David Graeber
Are You An Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise
You!
Chances are you have already heard something
about who anarchists are and what they are
supposed to believe. Chances are almost everything
you have heard is nonsense. Many people seem
to think that anarchists are proponents of
violence, chaos, and destruction, that they
are against all forms of order and organization,
or that they are crazed nihilists who just
want to blow everything up. In reality, nothing
could be further from the truth. Anarchists
are simply people who believe human beings
are capable of behaving in a reasonable fashion
without having to be forced to. It is really
a very simple notion. But it�s one that
the rich and powerful have always found extremely
dangerous.
At their very simplest, anarchist beliefs
turn on to two elementary assumptions. The
first is that human beings are, under ordinary
circumstances, about as reasonable and decent
as they are allowed to be, and can organize
themselves and their communities without needing
to be told how. The second is that power corrupts.
Most of all, anarchism is just a matter of
having the courage to take the simple principles
of common decency that we all live by, and
to follow them through to their logical conclusions.
Odd though this may seem, in most important
ways you are probably already an anarchist
-- you just don't realize it.
Let's start by taking a few examples from
everyday life.
If there's a line to get on a crowded bus,
do you wait your turn and refrain from elbowing
your way past others even in the absence of
police?
If you answered "yes", then you are used
to acting like an anarchist! The most basic
anarchist principle is self-organization:
the assumption that human beings do not need
to be threatened with prosecution in order
to be able to come to reasonable understandings
with each other, or to treat each other with
dignity and respect.
Everyone believes they are capable of behaving
reasonably themselves. If they think laws
and police are necessary, it is only because
they don't believe that other people are.
But if you think about it, don't those people
all feel exactly the same way about you? Anarchists
argue that almost all the anti-social behavior
which makes us think it's necessary to have
armies, police, prisons, and governments to
control our lives, is actually caused by the
systematic inequalities and injustice those
armies, police, prisons and governments make
possible. It's all a vicious circle. If
people are used to being treated like their
opinions do not matter, they are likely to
become angry and cynical, even violent, which
of course makes it easy for those in power
to say that their opinions do not matter.
Once they understand that their opinions really
do matter just as much as anyone else's,
they tend to become remarkably understanding.
To cut a long story short: anarchists believe
that for the most part it is power itself,
and the effects of power, that make people
stupid and irresponsible.
Are you a member of a club or sports team
or any other voluntary organization where
decisions are not imposed by one leader but
made on the basis of general consent?
If you answered "yes", then you belong
to an organization which works on anarchist
principles! Another basic anarchist principle
is voluntary association. This is simply a
matter of applying democratic principles to
ordinary life. The only difference is that
anarchists believe it should be possible to
have a society in which everything could be
organized along these lines, all groups based
on the free consent of their members, and
therefore, that all top-down, military styles
of organization like armies or bureaucracies
or large corporations, based on chains of
command, would no longer be necessary. Perhaps
you don't believe that would be possible.
Perhaps you do. But every time you reach an
agreement by consensus, rather than threats,
every time you make a voluntary arrangement
with another person, come to an understanding,
or reach a compromise by taking due consideration
of the other person's particular situation
or needs, you are being an anarchist, even
if you don't realize it.
Anarchism is just the way people act when
they are free to do as they choose, and when
they deal with others who are equally free, and therefore aware of the responsibility
to others that entails. This leads to another
crucial point: that while people can be reasonable
and considerate when they are dealing with
equals, human nature is such that they cannot
be trusted to do so when given power over
others. Give someone such power, they will
almost invariably abuse it in some way or
another.
Do you believe that most politicians are selfish,
egotistical swine who don't really care
about the public interest? Do you think we
live in an economic system which is stupid
and unfair?
If you answered "yes", then you subscribe
to the anarchist critique of today's society,
at least, in its broadest outlines. Anarchists
believe that power corrupts and those who
spend their entire lives seeking power are
the very last people who should have it. Anarchists
believe that our present economic system is
more likely to reward people for selfish and
unscrupulous behavior than for being decent,
caring human beings. Most people feel that
way. The only difference is that most people
don't think there's anything that can
be done about it, or anyway -- and this is
what the faithful servants of the powerful
are always most likely to insist -- anything
that won't end up making things even worse.
But what if that weren't true?
And is there really any reason to believe
this? When you can actually test them, most
of the usual predictions about what would
happen without states or capitalism turn out
to be entirely untrue. For thousands of years
people lived without governments. In many
parts of the world people live outside of
the control of governments today. They do
not all kill each other. Mostly they just
get on about their lives the same as anyone
else would. Of course, in a complex, urban,
technological society all this would be more
complicated: but technology can also make
all these problems a lot easier to solve.
In fact, we have not even begun to think about
what our lives could be like if technology
were really marshaled to fit human needs.
How many hours would we really need to work
in order to maintain a functional society
-- that is, if we got rid of all the useless
or destructive occupations like telemarketers,
lawyers, prison guards, financial analysts,
public relations experts, bureaucrats and
politicians, and turn our best scientific
minds away from working on space weaponry
or stock market systems to mechanizing away
dangerous or annoying tasks like coal mining
or cleaning the bathroom, and distribute the
remaining work among everyone equally? Five
hours a day? Four? Three? Two? Nobody knows
because no one is even asking this kind of
question. Anarchists think these are the very
questions we should be asking.
Do you really believe those things you tell
your children (or that your parents told you)?
"It doesn't matter who started it."
"Two wrongs don't make a right." "Clean
up your own mess." "Do unto others..."
"Don't be mean to people just because
they're different." Perhaps we should
decide whether we're lying to our children
when we tell them about right and wrong, or
whether we're willing to take our own injunctions
seriously. Because if you take these moral
principles to their logical conclusions, you
arrive at anarchism.
Take the principle that two wrongs don't
make a right. If you really took it seriously,
that alone would knock away almost the entire
basis for war and the criminal justice system.
The same goes for sharing: we're always
telling children that they have to learn to
share, to be considerate of each other's
needs, to help each other; then we go off
into the real world where we assume that everyone
is naturally selfish and competitive. But
an anarchist would point out: in fact, what
we say to our children is right. Pretty much
every great worthwhile achievement in human
history, every discovery or accomplishment
that's improved our lives, has been based
on cooperation and mutual aid; even now, most
of us spend more of our money on our friends
and families than on ourselves; while likely
as not there will always be competitive people
in the world, there's no reason why society
has to be based on encouraging such behavior,
let alone making people compete over the basic
necessities of life. That only serves the
interests of people in power, who want us
to live in fear of one another. That's why
anarchists call for a society based not only
on free association but mutual aid. The fact
is that most children grow up believing in
anarchist morality, and then gradually have
to realize that the adult world doesn't
really work that way. That's why so many
become rebellious, or alienated, even suicidal
as adolescents, and finally, resigned and
bitter as adults; their only solace, often,
being the ability to raise children of their
own and pretend to them that the world is
fair. But what if we really could start to
build a world which really was at least founded
on principles of justice? Wouldn't that
be the greatest gift to one's children one
could possibly give?
Do you believe that human beings are fundamentally
corrupt and evil, or that certain sorts of
people (women, people of color, ordinary folk
who are not rich or highly educated) are inferior
specimens, destined to be ruled by their betters?
If you answered "yes", then, well, it
looks like you aren't an anarchist after
all. But if you answered "no", then chances
are you already subscribe to 90% of anarchist
principles, and, likely as not, are living
your life largely in accord with them. Every
time you treat another human with consideration
and respect, you are being an anarchist. Every
time you work out your differences with others
by coming to reasonable compromise, listening
to what everyone has to say rather than letting
one person decide for everyone else, you are
being an anarchist. Every time you have the
opportunity to force someone to do something,
but decide to appeal to their sense of reason
or justice instead, you are being an anarchist.
The same goes for every time you share something
with a friend, or decide who is going to do
the dishes, or do anything at all with an
eye to fairness.
Now, you might object that all this is well
and good as a way for small groups of people
to get on with each other, but managing a
city, or a country, is an entirely different
matter. And of course there is something to
this. Even if you decentralize society and
put as much power as possible in the hands
of small communities, there will still be
plenty of things that need to be coordinated,
from running railroads to deciding on directions
for medical research. But just because something
is complicated does not mean there is no way
to do it democratically. It would just be
complicated. In fact, anarchists have all
sorts of different ideas and visions about
how a complex society might manage itself.
To explain them though would go far beyond
the scope of a little introductory text like
this. Suffice it to say, first of all, that
a lot of people have spent a lot of time coming
up with models for how a really democratic,
healthy society might work; but second, and
just as importantly, no anarchist claims to
have a perfect blueprint. The last thing we
want is to impose prefab models on society
anyway. The truth is we probably can't even
imagine half the problems that will come up
when we try to create a democratic society;
still, we're confident that, human ingenuity
being what it is, such problems can always
be solved, so long as it is in the spirit
of our basic principles -- which are, in
the final analysis, simply the principles
of fundamental human decency.
