eom

"Be realistic! Demand the impossible!" - 1968 Paris Anarchist Slogan

and missing piece in the puzzle.

It has been deprecated and added to MiniTruth list of taboo words and concepts and relegated to mean only chaos and disruption in the internalized, official version of meanings hammered repetitively into we proles.

Just exploring its history, meaning and goals is useful as contrast and one does not have to become a complete anarchist in order to add it, like a spice to your liberation toolbox.

anarchism do you find most interesting and useful?

I consider myself a mutualist, but also identify as a collectivist. Proudhon and Bakunin's ideas are not that far apart in terms of setting up a workers' democracy. Mutualism appeals to me because it still retains a free-market (read: free-market socialism where the producers own the means of production and via free association can market their products based on Labor Theory of Value). I'm also appealed by the syndicalism and collectivism because everyone shares in the responsibility for society in which everyone is free from want.

As a matter of fact, I'm also attracted to anarchist-communism, because I'm very impressed with Prince Kropotkin, too, because regardless of the various currents, the end result would be a classless, stateless society. I read his Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (available free online), and his conclusions were that societies that foster cooperation tend to produce cooperative individuals (individuals and society are nothing without each other). Those societies that foster competition tend to produce competitive individuals (where competition is stressed as important). His final conclusions were that societies (animals and humans) that were more cooperative (either interspecies or intraspecies) tended to be more successful than societies that were more competitive (his theories building upon Darwin).

You could call me a hodge-podge really, or like Voltairine de Cleyre, an anarchist without adjectives.

But then again, I also admire the individualists (who still considered themselves as socialists) like Benjamin Tucker and Josiah Warren.

What about you?

and I wish it would become more prevalent, or at least, better understood and more widely circulated.

My leanings are similar to yours but I utilize the ideas as a comparison and contrast to current models and trends, so I can indicate what flavors I like, but am also open to synthesis and emergence in the sense that our technology has changed the options and methods available.

Glad you contribute your views here.

It's good to meet you here, as well.

I'm hoping that the ideas of anarchism will be more understood minus all the misconceptions.

Be well and be safe, friend.

I'm glad you are on board and look forward to your input and information on the subject.

I totally agree that the task is to clear-up the misconceptions.

Good fortune to you.

Carry on!

Where did it go, and why?

You know a little of this, a little of that.

Geez. Occupy-haters always bitch about shit they know nothing about.

San Onofre?

Perhaps you would love to ask the California public Utilities Commission regarding peaker plants?

Then there is Our Walmart...

They've gone into the neighborhoods and are very busy.

Then there is Occupy Sandy...

And all the paying of debts...

They are very much still around.

...where the underlying rule is support for Democratic candidates, which presupposes working within the political system?

Anarchists are progressives, ergo ...

No objection to discussion of progressive issues (fwiw, I don't see an actual link between progressivism and anarchism), but the TOS reads:

topics that are not popular within the system can be useful in an open-minded way in bringing greater insight both to the system and how to work within it?

The thread does not seem to be staging a revolt against the values and purpose of DU, per se and we do have a very liberal mix of ideas, subjects and opinions expressed here that can always spark new perspectives and expand our awareness on political movements, theories and approaches.

Some of the history of anarchism relates to unions in the past and more importantly, The American Civil Rights Movement and the movement against the war in Vietnam which also contributed to the revival of North American anarchism.

There are relationships and ideas that cross-pollinate and present various aspects of larger issues while suggesting flexibility as an approach. Their are many schools of anarchistic thought, but it is easy to lump-sum them and only refer to chaotic and violent revolts rather than other forms of it.

Also, take into consideration that the Libertarianism was often referred to as a synonym for anarchism. However, that term is not used by libertarians because it has fallen into disfavor, so there is one aspect of anarchism that one could discuss in relation to the current political and economic arena.

Work with the local Democratic Party, a few are members of the Central Committee. Admitedly, it's a strategic decision, but more than a few are inside the party.

thanks