I fear that this prpblem permiates today’s society. We can’t turn around in a public place without seeing several people who will pehaps never wake up to this. It’s why we can’t hold power in society, and can’t be open with our belifes without the veiws of those arround us blocking our social movement. The more people we wake up the better. The more childen we keep from falling into this pattern, the better. As for our reputation as anarcists against terorisim, well, we need time and projects like the one Agent Of Chaos started. Religion clouds our minds, altough I don’t have a problem with the idea of having something to belive in, just using such belifes as the basis for crap like the Crusades and the present wars in the middle east. Thank you, agent, for summarising my thoughts on this matter so well in this article.

-Comrad Canuck
C.C - 05 01 09 - 19:58

Modern republics and ‘democracies’ purport themselves to derive their mandate for rule from the will of the people, or at least the majority of them. Here in the US, they call it the social contract; the idea is rooted in the works of, among others, one John Stuart Mill, a prominent ethicist of the Enlightenment.

You see, all States rely upon the Authority Principal to levy their will upon the people. This is as true now as it was when our ancient, pre-human ancestors used violence to assert dominance over eachother. Why do cops carry guns? Authority. The threat of violence is as powerful as its use. Ultimately, the use of force is from where States derive their mandate. As we well know, however, a people who live constantly under the master’s scourge will not do so long peacefully.
In not so distant times, Kings claimed their mandate came from god. And though despots as recent as Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe have claimed this mandate, the practice is as old as statecraft itself. Because if a people will resist violence in this life from their dominators, they might not be so apt to do so if their god promises them a better life after this, or if their god promises to punish them for resistance. Religion was essentially created for this purpose, of keeping people properly aligned, if you will, in their society- so that peasants don’t get any radical notions like natural rights, and so that kings do get any ideas like mercy or generosity.
I believe that it is in the book of Deuterotomy where it is said that “Hath not the potter power over the clay, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?”
The basic idea behind western religion is that some men are intrinsically better than others, and better qualified to rule over their fellow. However, no man is as well qualified to rule over his fellows as god would be, so even Kings must recieve the blessing of the church- and of course the church gets its share in return.

John Stuart Mill, and other Social Contractarians, echoed this even as they attempted to secularize ethics; Mill observed that a man apart from society is something less than a man, more a beast. Further, that man, being a relatively small and weak animal, needed cooperative organization in order to survive the harsh realities of this world. Mill postulated, hypothetically, about what he called ‘the original position’, where all men existed freely and equally, able to exercise all of his natural rights, and also totally indedpendant as a free, self-sufficient individual from other men. That in this state, men existed in a state unknowing of their social position, class, or of anything which defines a man’s alignment in society. And that in this original position, in order to survive, man had to colloborate together into societies, and enter into certain agreements with one another, between those who would rule and those who would not, and of their obligations to each other. The Social Contract.
Fast forward to the United States of America, 1776. A group of revolutionaries seeks to wrest control of the government apparatus away from a tyrant who derived his mandate to rule, supposedly, from the divine. How could they legitimate a secular government without divine mandate? Well, first by claiming the will of the people, the consent of the governed, and they justified it all with Mill’s social contract.

But there is one huge, blaring problem with Mill’s original position- IT NEVER FUCKING HAPPENED. Society is not something that just appeared one day, and for that matter neither is mankind. Humans never existed without society- it developed along with us over the countless generations of human Evolution, as vitally important to the survival of our distant, pre-human ancestors as it is to us today. At no time in human history did individuals exist without society; its as much a part of us as our bones, or our blood. We would not be human without it. Indeed, there are examples of people having been deprived of social contact from early on, such as feral children, and their minds do not develop properly or healthfully.

In summary, there is no god, and man does not necessarily have to rule his fellow in domination. There is no natural divide among men, that some are born fit to rule and others only to serve. All men (no gender distinction) are equal in worth to one another, and in reality, the only truly legitimate way for society to operate is for it do so with the willing co-operation and free association of individuals; a mandate for action not from the top-down, not from some centralized authority, but from the bottom up. The individual should not exist to serve society-

Society should exist to serve the individual! Unequivocally and without precondition!
Hale - 06 01 09 - 08:42

Hale, have you ever thought about wrighting properly for this site? You’ve got good stuff man.

-Comrad Canuck
C.C - 06 01 09 - 13:04

HMMMM? I could use some help. If hale is interested, hale can contact me throught he site.
A.O.C. - 06 01 09 - 14:33

One thing that really pisses me off is how hypocritical our society has is from its very beginning. The U.S. was formed when rebel groups in “Newly found America” (even though the native Americans already had lived there for centuries) who decided they were fed up with the highly intrusive governing body from Britain, and wanted to be free so they fought and atained that freedom they longed for. The Hypocritical part comes in nowadays when people chastise Anarchists or Anti-Nationalists for not being patriotic. We are in factfollowing in they exact steps of our own yet to be formed government. If they really thought about it they in fact would be anti-patriotic for not following in the British way. It just seems so rediculus for people to criticize us when we are perhaps the most true to form “Americans”.
I dont know it is just annoying.

P.S. I dont mean to exclude any people from other countries whom might be Anarchists as well it just seemed seeing as I am from the U.S. that is was most relevent for me to talk about it. I am sure this same thing happens to most countries that break away and form there own state.
[Asymmetrick panic] (URL) - 06 01 09 - 20:58

How can i contact to possibly contribute here. I have a couple things and the ability to write more. In fact I wrote one essay for my high school paper about individualism because it was the theme. I also submitted a poem, the poem got in but not the essay, i beleive this is a content issue. The essay is a tad too subversive for high school i suppose. Many people i have shown it too thought highly of it but i suppose the school has other opinions. But like i said I would appreciate a chance.
WinstonSmith () (URL) - 06 01 09 - 21:31

I just read the NSPD 51 and HSPD 20 and that is pretty scary. I mean if you add those combined with the patriot act you have the miixings for a Fascist government. The U.S. is already pretty strict when it comes down to laws but it is truly scary what potential there is for it to get a lot worse really quickly. I am also kind of confused, does the Nspd 51 and hspd 20 have a real point behind it? it was all kind of dodgy on the Whitehouse website.
[Asymmetrick panic] () (URL) - 06 01 09 - 21:42

Asymmetrick:

NSPD 51 and HSPD 20, which are in direct correlation to Executive orders:(10990,10995,10997,10998,11000,11001,11002,11003,11004,11005,11051,11310,11049,11921)

Look up that, but be warned that is come scary shit. It will give you nightmares.

________________________________________________________________________________________________
Winston send me some of your work, Actually some poetry might not be bad if you have an artistic streak.
If it pertains to anarchism, human struggle or solidarity I will post it for you for sure. This is a collective so dont be shy.
A.O.C. - 06 01 09 - 22:40

Following on what Asymmetrick panic brought up … I also find it intensely ironic the birthplace of the modern revolution is now almost totally domesticated and purged of any revolutionary spirit.
GAWD - 07 01 09 - 11:58

All of you seem to be very intelligent, I myself am not good with words, or how to express what i feel but ive been fed up with alot. I love where i live in the u.s. theres nowhere id rather live but its only because of the land. Its the government that irritates me( as with most of you i suppose). How do the people in government steal from us, and lie to us, when its us that makes this place the u.s. We the people need to ‘’ Take the power back’‘ Im tired of being harrased by the local athority because of the vehical I drive and the way i look and the music i listen to. I have so much built up inside i dont know how to let it out. Countless lives have been lost on the middle east for money and oil, i dont know if those brave people know what they are doing over ther. They are protecting the government to let them do what they want here, with no consiquenses. I dont know how to start or to take part in some way to change how the us is . All I have is a rage built up inside that i dont know what to do with. I guess i start here.
freedomdosntexhisthere () (URL) - 14 01 09 - 14:11

RULE BRITANNIA!!!
T.W.A.T - 28 01 09 - 06:54

american patriotism is just one big cult. think about it, patriots worship the flag as if it were god, they pledge their lifestyles to it, they even die for it.
[mumrah] () - 31 01 09 - 08:30

Honestly the former President Aquino of the Philippines use the image of being religious to get his ambition to be the Philippines’ President, but after she won and promise peace and progress for the poor she forget the farmers who wait for true land reform and she forget she’s promise like” the church for the poor”. She is now not a President but I never saw her in helping poor in television or even trying to make she’s promise come to reality. She is like President Arroyo, President is fascist and a lair President of all time. Her administration became one of the must corrupt and irresponsible in history of the Philippines. With her administration Philippines became the dark side of democracy, Second to the world’s must corrupt government and one of the world’s must dangerous place for media men. I believe all humanity must stand against all world’s state and incomplete capitalism. I believe the Anarchy is the broken part of capitalism and we must fix capitalism through Anarchy. i am not so good in English language but I try all my best.
carlium () - 27 06 09 - 20:25