Misplaced Pages

Anarchy: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 03:30, 17 June 2007 editD. Recorder (talk | contribs)1,968 editsm Reverted edits by 24.46.45.60 (talk) to last version by Irishguy← Previous edit Revision as of 06:31, 18 June 2007 edit undoMax rspct (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users11,122 edits delete this hilarious POV series of sections-. contributions should be made to the anarchism article rather than using this as a fork :-)Next edit →
Line 8: Line 8:
* societies, whether real or speculative, where the state has been consciously abolished. * societies, whether real or speculative, where the state has been consciously abolished.


f>
==An Early Anarchist Community in North Africa==
The Ottoman Corsairs or ] were anarchical military republics that survived for more than three hundred years (1500-1830)<ref>BARBARY PIRATES Online Encyclopedia (Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 384 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.)http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/BAI_BAR/BARBARY_PIRATES.html</ref>. This community developed an economy based upon slave-hunting and the sale of slaves, raiding Europe for slaves as far north as Iceland.<ref>BARBARY PIRATES Online Encyclopedia (Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 384 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.)http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/BAI_BAR/BARBARY_PIRATES.html</ref>
==Anarchy after state collapse==
===English Revolution===
{{main|English Revolution}}
] in '']'' (]) uses the term to describe a situation where the ] use force to impose a government on an economic base composed of either solitary land ownership (absolute ]), or land in the ownership of a few (mixed Monarchy). He distinguishes it from ], the situation when both land ownership and governance shared by the population at large, seeing it as a temporary situation arising from an imbalance between the form of government and the form of property relations.


===French Revolution===
]
{{seealso|Reign of Terror}}

During the French Revolution, France entered a period of anarchy and brutal violence due to the fact that of all members of high-ruling families were killed. The ] was mainly conducted by the radical egalitarian wing of the revolution. Targets were not only aristocrats but also fellow revolutionaries who were deemed too moderate, and were sent to guillotine. ], Scottish essayist of the Victorian era known foremost for his widely influential work of history, '']'', wrote that the French Revolution was a war against both ] ''and'' anarchy:

<blockquote>Meanwhile, we will hate Anarchy as Death, which it is; and the things worse than Anarchy shall be hated more! Surely Peace alone is fruitful. Anarchy is destruction: a burning up, say, of Shams and Insupportabilities; but which leaves Vacancy behind. Know this also, that out of a world of Unwise nothing but an Unwisdom can be made. Arrange it, Constitution-build it, sift it through Ballot-Boxes as thou wilt, it is and remains an Unwisdom,-- the new prey of new quacks and unclean things, the latter end of it slightly better than the beginning. Who can bring a wise thing out of men unwise? Not one. And so Vacancy and general Abolition having come for this France, what can Anarchy do more? Let there be Order, were it under the Soldier's Sword; let there be Peace, that the bounty of the Heavens be not spilt; that what of Wisdom they do send us bring fruit in its season!-- It remains to be seen how the quellers of Sansculottism were themselves quelled, and sacred right of Insurrection was blown away by gunpowder: wherewith this singular eventful History called French Revolution ends.<ref name="Carlyle">], '']''</ref></blockquote>

], duke of Aiguillon came before the ] in 1789 and shared his views on the anarchy:

<blockquote>I may be permitted here to express my personal opinion. I shall no doubt not be accused of not loving liberty, but I know that not all movements of peoples lead to liberty. But I know that great anarchy quickly leads to great exhaustion and that despotism, which is a kind of rest, has almost always been the necessary result of great anarchy. It is therefore much more important than we think to end the disorder under which we suffer. If we can achieve this only through the use of force by authorities, then it would be thoughtless to keep refraining from using such force.<ref name="Duke"></ref></blockquote>

Armand II was later exiled because he was viewed as being opposed to the revolution's violent tactics.

Professor Chris Bossche commented on the role of anarchy in the revolution:

<blockquote>In The French Revolution, the narrative of increasing anarchy undermined the narrative in which the revolutionaries were striving to create a new social order by writing a constitution.<ref></ref></blockquote>

===Jamaica 1720===
Sir ], Governor of ], wrote to ], the ], in ]:
:"As to those ] that came as mechanics hither, very young and have now acquired good estates in ] ] and ]& co., of course they know no better than what maxims they learn in the ]. To be now short & plain Your Lordship will see that they have no maxims of ] but what are absolutely anarchical."
In the letter Lawes goes on to complain that these "estated men now are like ]'s ]" and details the humble origins of the "]" largely lacking an education and flouting the rules of church and state. In particular, he cites their refusal to abide by the Deficiency Act, which required ] owners to procure from ] one ] person for every 40 enslaved ]s, thereby hoping to expand their own estates and inhibit further English/] immigration. Lawes describes the government as being "anarchical, but nearest to any form of ]". "Must the King's good subjects at home who are as capable to begin plantations, as their Fathers, and themselves were, be excluded from their ] of settling Plantations in this noble Island, for ever and the King and Nation at home be deprived of so much riches, to make a few upstart ] Princes?."<ref>''Jamaica: Description of the Principal Persons there'' (about 1720, Sir Nicholas Lawes, Governor) in'']'' Vol. III (1911), edited by ]</ref>.

===Somalia, 2005===
Before the ] took control, Somalia was the only country in the world without a functioning state (See ]). Abdo Vingaker, a Somalian living in ], was quoted in an article by ] as saying: "I am from Somalia and to live without government is the most dangerous system." The article went on to discuss the abject poverty experienced by the citizens of this country.<ref>, accessed on December 29th, 2005.</ref>

==Anarchist communities==
{{main|Anarchist communities}}

*] ] - ]
*] (late ])
*] (January ] - ])
*] (] - ])
*] (], ] - ], ])
*Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (September ]- June 8 ])
*More: ]

==Political philosophy==
{{Forms of government}}



===Anarchism===
{{main|anarchism}}
Anarchists are those who advocate the absence of the state, arguing that common sense would allow for people to come together in agreement to form a functional society, allowing for the participants to freely develop their own sense of morality, ethics or principled behaviour. The rise of anarchism as a philosophical movement occurred in the mid ], with its notion of ] as being based upon political and economic self-rule. This occurred alongside the rise of the ] and large-scale industrial ], and the ] that came with their successes.

Although anarchists share a rejection of the state, they differ about economic arrangements and possible rules that would prevail in a stateless society, ranging from complete common ownership and distribution according to need, to supporters of private ] and ] competition. For example, most forms of anarchism, such as that of ], ], or ] not only seek rejection of the state, but also other systems that they perceive as authoritarian, which includes capitalism, wage labor, and private property. In opposition, another form known as ] argues that a society without a state is a free market system that is both ] and ].

The word "anarchy" is often used by non-anarchists as a pejorative term, intended to connote a lack of control and a negatively chaotic environment. Whether because of this or a desire to differentiate themselves from ], some activists (primarily during the late nineteenth century) self-identified as ]. In more recent times, ] has offered another similar self-identification. However, anarchists still argue that anarchy does not imply ], ], or the total absence of rules, but rather an anti-authoritarian society that is based on the ] of free individuals in autonomous communities, operating on principles of ], ], and ].

==Anthropology==
{{seealso|Anarcho-primitivism}}

Some anarchist anthropologists, such as ] and ], consider several tribal hunter-gatherer societies, such as those of the ], ] and the ] to be anarchies comparable to the projects of anarchist thought. <ref>{{cite book |last=Graeber |first=David |authorlink=David Graeber |title=Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology |url=http://www.prickly-paradigm.com/paradigm14.pdf |format=PDF |year=2004 |publisher=] |location=] |language=] |isbn=0-9728196-4-9}}</ref> However, other authors point out that these socities are more severe in terms of survival than modern ones.{{Fact|date=May 2007}}

Some more recent antropologists, such as ] and ], disagree with the notion of primitive societies as being a source of scarcity and brutalization, describing them as - in the words of Sahlins - "affluent societies". <ref>{{cite book | first=Marshall | last=Sahlins | authorlink=Marshall Sahlins | title=Stone Age Economics | publisher=] | year=2003 | isbn=0415320100 | accessdate=2007-04-27 }}</ref>

==Criticism==
The ] ] writes:

<blockquote>Adjudication by an armed authority appears to be the most effective violence-reduction technique ever invented. Though we debate whether tweaks in criminal policy, such as executing murderers versus locking them up for life, can reduce violence by a few percentage points, there can be no debate on the massive effects of having a criminal justice system as opposed to living in anarchy. The shockingly high homicide rates of pre-state societies, with 10 to 60 percent of the men dying at the hands of other men, provide one kind of evidence. Another is the emergence of a violent culture of honor in just about any corner of the world that is beyond the reach of law. ..The generalization that anarchy in the sense of a lack of government leads to anarchy in the sense of violent chaos may seem banal, but it is often over-looked in today's still-romantic climate.<ref name="BlankSlate">]'s '']'', pages 330-331.</ref></blockquote>

Some anarchist thinkers<ref></ref> do not share this vision of evolution, where man was able to reinvent himself in the last ten thousand years, to better fulfill his needs. They consider that this concept represents a way our culture justifies the values of modern industrial society and inherently as the way on how civilization was able to move the individuals further from their natural necessities.<ref></ref> Besides the consideration of authors, such as ], to the existence in tribal society has having less violence altogether<ref>{{cite book | first=John | last=Zerzan | authorlink=John Zerzan | title=Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilization | publisher=] | year=2002 | isbn=092291575X | accessdate=2007-05-x }}</ref>, he and other authors such as ] talk about other forms of violence on the individual in advance countries, generally expressed by the term "social anomie", that result from the system of monopolized security<ref>{{cite book | first=John | last=Zerzan | authorlink=John Zerzan | title=Future Primitive: And Other Essays | publisher=Autonomedia | year=1994 | isbn=1570270007 | accessdate=2007-05-x }}</ref>. These authors do not dismiss the fact that man is changing while adapting to this different social realities<ref></ref>, but consider them an anomaly, nevertheless. The two end results being that we either disappear or become something very different, distant from what we have come to value in our nature. It has been suggested by experts that this shift towards civilization, trough domestication, has caused an increase in diseases, labor and psychological disorders<ref>{{cite book | first=Sigmund | last=Freud | authorlink=Sigmund Freud | title=Civilization and Its Discontents | publisher=W. W. Norton & Company | year=2005 | isbn=0393059952 | accessdate=2007-05-x }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first=Paul | last=Shepard | authorlink=Paul Shepard | title=Traces of an Omnivore | publisher=Island Press | year=1996 | isbn=1559634316 | accessdate=2007-05-x }}</ref><ref></ref>. On the other hand, concerning the necessity of violence in the primitive world, anthropologist ] expresses that the existing violence on the primitive societies is a natural way for each community to maintain its political independence, while dismissing the state as a natural outcome of the evolution of human societies.<ref>{{cite book | first=Pierre | last=Clastres | authorlink=Pierre Clastres | title=Archeology of Violence | publisher=Semiotext(e) | year=1994 | isbn=0936756950 | accessdate=2007-05-x }}</ref>


== See also == == See also ==

Revision as of 06:31, 18 June 2007

For other uses, see Anarchy (disambiguation).

Template:Totallydisputed

This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Anarchy (from Template:Lang-el anarchía, "without authority") refers to a human society without a government, or state. Three circumstances have been identified for this:

  • societies where no state has ever existed;
  • societies where an existing state has collapsed;
  • societies, whether real or speculative, where the state has been consciously abolished.

f>


See also

References

External links

Categories: