Noting the prominent position anarchists played in the recent London riots, Glenn Reynolds asks a question which crossed my mind as well:
But if you’re protesting against government budget cuts, can you really call yourself an anarchist?
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But, of course! Demanding the government to engage in continued profligate spending is like force feeding grain alcohol to an alcoholic. That is, if your objective is to end up with a corpse.
“But if you’re protesting against government budget cuts, can you really call yourself an anarchist?”
Touché!
Ooooo. One of my favorite things to rant about. NO! They are ‘convenient anarchists,’ if you will. They’re anarchist until their guys are in. That and they are using force to get their way. Anarchy is about abolishing the state because it uses coercion or the perceived use of coercion to control the people. These protesters are using coercion as a weapon, something anarchists are suppose to condemn. So, in the end, these ‘anarchists protesters’ have exempt themselves from being an anarchists. I guess you could call them the RINOs of the anarchists movement. :\
I once got into an argument with an anarchist back in high school. The guy cornered me in an out of the way hallway and asked me to explain to him why I felt that laws should exist. I believe that his implication was that with no one to see our interaction I was helpless, proving that laws were pointless. Not at all intimidated, I told him that laws existed to protect people like him from people like me. For some reason the guy lost all interest in conversation with me after that, in fact he started to avoid me.
I think most anarchists are like that though, they like to be in a position of power when they make their stand. As soon as they feel things shifting away from them having the upper hand they’re all about keeping things the way they are.
I think anarchists just like to bitch and protest. They’re always contradictory.
They’re not really anarchists. They’re just immense fans of the anarchy symbol. Doesn’t it make for a cool tattoo?