124 lines
7.4 KiB
Plaintext
124 lines
7.4 KiB
Plaintext
ANARCHISM AND CIVILITY
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BAD Broadside #6
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A generally accepted anarchist tenet is that the State can only be
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effectively dismantled by a voluntary, cooperative and spontaneous
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insurrection by the people. Authoritarian revolutions gotten up by
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manipulative vanguardists are rejected as inconsistent with the
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anarchist belief that the means must be consistent with the ends.
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History has plenty of examples to show that seizure of power through
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elitist revolt, rather than furthering the goals of the revolution,
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actually becomes a process for the strengthening of the State in a new
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and more vicious form. From an evanescent moment of exultant freedom
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one inevitably wakes up to the hangover of a Napoleon or a Lenin or a
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Mao.
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Nevertheless, contemporary anarchists are often still mesmerized
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by the call to arms, even when the chance of such a romantic gesture
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succeeding is nil. The only real revolutions occur when popular
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discontent causes the state to collapse under the weight of its own
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folly, not when some bloody vanguard, following whatever destructive
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fantasy its leaders concoct, meets the modern state head-on. This
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inevitably results in meaningless hardship for the people involved,
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with the greatest misery reserved for innocents who gets in the way of
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either side's fallacious ideology. Being a "rebel" and antagonizing
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the flatulent powers-that-be in a modern state can be an exciting
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game, but it is only bluster and puerile self-gratification when
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genuine revolt is implausible. In the end the most radical
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"revolutionaries" either end up as bitter, dead-end martyrs or become
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the next generations' "born-again" capitalists. Having had their
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fling, they come to believe in their new "realism" as solipstically as
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they embraced rebellion. None of this brings us any closer to a
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solution to the problem of the State.
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The fallacy of revolutionary adventurism is mirrored on a personal
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level by the intolerant and abusive discourse of identity politics.
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Everyone is pre-judged by their race, gender, sexual or religious
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affiliation, and socially compartmentalized in some politically
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correct egg basket. The goal of the anarchist movement is to establish
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a free, tolerant and cooperative society which will embrace diversity
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and celebrate difference. If the means are to be consistent with the
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ends, then how can such a abrasive and bigoted practice as identity
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politics possibly achieve that end? Identifying the "enemy" by birth
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or predilection, regardless of an individual's actual beliefs or
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actions, is simple bigotry. Awarding moral virtue on the same grounds
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is simple stupidity. Similarly, essaying to act as a unwarranted
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spokesperson for a diverse grouping of individuals who by chance share
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a single basic characteristic is the most arrogantsort of elitism.
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Real people, stripped of their individual identities, are thus
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subsumed in some hypothetical single-dimensional construct that
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effectively denies them any complexity of character. This isn't an
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answer to institutionalized racism and bigotry, but rather its mirror
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image.
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This sort of prejudicial activity has appeal for the simpleminded.
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It's easy to either attack or adulate a stranger on the grounds of
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appearance. A similar anxiety powered the old Sumptuary laws which
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punished anyone who dressed above their social class -- it was too
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unnerving for the elite to think they might make a mistake and treat
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an inferior as an equal, thanks to illicit appearances. Political
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prejudice makes it simple to get through the difficulty of rootless
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modern life where there are no clear cut exterior indications of what
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a person might really be like. All white males (unless, perhaps, gay)
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are dangerous, power-driven and bigoted. All women (unless, perhaps,
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Republican) are intuitive, nurturing and empathetic with Nature.
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Members of minorities (take your pick) are morally superior to members
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of majorities. Classifications and labels which assist us in making
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such decisions are more real (and more important) than the people they
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describe. Et cetera. Bullshit.
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The goal of a tolerant and cooperative society of free individuals
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can only be achieved by those very means -- by being tolerant,
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cooperative and free. We must be better companions to our fellow
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mortals, whatever their outward characteristics. Civility, which
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facilitates cooperation, is imperative if anarchy is to really work.
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Pigheaded and self-important aggressiveness, hypercriticism and easy
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intolerance is a recipe for the status quo. We don't mean to suggest
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some sort of all accepting, "turn-the-other-cheek" bourgeois crap,
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either. Once you get beyond the labels, there are still unfortunately
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plenty of folks that it makes sense to despise. Arrogant, violent,
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intolerant, fanatical, bigoted, manipulative, rapacious... individuals
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with these characteristics must be guarded against, but they are not
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all found in one easily recognized group identity. These adjectives
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equally describe individual men, women, blacks, whites, handicapped
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people -- the whole gamut of the human race. Nor is anyone as morally
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pure as some of our new puritan idealists would insist that they be. A
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person is the sum of their character traits, not a distillation of the
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most pronounced ones. Radicals are just as prone to frailties of
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character as industrialists. It is by their actual effect on their
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community and environment that we should evaluate our fellow beings,
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not by some dominant virtue or fault which particularly excites us. It
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would be far preferable to tolerate a insensitive verbal bigot who in
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practice actually helped people than a pious hypocrite who mouthed
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politically correct platitudes and then went home and beat his lover.
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Anarchism involves conscientious and responsible judgement, and
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the effort to see through the shucks, facades and hype of our
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unregenerate society. One of the most virulent traps for the
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contemporary Left is the aping of the knee-jerk bigotry of the Right,
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which involves a mean-spirited "us-and-them" prejudice through group
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identity. There are plenty of actual villains out there, some easily
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identifiable, others hidden in hypocrisy. There are equally many good
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people obscured by the accidents of their birth, uprearing or
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situation. Let us therefore focus on the individual rather than the
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group, and recognize that the only way we will ever really achieve the
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goals of Anarchy is through living those difficult precepts in the
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here and now, and treat each other civilly. There can be no other
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effective preparation for Anarchy's ultimate realization in the
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future.
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NO COPYRIGHT
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Please send two copies of any review or reprint
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of all or part of this to:
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Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade
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(BAD Brigade)
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PO Box 1323
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Cambridge, MA 02238
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Internet: bbrigade@world.std.com
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June, 1992
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