“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!
