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New Direction

By • December 13, 2012 • General • Leave a comment

Hi!

We’re switching this up a bit. The blog is no longer “Anarcho Curious”, and is now “Ask an Anarchist!”.
It’s a much better name and a much better idea, and I don’t know why we didn’t think of it before.

The new direction is going to be more focused on answering common questions about anarchy. It’s also going to be paired with literally standing in public places with an “Ask an Anarchist” sign, and talking to people about anarchy. Hopefully, those great conversations will inspire some great blog posts.

It’s also going to be more open to other people contributing to the blog! So if you want to write something and send it in, or sign up to help answer questions, please just contact us!

Also, starting mid January we are going to start publishing more regularly! So you can look forward to that!

Woo!

<3

Jeremy and Zach

The Baby in the River Story – Revisited

By • August 8, 2012 • General • 1 Comment

When I was first getting into organizing and activism, I heard a classic analogy, the “Baby in the River Story,” that drives home the importance of organizing goal-based campaigns to create long lasting policy changes instead of service-only or education-only campaigns that could never end. It usually goes something like this:

Imagine you are walking along a river, having a nice stroll. Suddenly, you notice that there is a baby floating hazardously down the river! Oh no! You immediately jump into the river and save the baby! You return to the shore, but before you can go find the parents of the baby, you notice another baby in the river! And another further up! And another, and another!
So you head up stream, saving babies as you go, trying to find where all these babies are coming from. Before long you find a bridge, where there is a person throwing babies into the river. What are you to do?

Should you gather your friends and spend all day every day fishing babies out of the river?
Should you post flyers around town, make documentaries, and have teach-ins to spread the word and educate people about the river baby problem?
Or should you go up and actually stop the person from throwing more babies in the river?”

Since hearing this story I’ve always asked myself if what I’m doing is really going to the heart of the issue and solving the problem at the source. But as I’ve learned more about the intersections of systems of oppression and how most problems are themselves symptoms of larger and larger issues, I realized that there is an important part that is missing from the Baby in the River story:

“Why are they throwing babies in the river?”

If every issue is someone throwing babies into a river, then there are thousands of rivers and thousands of babies that need saving. And for every baby-thrower we stop, there is another one to take their place.

Current Society

In our current society we have a lot of problems: racism, patriarchy, bigotry, poverty, healthcare, houselessness, pollution, climate destabilization, I could go on and on. These all have individual solutions, and there are great people working on all of them.

But what is causing all of these? What are the sources of the sources?

Many have answered “Corporate Influence.” I would definitely agree that this is a common thread for many of them, but does this really explain it all? Aren’t corporations just doing what they are supposed to do in a capitalistic society: Make more money. Is it their fault that they are too good at it?

When the system is based on self-interest, greed, the concentration of wealth, and constant growth, should we surprised when that is what we get? No matter how many regulations we put on capitalism, this is the direction it will always be striving for, with ruthless efficiency.

Anarchy

Instead, of using an economic system that condoned slavery, why don’t we create a system with the values that we actually want? Why don’t we work together to create a system based on freedom, equality, and community? A system where we don’t have to regulate it to restrain its destructive drive, because it doesn’t have one? What would that look like? What would you want it to look like?

Anarchy doesn’t have specific answers to all these questions, because it doesn’t do much good to replace one rigid system with another. Anarchy answers with principles such as equality, freedom, and mutual aid, and leaves the specifics up to everyone to decide. Anarchy challenges all of us to stop giving away our power to an elite minority and to come up with our own answers.

So why are there so many people throwing babies into the river? and how do we stop it? I don’t know. I think there are a lot of answers, and I’m excited to continue exploring them with you.

I am an Anarchist

By • July 31, 2012 • General • Leave a comment

“I am an Anarchist”

Despite talking and reading about Anarchism for months and talking about it with everyone I know, it took a long time to actually feel comfortable saying “I’m an Anarchist”. The word “Anarchist” has been bred into our culture to conjure up images of chaos, destruction, and terrorism, and it is still a powerful image.

A Vision of Anarchy

Over the course of the last year I’ve come to understand a very different vision of Anarchy: A society based on mutual aid, sharing, collaboration, and freedom. A world that values people so much that everyone has their basic needs taken care of so that they are free to follow their passions. A people who are empowered to solve problems as a community.

Though it is easier to describe Anarchy by what it is not: Anarchy is a society without rulers.

And so of course those rulers would have you believe that a world without them would lead to chaos, destruction, and ruin.

To be sure, this is not a utopia, there would still be problems. There would probably still be injustice, inequality, and suffering, but I believe there would be much less of it, because no one would gain from the misery of others.

Learning about Anarchism made me see the world clearer. Like someone getting glasses for the first time, the true causes of injustice that had previously been shadows came into sharp focus. I started to question many of the fundamental beliefs I held about society, government, and property. It made me rethink my contribution to social justice, and the life goals I had set for myself.

The Purpose of Ask an Anarchist

When I was researching, the online resources about Anarchy that I found were few and far between, scattered, and disorganized. I found either blogs that assumed I was already a strong Anarchist, or just pages and pages of articles and books without a clear starting point. Since I see the first step toward an Anarchist Society is that people at least know what Anarchy actually is, I want this to be a simple, accessible, and fun blog that could serve as an Introduction to Anarchism. It’s also a great way for me (and maybe others?) to further explore these ideas by writing them down and hearing feedback.

Throughout the course of this blog we will be exploring some of the basic ideas of Anarchism (as I understand them), following along with the learning I am still doing, answering some frequently asked questions about Anarchy, and anything else we want.

This is only a starting point, I have lots of really exciting ideas and I’ll be fleshing out more parts of the blog as we go! And I’d love to hear what drew you to the blog, and what you’re interested in learning about / talking about!