Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
You might want to read some political history (aren't you a professor or something?) Anarchists oppose private property and formal government imposed by force. They believe that given the proper ideological instructions, a voluntary communitarian society will spring up when state authority is deposed. One of the main strains of anarchism is anarcho-communism. In political models they're placed in the far left of the spectrum.
Anarchists were part of virtually every leftist movement of the 19th and 20th centuries. They vied with Marx over the direction of the Hague Congress. They were active in the Paris Commune, joined the Bolshevik coalition in the Russian Revolution, and played a central role in the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.
And of course anarchism is an ideology. Anarchists have written tomes and tomes of political theory and programs. You've never heard of Mikhail Bakunin? Peter Kropotkin? Pierre-Joseph Proudhon? Propaganda of the deed?
Anarchists set up the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone is Seattle. The movement is more than just a bunch of kids smashing windows.
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Yes, I misspoke to frame it in the general state of American politics. You're description is academically more accurate, but also out of touch with the current representatives of the "anarchist movement" in the United States. The people involved in the movement in the US are not textbook anarchists who dwell on political philosophy and the dream of a communitarian state. These are people who don't give a #### about anything except defying those in power and getting a chance to break some #### along the way. These are not people who sit around drinking tea and discussing the failures of laissez-faire policy, these are social misfits who are more pissed at society because they don't fit in, and want to express their pent up outrage toward anyone they perceive as being involved in their social isolation. For every one true anarchist in the mix, there are 99 social rejects that are looking to stir it up.