A new order is born; an order without rulers.

“I am an anarchist and I am not afraid to die for its cause. Arise Anarchy! Long shall it live!”

Johann Most

An Order Without Rulers

“Todo gobierno es tirania”

-graffiti seen in Mexico City

With no one to be above you or I, a new order is birthed where none shall rule; No more authority, we may all autonomously act and not merely obey. I will be the only entity to form my will, with it no longer beholden to submission nor coercion. You will not rule me!

What is necessary of authority? Hierarchy? Why would it be a given, that another human must command me? I will not believe the lies of its necessity. We can hardly speak of some natural state, of some sort of human nature, when we lay captive to the coldest of all monsters; capitalism and the State remain unneeded. I would much rather you command yourself, entirely and wholly. And you?

Why must you trade your time and resources for a State-sanctioned paper? Rather, why should I need currency for my basic needs to be satisfied, for my acquisition of those needs to not be theft? Money, like authority, has the value and worth a society decides to give it. Do we ever expect our rulers to admit the falsehood they have erected when they stand to gain so much power otherwise? You will sell your being for the dollar, kill another for the right feather in your hat, and I am to listen of your insistence there would be no order, no peace, without rulers? There is no order so long as one may command another!

No peace is to be had when any may be locked in a box, denied the right to self-determine. As long as the powerful shall rule, we will be told this state of subjugation is a peace contrary to our supposed savagery. All individuals are uniquely worthy of their own life, of leading it. You are no more savage than your fellow individual, lest you be led to that belief.

To be freed from rule is to finally know of freedom; we are not free with the powerful demanding subservience. I demand to finally control my own life, that I not merely make choices in some cruel game designed to oppress me at every moment of my wake. I refuse to be distracted from our time’s greatest injustice! No matter how deified the tradition opposing, let it be known – Anarchy is order; rulerless peace.

“I love men too — not merely individuals, but every one. But I love them with the consciousness of egoism; I love them because love makes me happy, I love because loving is natural to me, because it pleases me. I know no “commandment of love.” I have a fellow-feeling with every feeling being, and their torment torments, their refreshment refreshes me too; I can kill them, not torture them.”

Max Stirner

The Death of God

“God is dead: of his pity for man hath God died.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

What does it mean to realize the Self? All that is would ask you to not know of your Ego, to place anything but yourself above it. Your Ego is yours alone. Of all the forces that would dictate your behavior and worth, from religion to traditions or customs, why would you relinquish what is uniquely yours? I stand to defy what is, to claim ownership of the only sensuality I will ever possess. I will be myself. And you?

You possess the same capacities as I. You are as much an individual as anyone else. With nothing of the old, of what was, to define your person, you are given the gift of your own individuality. You get to actually lead your life, to form your personhood from the nothingness of a new way of existence.

What could you truly call your own, when all manners of coercion act unto your will? Even your Ego was not yours, not when it is controlled. Society is predicated on the individual to exist, and not vice versa, so for what reason would I have myself be convinced of the death of individualism? I will see the death of God, for my humanity is something to be surpassed. Not something to limit me, to be my next God or ruler. I am my own.

I alone command my will, so of what need have I of your coercion? Are you to rule me through deception? Not if I can avoid it.

“The creator wished to look away from [themself],—thereupon [they] created the world.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

Lawless Prosperity

“The State calls its own violence Law, but that of the individual Crime.”

Max Stirner

Law is cold and indifferent arbitration, its enforcement naught more than the removal of individual’s liberty. Must I be faced with the deprivation of my humanity and freedom for refusing to obey? Lawlessness will be our liberator. Law does not a thing to change our existence, except for the worse. Through respect and admiration for the State’s violence, individuals are made agents of injustice.

In our new anarchistic existence, our individuality is not to be liberated by Law. Arbiters whom would seek to impose Law unto you or I have the desire of controlling us. With no Law to rule us, we may explore our individuality to its limits; no rulers encompasses all of them, yes.

“The moral man is necessarily narrow in that he knows no other enemy than the immoral man.”

Max Stirner

Voluntary Association

“What matters the party to me? I shall find enough anyhow who unite with me without swearing allegiance.”

Max Stirner

With no rulers or coercion to control us, all individuals may therefore associate with one-another entirely voluntarily. Individuals can mutually utilize each other, creating unions whereupon the Ego of all individuals are recognized and respected. These “Union of Egoists” would form the basis for human interaction, preventing the creation of a new hierarchy above any individual. The ideal human is to be realized, one conscious of their own Ego and of all that would act unto it. You are your own.

Through voluntarily formed bonds, humans could solve the many problems presented to them. Needed medical care, food, shelter, clothing, and so on would no longer be a matter of possessing enough capital; why should the poor go without? Altruism becomes far more appealing with no opportunity cost to it. With education no longer to be gatekept, the persons able to offer services increases accordingly with the demand. Capitalism is naught but a blood tax on our world, the voluntary nature of Anarchy brings forth a greater care for our fellow individuals.

If all aspects of our existence become voluntary, I need not be around individuals who show disdain for others. I am not suddenly tied down by rent, borders, travel costs or contracts. I may surround myself with a community able to benefit me, as I to them. Or, I may live in solitude. Regardless, I suddenly have real control over my life rather than a mere facade of choice. I can associate with whom I choose, my life becomes mines to lead.

“I have based my affair on nothing”

Max Stirner

Why Anarchy