What is Anarchism?
Part One: Just the Basics
What do you think of when you hear the word anarchy? For many people, the first thing that comes to mind is a Mad Max-style society. Everyone is clawing at each other to survive in a harsh and scarce landscape. This chaotic world is rampant with the most heinous antisocial behavior. Or maybe you are thinking of a society like The Purge. This society is structured so that one day out of the year people get to express the most antisocial behavior that serves as a cathartic release. That blase world view allows people to justify harming one another.
If any of this strikes a chord with you, you are not alone. Anarchy is often described as a state of societal disorder; these are the dominant narratives we hear about anarchy. However, do these narratives provide a genuine lens to view this philosophy?
This series What is Anarchism will hopefully dispel any misconceptions that you have about a very complex political, social, and economic philosophy. Let’s start by describing some basic terms that will help understand anarchism and its multiplicities.
Establishing Some Definitions
Anarchism is the absence of any coercive hierarchy and abolishing state control. The ideology is rooted in horizontalism, direct democracy, consensus decision-making, mutual-aide, and direct action. [1]
Hamburger Style vs Hotdog Style
Horizontalism is just as the name implies: It is structuring society so that nothing is above or below another. When I think of horizontalism I think of working on a group project for a class. Everyone has a stake in making sure the project is successful, yet everyone has a particular function in the group that is necessary for a successful project. No one person is more important than the next, therefore there is no hierarchy because everyone is working on an equal playing field. Contrast this to the vertical nature of how we structure society. We have a boss, and our boss has a boss; moreover, our boss’s boss has a boss, and our boss’s boss’s boss has a boss. That’s a lot of fucking bosses! Side note: Did the word boss lose its meaning after that? If so, you basically understand anarchism.
Direct vs Representative
Direct democracy is a political process where every person has a say in how decisions are made. Everyone has a vote. Imagine that you were younger and in elementary school. Your teacher asks the class, “What movie do you all want to watch for our pizza party on Halloween?” They would go on to list the movies, “We have a choice of Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus, Halloween Town, or Casper.” Everyone voted. If you were like me and you committed voter fraud by voted twice, once for Hocus Pocus and once for Halloween Town, that makes it unfair. Which contrary to popular assertions, double voting doesn’t happen as often as people like to believe.[2] Anyway, representative democracy is the opposite of direct democracy and is the most popular among Americans. We vote for people who make decisions for us. So using the movie analogy, I would vote for a person to choose what movie I wanted to watch. Unlike representative democracy, direct democracy allows people to vote for their interests without a middle person.
Let’s Collab
Consensus decision-making is a collaborative process that considers all willing perspectives to reach an agreement. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the decision-making process since everyone is a stakeholder that will be affected by the decision.[3] I like to consider consensus decision-making when I go out to eat with some friends. I’m a vegetarian, so when I go to a restaurant with my friends I like to pick a place we all will enjoy. This is where the power of consensus decision-making comes into play. It is my way to insert a little anarchist praxis in my everyday life.
Discussion: We would discuss the restaurants we want to eat at.
Identify Emerging Proposal: The place that seems to be suitable and appetizing for all of us is Red Lobster. Come on now Cheddar Bay Biscuits should be an automatic win!
Identify Any Concerns: Red Lobster is kind of expensive, they don’t have many vegetarian entrees to choose from, and it is pretty far away which would require us to use more gas.
Collaboratively Modify the Proposal: We decide that Chipotle will be more economical for our college budgets and they have good vegetarian choices.
Test for Agreement: Hell yeah! We love Chipotle! Chipotle is our life! A unanimous and consensual decision is made.
If you are interested in learning more about consensus decision-making I recommend checking out these websites:
Tree Bressen’s Group Facilitation Site
All for One and One for All
Mutual aid is the practice of helping each other out to ensure group wellness. The practice is usually based on reciprocity and building each other up through solidarity networks. The Black Panther Party exhibited mutual aid praxis. They created a free breakfast program for school-aged children that provided: milk, grits, toast, bacon, and eggs.[4] By the end of the 1960s the program served a full breakfast to 20,000 children 19 cities around the country, and in 23 local affiliates every school day.[4] The free breakfast program the Black Panthers implemented is an example of solidarity not charity. This distinction is important because charity is reinforcing hierarchy and not horizontal solidarity.[5]
Too Legit to Quit
Direct action is a political tactic that aims to achieve the goal of an individual or group of people without a higher authority for legitimacy.[6] A higher authority can range from the heads of state, e.g. a president, governor, or mayor, to the heads of a university or college, e.g. a president or chancellor. These people are given legitimacy because of their position within society. This dude Max Weber — one of my favorite Sociologists — describes the state as having a monopoly on the use of legitimate force.[7] Direct action advocates for the subversion of the aforementioned mediated legitimate systems and implement their own systems of direct action. Rent Strike 2020 is a great example of direct action praxis. Rent Strike 2020 is a project that aims to create an infrastructure to allow the American working class to fight back against the interests of the wealthy.[8] During the CORVID-19 pandemic, they are rallying Americans that are financially affected by the pandemic to go on a rent strike until the government places a freeze on rent, mortgages, and utility bills until working families are protected.[8]
So What is Anarchism
Anarchism is a way of life. Anarchism is solidarity. Anarchism is a political process. Anarchism is voluntary. Anarchism is conflict resolution. Anarchism seeks to dismantle coercive hierarchy and state hegemony.
I know that we have been socialized to view anarchy in certain ways. I know that there are institutions and systems of thought that benefit on the misconceptions of anarchism. I am not here to sell you on anarchism. I am not here to tell you that it is a fix-all philosophy. However, I am here to provide information so that you can be as knowledgeable as possible. I am here to provide you with sources of information so that you can synthesize the information you find to create an informed opinion.
If this information, or any of the sources I provide below, piques your curiosity, I hope you consider reading the others in this series. They range from anarcho-communism to anarcho-capitalism, from queer-anarchism to anarkata (Black anarchism), from anarcho-primitivism to anarcho-transhumanism, and so on. I hope you strap in and join me in answering, What is Anarchism?
References
[1] Wigger, A. (2016). Anarchism as emancipatory theory and praxis: Implications for critical Marxist research. Capital and Class, 40(1) 129–145.
[2] Goel, S., Meredith, M., Morse, M., & Rothschild, D. (2020). One person one vote: Estimating the prevalence of double voting in U.S. Presidential elections. American Political Science Review, 114(2), 456–469.
[3] Consensus Decision-Making. (n.d.). What is Consensus?. Consensus Decision-Making. https://www.consensusdecisionmaking.org/
[4] King Collier, A. (2015). The Black Panthers: Revolutionaries, free breakfast pioneers. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/food/the-plate/2015/11/04/the-black-panthers-revolutionaries-free-breakfast-pioneers/#close.
[5] Big Door Brigade. (n.d.). What is mutual aid?. Big Door Brigade. https://bigdoorbrigade.com/what-is-mutual-aid/.
[6] subMedia. (2017, April 17). What is direct action. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3QfoWcVcPI.
[7] Munro, A. (2013). State monopoly on violence. In Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/state-monopoly-on-violence.
[8] Rent Strike 2020. (n.d.). The project: Freeze the bills or we won’t pay ’em. Rent Strike 2020. https://www.rentstrike2020.org/the-project.
