49 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 40 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds   

Delusional Anarchists Part Two

By       (Page 2 of 2 pages) Become a premium member to see this article and all articles as one long page.   1 comment
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Joe Giambrone
Become a Fan
  (27 fans)
So who is a traitor and who is a fascist and who is deserving of the death penalty? What legal protections exist in a "collective," and what rights of the accused? What standards of evidence? Who is judge? Who is executioner? Is the jury simply a popularity contest, up or down with the thumbs of those in the room who voluntarily showed up on that day?

The dissolution of the "state" entails quite a bit more than setting up a commune or some trade union. While "libertarian/socialists" make strong arguments in favor of worker ownership, their arguments regarding the larger society fall flat and without a strong foundation in political science.

One of the major taboos of the "libertarian/socialists" is in prohibiting anyone from working for wages. They hate bosses, essentially, and all authority (calling Freud?). Their whole rationale could be reduced to a three-word bumper sticker: Don't boss me!

The term "wage slavery" carries some resonance, but they also make clear that people are free to choose not to become part of a syndicate, or a collective, or a trade union, or whatever they are calling their club that day. Libertarian/Anarchist/Communists claim to make exceptions for people to choose another way. But does that way include working for wages? Apparently not.

They seek total revolution as the end game, the day of reckoning, the "appropriation" of property, much like the communists. Many parts of the "libertarian/socialist" dogma are closely aligned with the Marxist communists, as this passage shows:

"The 'scope of Expropriation,' Kropotkin argued was clear and would only 'apply to everything that enables any man -- be he financier, mill-owner, or landlord -- to appropriate the product of others' toil.' Thus only those forms of property based on wage labour would be expropriated. In terms of housing, the same general rule applies ('the expropriation of dwellings contains the whole social revolution'). Kropotkin explicitly discusses the man who 'by dint of privation has contrived to buy a house just large enough to hold his family. And we are going to deprive him of his hard-earned happiness, to turn him into the street! Certainly not . . . Let him work in his little garden, too.' Anarchist-communism 'will make the lodger understand that he need not pay his former landlord any more rent. Stay where you are, but rent free.'" -Infoshop FAQ

Appropriation is the seizing of other's assets. It is not the building and creation of new assets. The anarchist goal is to seize and redistribute based upon their own criteria -- but absent a state to ensure fairness or standards. In an anarchist society they tell us there will be "customs" rather than law and rights. Customs are more malleable and changeable. Will these customs even be written down somewhere? By whom? Who will enforce them? Who will ensure fair practices and what happens in the case of abuse or of the exploitation by those who speak for the "collective" or what have you? Anarchy is the answer. It is the precondition. It is everything.

But what about people who freely choose to work for wages? Isn't that part of being "free" and of exercising choice? Working for wages works for many millions and keeps them in homes with food and amenities. Aren't their concerns taken into consideration? Aren't they working voluntarily, when they can quit at any time?

"And free and voluntary communism is ironical if one has not the right and the possibility to live in a different regime, collectivist, mutualist, individualist -- as one wishes, always on condition that there is no oppression or exploitation of others." -Infoshop FAQ (emphasis added)


And "exploitation" is defined as working for wages. This precludes, apriori, most other kinds of "regimes." It sets a precondition upon the free choice allegedly offered, while not directly naming the authority, which will enforce this rule. That authority would come to be the armed militias, of course.

Why is an anarchist philosopher's opinion on the working for wages situation more important than the opinion of the people making a voluntary arrangement to work for wages? And, if there's no government to enact laws prohibiting working for wages, of what significance is this diktat to anyone but the person pronouncing it? These types of inconsistencies and contradictions are threaded throughout anarchist thought.

Their essentially irrelevant answers are aimed at a different time and at a different world. The world is highly complex today, and we don't have large illiterate populations working the fields, essentially uneducated people toiling as machines. We see the specialization of skillsets as necessary and appropriate. We understand the need for concentration and study and the amount of labor that specialization and experience entails. Not everyone's labor is of equal value. Society is stratified and it will remain so. That is not to acquiesce and to accept gross injustice and gross exploitation. Far from it. But an assessment of society based upon reality is the first step to coming up with relevant solutions and corrections.

The anarchist position is knee-jerk, ready and willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Their assessment of both government and business is blinkered and a blatant half-truth. On half-truths they concoct a fanciful anti-authoritarian response. It is essentially "opposite day" gone megalomaniacal.

What I've heard from anarchist dogmatists rings as false and as implausible as most other schools of dogmatic thought. They are essentially in love with their own words. The real action is elsewhere I'm afraid.


Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Funny 1   Interesting 1  
Rate It | View Ratings

Joe Giambrone Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Joe Giambrone is an American author, freelance writer and filmmaker. Non-fiction works appear at International Policy Digest, WhoWhatWhy, Foreign Policy Journal, Counterpunch, Globalresearch, , OpedNews, High Times and other online outlets. His science fiction thriller Transfixion and his Hollywood satire (more...)
 
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Is This the Man Who "Radicalized" Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?

The Future Children of Fukushima

The U.N. Would Never Lie to George Monbiot

Genocide and the Native American Experience

Nuclear Nightmare Worsens

The Anarchist Delusion

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend