July 19, 2013

To all the skeptics, cynics and armchair revolutionaries:
How has capitalism, voting, ‘scientific socialism’, and big C communism worked out for all of us? Unless you're part of some elite it hasn’t. We have never voted our ways out of the problems with Power (those who influence our culture, social, economic, and politics) or through revolution. The perversions of communism and socialism failed miserably, too. It turns out it, in a reductionist way, that it never really was a choice for freedom. In the battle of the ideological empires of the 20th century, between Capitalism cloaked as ‘democracy’ and Communism cloaked as ‘peoples movements’, a choice between capital or the state wasn’t a choice anymore than Coke or Pepsi was.

So we–the general we coming from some anarchist traditions– are proposing is, that we all take a chance on something different. Something rooted in a rich and dynamic past, but open to the futures we all bring to it. To re-think our lives and relationships, our politics, and civilization as we know it. To get off of the sinking ship-together. Not run away, but take the harder paths which are to challenge ourselves to engage in little charted and unmapped waters. To change our destinies starting today. It won;t always be easy or fun, having spoon fed answers-even those that are always wrong- is easy. ‘Politics’ as we know them have failed us. What if we just put our cynicism aside for a minute and open the possibility to reengage us in civil society in more localized , ethical and supportive ways? Not in kumbaya-lets-all-pretend-its-ok but the harder ways of meeting each other where were at.

Anarchy is just a political reference for a broad set of liberatory ideas to helps us get free as individuals and communities. We anarchists ask more questions than we have answers because the issues are complex and won’t be solved easily. Its not a strategy, set of policies or the answer if it was we would abandon it immediately because there are no easy answers. Anarchy is a set of ideas that encourages and supports cooperation, autonomy, collective liberation, freedom and direct action beyond capitalism which is destroying our very life here on this planet.It supposes that people aren’t asleep or lazy. That we all haven’t acted because we haven’t had many real choices or alternatives to look to or engage in, corporations have spent billions in distractions from our lives and the state has given us just enough rope to feel sort of free.

Everyone knows shit is bad, but anarchy opens spaces for us to challenge our cynicism to have real hope that we do have the power to make our futures–individually and collectively without destroying each other or the planet. And that no one is going to lead us out of this. We are going to do it all ourselves with our friends, families, communities, and with people we will never meet in decentralized, local power and resource sharing, without oppressive or exploitative ways.

If that makes me a dreamer then I proudly own that. I want us all to dream together. I would rather die a dreamer than live as a cynic.