ARE YOU AN ANARCHIST? THE ANSWER MAY SURPRISE YOU!

   :: David Graeber / theanarchistlibrary.org / ?

   Chances are you have already heard something about who anarchists are
   and what they are supposed to believe. Chances are almost everything
   you have heard is nonsense. Many people seem to think that anarchists
   are proponents of violence, chaos, and destruction, that they are
   against all forms of order and organization, or that they are crazed
   nihilists who just want to blow everything up. In reality, nothing
   could be further from the truth. Anarchists are simply people who
   believe human beings are capable of behaving in a reasonable fashion
   without having to be forced to. It is really a very simple notion.
   But it's one that the rich and powerful have always found extremely
   dangerous.

   At their very simplest, anarchist beliefs turn on to two elementary
   assumptions. The first is that human beings are, under ordinary
   circumstances, about as reasonable and decent as they are allowed to
   be, and can organize themselves and their communities without needing
   to be told how. The second is that power corrupts. Most of all,
   anarchism is just a matter of having the courage to take the simple
   principles of common decency that we all live by, and to follow them
   through to their logical conclusions. Odd though this may seem, in
   most important ways you are probably already an anarchist — you just
   don't realize it.

   Let's start by taking a few examples from everyday life.

     * If there's a line to get on a crowded bus, do you wait your turn
       and refrain from elbowing your way past others even in the
       absence of police?

   If you answered “yes”, then you are used to acting like an anarchist!
   The most basic anarchist principle is self-organization: the
   assumption that human beings do not need to be threatened with
   prosecution in order to be able to come to reasonable understandings
   with each other, or to treat each other with dignity and respect.

   Everyone believes they are capable of behaving reasonably themselves.
   If they think laws and police are necessary, it is only because they
   don't believe that other people are. But if you think about it, don't
   those people all feel exactly the same way about you? Anarchists
   argue that almost all the anti-social behavior which makes us think
   it's necessary to have armies, police, prisons, and governments to
   control our lives, is actually caused by the systematic inequalities
   and injustice those armies, police, prisons and governments make
   possible. It's all a vicious circle. If people are used to being
   treated like their opinions do not matter, they are likely to become
   angry and cynical, even violent — which of course makes it easy for
   those in power to say that their opinions do not matter. Once they
   understand that their opinions really do matter just as much as
   anyone else's, they tend to become remarkably understanding. To cut a
   long story short: anarchists believe that for the most part it is
   power itself, and the effects of power, that make people stupid and
   irresponsible.

     * Are you a member of a club or sports team or any other voluntary
       organization where decisions are not imposed by one leader but
       made on the basis of general consent?

   If you answered “yes”, then you belong to an organization which works
   on anarchist principles! Another basic anarchist principle is
   voluntary association. This is simply a matter of applying democratic
   principles to ordinary life. The only difference is that anarchists
   believe it should be possible to have a society in which everything
   could be organized along these lines, all groups based on the free
   consent of their members, and therefore, that all top-down, military
   styles of organization like armies or bureaucracies or large
   corporations, based on chains of command, would no longer be
   necessary. Perhaps you don't believe that would be possible. Perhaps
   you do. But every time you reach an agreement by consensus, rather
   than threats, every time you make a voluntary arrangement with
   another person, come to an understanding, or reach a compromise by
   taking due consideration of the other person's particular situation
   or needs, you are being an anarchist — even if you don't realize it.

   Anarchism is just the way people act when they are free to do as they
   choose, and when they deal with others who are equally free — and
   therefore aware of the responsibility to others that entails. This
   leads to another crucial point: that while people can be reasonable
   and considerate when they are dealing with equals, human nature is
   such that they cannot be trusted to do so when given power over
   others. Give someone such power, they will almost invariably abuse it
   in some way or another.

     * Do you believe that most politicians are selfish, egotistical
       swine who don't really care about the public interest? Do you
       think we live in an economic system which is stupid and unfair?

   If you answered “yes”, then you subscribe to the anarchist critique
   of today's society — at least, in its broadest outlines. Anarchists
   believe that power corrupts and those who spend their entire lives
   seeking power are the very last people who should have it. Anarchists
   believe that our present economic system is more likely to reward
   people for selfish and unscrupulous behavior than for being decent,
   caring human beings. Most people feel that way. The only difference
   is that most people don't think there's anything that can be done
   about it, or anyway — and this is what the faithful servants of the
   powerful are always most likely to insist — anything that won't end
   up making things even worse.

   But what if that weren't true?

   And is there really any reason to believe this? When you can actually
   test them, most of the usual predictions about what would happen
   without states or capitalism turn out to be entirely untrue. For
   thousands of years people lived without governments. In many parts of
   the world people live outside of the control of governments today.
   They do not all kill each other. Mostly they just get on about their
   lives the same as anyone else would. Of course, in a complex, urban,
   technological society all this would be more complicated: but
   technology can also make all these problems a lot easier to solve. In
   fact, we have not even begun to think about what our lives could be
   like if technology were really marshaled to fit human needs. How many
   hours would we really need to work in order to maintain a functional
   society — that is, if we got rid of all the useless or destructive
   occupations like telemarketers, lawyers, prison guards, financial
   analysts, public relations experts, bureaucrats and politicians, and
   turn our best scientific minds away from working on space weaponry or
   stock market systems to mechanizing away dangerous or annoying tasks
   like coal mining or cleaning the bathroom, and distribute the
   remaining work among everyone equally? Five hours a day? Four? Three?
   Two? Nobody knows because no one is even asking this kind of
   question. Anarchists think these are the very questions we should be
   asking.

     * Do you really believe those things you tell your children (or
       that your parents told you)?

   “It doesn't matter who started it.” “Two wrongs don't make a right.”
   “Clean up your own mess.” “Do unto others...” “Don't be mean to
   people just because they're different.” Perhaps we should decide
   whether we're lying to our children when we tell them about right and
   wrong, or whether we're willing to take our own injunctions
   seriously. Because if you take these moral principles to their
   logical conclusions, you arrive at anarchism.

   Take the principle that two wrongs don't make a right. If you really
   took it seriously, that alone would knock away almost the entire
   basis for war and the criminal justice system. The same goes for
   sharing: we're always telling children that they have to learn to
   share, to be considerate of each other's needs, to help each other;
   then we go off into the real world where we assume that everyone is
   naturally selfish and competitive. But an anarchist would point out:
   in fact, what we say to our children is right. Pretty much every
   great worthwhile achievement in human history, every discovery or
   accomplishment that's improved our lives, has been based on
   cooperation and mutual aid; even now, most of us spend more of our
   money on our friends and families than on ourselves; while likely as
   not there will always be competitive people in the world, there's no
   reason why society has to be based on encouraging such behavior, let
   alone making people compete over the basic necessities of life. That
   only serves the interests of people in power, who want us to live in
   fear of one another. That's why anarchists call for a society based
   not only on free association but mutual aid. The fact is that most
   children grow up believing in anarchist morality, and then gradually
   have to realize that the adult world doesn't really work that way.
   That's why so many become rebellious, or alienated, even suicidal as
   adolescents, and finally, resigned and bitter as adults; their only
   solace, often, being the ability to raise children of their own and
   pretend to them that the world is fair. But what if we really could
   start to build a world which really was at least founded on
   principles of justice? Wouldn't that be the greatest gift to one's
   children one could possibly give?

     * Do you believe that human beings are fundamentally corrupt and
       evil, or that certain sorts of people (women, people of color,
       ordinary folk who are not rich or highly educated) are inferior
       specimens, destined to be ruled by their betters?

   If you answered “yes”, then, well, it looks like you aren't an
   anarchist after all. But if you answered “no”, then chances are you
   already subscribe to 90% of anarchist principles, and, likely as not,
   are living your life largely in accord with them. Every time you
   treat another human with consideration and respect, you are being an
   anarchist. Every time you work out your differences with others by
   coming to reasonable compromise, listening to what everyone has to
   say rather than letting one person decide for everyone else, you are
   being an anarchist. Every time you have the opportunity to force
   someone to do something, but decide to appeal to their sense of
   reason or justice instead, you are being an anarchist. The same goes
   for every time you share something with a friend, or decide who is
   going to do the dishes, or do anything at all with an eye to
   fairness.

   Now, you might object that all this is well and good as a way for
   small groups of people to get on with each other, but managing a
   city, or a country, is an entirely different matter. And of course
   there is something to this. Even if you decentralize society and put
   as much power as possible in the hands of small communities, there
   will still be plenty of things that need to be coordinated, from
   running railroads to deciding on directions for medical research. But
   just because something is complicated does not mean there is no way
   to do it democratically. It would just be complicated. In fact,
   anarchists have all sorts of different ideas and visions about how a
   complex society might manage itself. To explain them though would go
   far beyond the scope of a little introductory text like this. Suffice
   it to say, first of all, that a lot of people have spent a lot of
   time coming up with models for how a really democratic, healthy
   society might work; but second, and just as importantly, no anarchist
   claims to have a perfect blueprint. The last thing we want is to
   impose prefab models on society anyway. The truth is we probably
   can't even imagine half the problems that will come up when we try to
   create a democratic society; still, we're confident that, human
   ingenuity being what it is, such problems can always be solved, so
   long as it is in the spirit of our basic principles — which are, in
   the final analysis, simply the principles of fundamental human
   decency.

[https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-are-you-an-anarchist-the-answer-may-surprise-you]