What is called Anarchism by westerners is a conscious synthesis of existential and political variables. It is the body of theory, action and impulse that results from any rule existing
As a school of thought distinct from but not unrelated to varieties of socialism, anarchism is against both state and private control over the facets of life. Anarchist thought became formally compiled some time after the so-called “Age of Enlightenment”, but anarchistic ideas, impulses and activities have permeated living beings since the first social systems of control, exploitation and domination began.
One early term for an anarchist was “Libertarian”, which sadly appears lost to the slew of American minarchist capitalists who have hijacked the term.
Beginning at the individual level, building to include associates – if any – its practice is called anarchy, also considered the pursuit of anarchy through anarchist thought. (An adage exists stating that the “New World” is contained in the actions one carries out in the present one.) Yet both the existence of anarchist thought and its fruitful application can both aptly be called anarchy, because anarchy simply means a specific situation without social hierarchy or coercion wherein people can truly think for themselves and directly shape the contents of their lives. It is the tendency toward the living matter of freedom, against every force of the bald-faced lie of “Freedom™” to be a slave to malicious morons who have no true importance to you. To serve their riches, to only survive quietly.
Anarchists generally feel that all the affairs of being alive and among other living beings, currently contained inside of global capitalist state society, can be much preferably managed from the ground-up – without specialization, hierarchy or malicious technologies – insofar as there are things to tend to which are directly connected to what matters in life instead of doing busywork for capitalists to merely survive and cope within a strained, undignified shell of a life.
Anarchists want the joy of being alive and thriving — not the threat of starvation or exposure — to be the central motivation for any individual or collaborative activity that sustains those involved.
Anarchist existence is defined by tension, razor-sharp critical thought, constant observation of the dominant world and contemplation of ways to undo, on any scale, the harm that persists under the prevailing configurations. Anarchists feel that every moment alive is a moment to act however is best. Every impulse to self-destroy is truly an impulse to undo the Hell thrust upon us in this short time here.
If nothing else, to act is to finally sever the tension between the individual boiling under pressure and the society politely staring, waiting to ensnare some motion of theirs into a product, trend or identifiable pattern for surveillance/exploitation. The anarchist exists and persists under this (or outside and around this) because it seems to be the most interesting challenge humanity has ever taken up: To scale the prison walls as a lone individual or in small clusters of friends and finally bask in the sunlight of defiant resolution. To speak through action that all people are inclined to live without paternalist excuses for misery and obedience to people we hate; to follow through with our own desires and determinations for who we are and how we are to live, completely and wholeheartedly against the entire basic logical conception of the need for state paternalism or capitalist dictate that steers the former. The anarchist knows that before the proper metrics of civilization, there was near perfect autonomy and innate dignity in being alive. There were indeed forms of brutality, but the space to resist them and even kill them in one’s own life was far, far better than it is now.
The anarchist wants all cruelty removed from power by any means necessary. The anarchist does not need to call themself any economic qualifier to be an anarchist. All they require is a critical mind and heart for well-being and complete agency for all who live.
Co-Authored by the Effrenatum Collective