BroadSnark

With all the stigma attached to the word anarchism, why call yourself an anarchist?

Anarchists are bound to ask themselves that question at some point.  Perhaps you run across another news report where anarchists are blamed for some random violence.  Maybe some pundit compares anarchists to terrorists.  Maybe it’s the constant use of the word anarchy as a synonym for violent chaos.  Or maybe you’re just tired of explaining it to people.  I understand.

But you do lose something when you lose the word anarchism.

For decades, brilliant minds have been writing about anarchism and what it means.  When someone wants to understand anarchism, I can point to stacks of writing.  If I refuse to call myself an anarchist, where do I point to?  Are we going to rewrite all that theory under a new name?  What a waste.

And what about the history of anarchism.  The most difficult thing to convince people is that anarchism can actually work.  Specific, successful anarchist examples exist.  And being able to point people to those is one of the best tools we have.  Yes, there have also been many failures.  But those may be even more important.  If we don’t study and learn from the mistakes of the past, we will repeat them.

Why let other people define the word for us?  The root of the word anarchy simply means “without leaders.”  Some people cannot imagine a world without leaders being anything but violent and chaotic.  Some people benefit too much from hierarchy to embrace a theory that takes that power from them.  Why should we allow those people to define the terms?

Would it really matter what we called our beliefs?  Does anyone think that if we believed the same things but called them a different name that people will be less suspicious of our ideas?  Liberals in the U.S. recently re-branded themselves.  Now they are called “progressives.”  And now conservatives vilify “progressive” just the same way they used to vilify liberal.

Most importantly, we need you.  If you are an anarchist who hesitates to embrace the term, then it is probably because you don’t want to be associated with chaos, violence, instability, or terrorism.  That makes you the ideal ambassador for anarchism.  If only those people who want to be associated with violence call themselves anarchists, then the cycle perpetuates and people who could learn from anarchist thought won’t go there.

You might be surprised how incredibly easy negative stereotypes can be to overcome.  When who you are doesn’t match up with the propaganda, people who meet you will start to question the propaganda.  The more anarchists a person comes in contact with, the less that person will be able to hold on to the negative stereotypes.