Anarchist is… Understanding

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

“Mom is anarchy, dad is a glass of port wine” - this is how some young people describe themselves in V. Tsoi's song. With port, for example, everything is clear, but what does anarchy have to do with it? Let's try to understand.

Who are anarchists?

Anarchism (literally - anarchy) is a system of philosophical views that denies any coercive control and the power of some members of society over others. Anarchy calls for the elimination of all forms of power, considering them to be organs of exploitation and suppression. An anarchist is a person who wants complete and absolute freedom.

Mankind is characterized by love of freedom, and therefore the ideas of anarchism are initially perceived by many with sympathy. But later this sympathy disappears.

Basic principles of anarchism

The ideology of anarchism is based on wonderful principles such as equality and fraternity, complete freedom (including associations) and human mutual assistance. And most importantly - the lack of any power. A real anarchist is a person who sincerely believes in such a construction of society, where one leader or a group of them cannot impose their demands on others. Therefore, he denies not only authoritarianism and totalitarianism, but even representative democracy. An anarchist is one who advocates a complete rejection offorcing a person to participate in any actions against her will (even if there are the most noble goals!). It is assumed that a person can participate in any public projects, only realizing his own responsibility. And since the individual can do little alone, associations of people are assumed to be freely united with a common goal and have equal rights in its implementation.

On the issue of public administration

But how is it possible, denying all power, to carry out public administration? An anarchist is one who sees the solution to this problem in collective rule and the development of grassroots initiative. That is, when implementing any public projects, the initiative goes from the bottom up, and not from the top, as is customary now (the simplest example is the election of management at enterprises).

This approach to social organization is seen by many as idealistic. It requires members of a society built on the principles of anarchism, a special self-organization and the highest level of culture. After all, a person who denies outside power must be able not only to freely build his own life, but also to establish a peaceful, conflict-free coexistence with other people who, like him, yearn for complete unlimited freedom. Is it necessary to say that in a modern, not the most perfect society, this is almost unrealistic? I. A. Pokrovsky, a well-known Russian jurist of the early 20th century, wrote: “If there is a doctrine that truly presupposes holy people, it is precisely anarchism; without itit inevitably degenerates into the bestial.”

Destroy or build?

Famous anarchists complain that their ideology is often misunderstood in society; anarchism is credited with an uncharacteristic desire to return the world to wild laws and plunge it into chaos. But let's figure it out.

Anarchism as a theory has existed for hundreds of years and consists of dozens of directions, often contradicting each other, or even completely opposite. Anarchists cannot decide not only in their relations with the authorities and other parties. They cannot achieve unity even in their understanding of civilization and technological progress. Therefore, there are almost no examples of successful construction and then stable maintenance by anarchists of any significant projects in the world. But there are more than enough examples of destruction (however, sometimes useful) carried out by supporters of anarchy. So, if we return to Tsoi's song, anarchy and a glass of port wine are a very real combination, anarchism and a revolver are also. But to imagine a creative anarchist is already somewhat more difficult.