Anarchism is a Mental Disease

Sane people think from cause to effect. "I want to achieve x, so I do y." For every effect, there is one cause, because the effect has happened and so we can trace it back; for every cause, there are infinite possible effects, but if we've seen the action before we can tell there's going to be one "generalized" effect.

Think of baseball: if you hit the ball, you know it's going to go into the field, but you might not know where because of the many details that change from pitch to pitch.

Insane people think from effect to cause. They see an effect on themselves, and assign to it a cause that makes them feel comfortable, and then act on that -- and repeat the process, again and again, even if it never succeeds, because now they need that logic to feel good about themselves.

Anarchists are such people. They are in denial of the obvious: that if we were given anarchy tomorrow, within six months we'd live in a corporate fascist super-state because the disorder would be too much. "Do whatever you want" is not the unifying principle of a civilization; it may be good advice at a party, but it won't get the crops grown, the cities built, etc. etc. And anarchy would immediately hand power to the most brutal and most destructive, since we can already observe that most people are reckless and irresponsible.

So we already know they're nuts. They're nuts on par with the people at Stormfront, who believe that if all white people just killed all black people, everything would be peachy. That's what neo-Nazism is: it's simpler than original Nazism, and the "neo" means new or misinterpreted into a more convenient package. Instead of worrying about international politics, its message is simpler: the Other is inferior, kill the Other, the Other took from you and controls you, kill the Other. This is just as unrealistic as the anarchists, because then you end up with a society on top of a pile of dead bodies that still has its same basic problems, and will probably import more Others to cheaply remove the corpses, and then repeat the cycle.

I replied to a rather paranoid and ill-informed message on an anarchist blog:


November 20, 2008 at 9:59 pm

Um… you are completely misinformed here.

CORRUPT uses the same free-speech anonymous hosting provider as other sites, but we are not linked to them.

You should have done more thorough research. Did it ever occur to you: why are all these random sites on the same host?

Answer: all of us like bulletproof colo-based anonymous hosting.

You do no service to yourself by fulfilling the stereotype of anarchists as people angry and looking for an excuse to wreck things, but unwilling to walk on down to a library and do some real research.


So far, their reply has been classic passive-aggression:

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Don't delete the comment -- that would be censorship. Do nothing. If the other guy forgets about it, you win. If he attacks you, you were Busy. But you did nothing wrong and you still get to call him a jerk, for free. (This sort of logic appeals to people who are clever but not intelligent.)

These people are so used to thinking backward they can't think at all. Even more, since their ideology is paranoid, they are looking for an excuse to treat all others who do not agree with them as enemies. They are angry, impotent and want revenge. They want an excuse to kick ass because their lives are frustrating and their ideology is confused, paranoid, neurotic garbage.

Here's their "evidence":

1. Corrupt.org is hosted on a free speech, anonymous, bulletproof ISP.
2. This ISP also hosts other people who want anonymity and free speech hosting -- pornographers, Nazis, even anarchists.
3. Corrupt.org opposes anarchy and modern society.
4. Therefore, Corrupt.org are Nazis, fascists, totalitarians, al-Qaeda, enemy-of-the-month, etc.

There's another thread in which they accuse me of calling names and not arguing, while they call me names and don't argue the point. Hey, if you corrupt the definitions of what is true, you can say anyone who says it's not true is calling names, right?

One of them had a tantrum on Slashdot:


Slashdot readers may have noticed a large volume of submissions coming from Anti Globalism [slashdot.org] and burnitdown [slashdot.org], many of which are being accepted onto the front page. Taken on their own, many of the articles are indeed interesting.

However, these accounts always link to corrupt.org [corrupt.org] in their submissions, a site that advertises the goal of "remaking modern society". The content is mostly boilerplate 'society is failing' rhetoric, with an emphasis on how we are out of touch with reality and hung up on "emotional abstractions" that are holding us back.

So what is this reality our society has denied? Corrupt.org is somewhat evasive on the specifics. Talking points include the impending danger of overpopulation, derision and scapegoating of people seen as inferior (who are called "parasites", "schemers" and "leeches", among other things), and why democracy doesn't work and needs to be replaced with "strong leaders".

As for the "emotional abstractions" they would like for us to dispense with, those seem pesky things like valuing human life. Corrupt betrays their intentions in their mission statement [corrupt.org]:

"Where in the past we spent huge amounts of money to try to "rehabilitate" many, with a high rate of failure, in the future we should not shy away from removing them."

And no, they're not referring to prisoners guilty of capital offenses there - they're talking about dealing with the 'undesirables'. This kind of rhetoric is intended to prepare their audience to accept the idea of killing on a large scale as a solution to society's problems. They also preach thinly veiled racial separatism on the same page [corrupt.org]:

"Ethnic self-determination
Each local culture is tied to a group by heritage, and no two groups can exist in the same place. For this reason, local cultures can decide who or who not to accept on any basis they desire, including heritage and culture."


So that's their proof? Translation: we don't accept anarchist dogma, and we prefer to read history and make logical decisions. That makes us an enemy of the state... I mean, of the anti-state.

Here's the original complaint:


In the past few months, a considerable effort has been put into building up a fake "anarchist" website, anarchy DOT net, and making it appear legitimate. A mere shell just a few months ago, this site suddenly includes a blog, a forum with nearly 500 (fake and apparently real) users, a Wikipedia page, a "library", and even an online store selling shirts advertising the site.

Though the site sports a "copyright" (one of many give-aways!) dating back to 1997, the domain was just a gateway to porn sites as recently as 2005. It is currently registered to "Throne Networks", someone with a Virginia PO box who also hosts these other lovely sites:

fuckcapitalism DOT com ("Anti-Capitalism")
ihatejobs DOT com ("I Hate Jobs")
infoterror DOT com ("Infoterror Internet Activist Promotions, Inc.")
antihumanism DOT com ("Anti-Humanism")
nihil DOT org ("Center for Nihilist and Nihilism Studies")
amerika DOT org ("Al-Qaeda Appreciation Society of North America")
corrupt DOT org ("Remaking Modern Society")
nazi DOT org ("Libertarian National Socialist Green Party")
churcharson DOT com ("CHURCH ARSON")
realitynews DOT com ("A look into the real world")
juliusevola DOT com ("Julius Evola: Traditionalist Visionary")
necrocapitalist DOT org ("Necrocapitalist")
pan-nationalism DOT org ("Pan-Nationalist Movement")
penttilinkola DOT com ("Pentti Linkola Fansite")
hessian DOT org ("The Hessian Studies Society")
anus DOT com ("American Nihilist Underground Society")
lostwisdom DOT com ("Lost Wisdom")
zionists DOT com ("Kahanist National Zionist Party")
continuity DOT us ("Continuity MOvement")
genocide DOT org ("genocide, holocaust, and democide studies")
fuckchrist DOT com ("Support the Judeo-Christian Holocaust")
burzum DOT com ("The Music of Burzum and the Writings of Varg Vikernes")
sataniccoalition DOT com ("The Satanic Coalition")
pragmatism DOT us ("Pragmatism Party - Traditional National Democratic Party")

Most of these sites link to several of the others, and up until very recently, even the new "anarchist" version of anarchy.net linked to at least the first six of them. The links were taken down when commenters on the site's blog, and posters on its forums, began objecting to their content. But it is clear that the same organization is behind all of them.

Taken together, these sites appear to be a broad net cast at young people in the process of rejecting inherited, official values. Whether they are a front for "third positionist" fascists, a government operation, part of a spam enterprise, or the product of a bored obsessive, what is abundantly clear is that "anarchy DOT net" is not operating in the interests of the anarchist movement, nor indeed of the majority of the world's people.

If the links with "nazi DOT org" weren't enough, digging a little on the site itself uncovers an explicitly racist position:

http://www.anarchy DOT net/anarchy/anarchy_library/racism/
Quote:

No one seems to care how contradictory it is for the powers that be that push the ideas simultaneously that
a) all races are inherently equal
b) there is no such thing as "race"
c) some races need special assistance.

It is obvious that there are noteworthy biological differences with different human populations. However, this shouldn't be either a free ticket to discriminate with great prejudice nor to think that racial gaps should be diminished by interbreeding, because both forms of thinking are very far from what is stable and close to reality.

The same text was pasted as a comment on a third-positionist fascist blog
(http://anarchonation DOT blogspot.com/2007/10/jena-racists.html)
in October, by someone calling himself "Postglobalism" and linking to anarchy.net, with the added line "Every nation needs its own culture, rules and space to live."

The Internet is notoriously full of exactly this kind of bullshit. What makes "anarchy.net" a problem is that it is now pretending to be the "International Anarchists Alliance", an emerging coalition of actual anarchist groups:


What a tantrum! Someone dares condemn prejudice, but not endorse the same multiethnic "multicultural" state that the leaders of the most powerful states and corporations endorse. If we used anarchist logic, we'd call them a false flag operation designed to make us buy into the corporate dogma: "Import cheap workers. Destroy culture. That is freedom. Only corporate anarchy leads to freedom. Crush all dissenters."

On yet another forum, anarchists reply to a CORRUPT post with their most succinct argument of all: This is stupid. You're stupid.



I used to think anarchists had a point, because I think there's too much reckless CONTROL in this society. Then I learned why CONTROL exists... because most people are irresponsible, foolish, wasteful and destructive if not kept in check. I prefer leadership and cooperation to CONTROL, but with the type of people we have floating around out there -- including these loudmouth anarchists and Nazis -- I don't think there's any alternative.

From reading history, I know that tyranny -- by which I mean not only totalitarianism, a method, but corrupt rule for self-enrichment, a goal -- arrives unannounced. It doesn't show up at the gate, knock and scream SIEG HEIL, then throw manacles on you. Like cancers, it's deadly because it does not announce itself, but shows up in the guise of something innocent, and suddenly, has control.

This is as Plato wrote:


And then democracy comes into being after the poor have
conquered their opponents, slaughtering some and banishing some,
while to the remainder they give an equal share of freedom and
power; and this is the form of government in which the magistrates
are commonly elected by lot.

Yes, he said, that is the nature of democracy, whether the
revolution has been effected by arms, or whether fear has caused
the opposite party to withdraw.

{ snip }

And when they have emptied and swept clean the soul of him who
is now in their power and who is being initiated by them in great
mysteries, the next thing is to bring back to their house insolence
and anarchy and waste and impudence in bright array, having
garlands on their heads, and a great company with them, hymning
their praises and calling them by sweet names; insolence they term
“breeding,” and anarchy “liberty,” and waste “magnificence,” and
impudence ” courage.” And so the young man passes out of his
original nature, which was trained in the school of necessity, into
the freedom and libertinism of useless and unnecessary
pleasures.

{ snip }

Freedom, I replied; which, as they tell you in a democracy, is
the glory of the State—and that therefore in a democracy
alone will the freeman of nature deign to dwell.

Yes; the saying is in everybody’s mouth.

I was going to observe, that the insatiable desire of this and
the neglect of other things introduce the change in democracy,
which occasions a demand for tyranny.

{ snip }

And above all, I said, and as the result of all, see how
sensitive the citizens become; they chafe impatiently at the least
touch of authority, and at length, as you know, they cease to care
even for the laws, written or unwritten; they will have no one over
them.

Yes, he said, I know it too well.

Such, my friend, I said, is the fair and glorious beginning out
of which springs tyranny.

Glorious indeed, he said. But what is the next step?

The ruin of oligarchy is the ruin of democracy; the same disease
magnified and intensified by liberty overmasters
democracy—the truth being that the excessive increase of
anything often causes a reaction in the opposite direction; and
this is the case not only in the seasons and in vegetable and
animal life, but above all in forms of government.

{ snip }

The people have always some champion whom they set over them and
nurse into greatness.

Yes, that is their way. This, and no other, is the root from which
a tyrant springs; when he first appears above ground he is a
protector.

{ snip }

And the protector of the people is like him; having a mob
entirely at his disposal, he is not restrained from shedding the
blood of kinsmen; by the favorite method of false accusation he
brings them into court and murders them, making the life of man to
disappear, and with unholy tongue and lips tasting the blood of his
fellow-citizens; some he kills and others he banishes, at the same
time hinting at the abolition of debts and partition of lands: and
after this, what will be his destiny? Must he not either perish at
the hands of his enemies, or from being a man become a
wolf—that is, a tyrant?

The Republic by Plato


Plato is a real hero and a real activist. He predicted how Greece would fall centuries before it happened; in his works, his protagonist Socrates told them about it, and they killed him, for the crime of "leading the youth astray." He opted not to escape his death, but instead wanted it to be plain to everyone: good intentions and "freedom" can kill, and when they do, they kill the best at the hands of a mob.

We see this time and time again. The joke on anarchists is that they are helping, rather than hindering, our transition into a corporate superstate. We've had over a century of extremist anarchist activity in the West, and it has accomplished... * crickets chirp *... so clearly it's not going to take over before the tyranny begins. Rather, it will help destabilize society and bring about that tyranny.

CORRUPT.org on the other hand offers time-tested ideas and common sense solutions, which mean we first back off from the corporate state idea of equality, second divide our big nations into localized cultures, and third use those cultures to hold back against commercial monoculture and to justify environmental preservation, conservation and basically reversing the previous 400 years of exploitation of humanity and nature for abstract political goals that hide personal profit by those who are telling us pleasant truths and delivering to us an ugly reality.

That's a philosophy for people who are thinking like sane people, and moving forward to fix the problem. Anarchism is a fashion, an adornment, not intended to fix any problems but in the meantime, hey, we have something to do, we can sell tshirts, we look cool to our friends, we can use this to explain our disillusioned underachiever behavior and shattered lives, we can tell our parents to screw off, etc. It's not a political belief for people who actually want to fix the problem, and that's why they hate us.

Comments

  1. While unfamiliar with the whole seeming controversy over corrupt.org, I consider myself (loosely) an anarchist. I also agree with the majority of what you're saying in this entry. In general, anarchists are -at worst- posers, and -at best- hopeless idealists.

    My own anarchism extends only so far as to say "wouldn't it be nice if we didn't need government - if we were all intelligent and responsible enough to form a truly equal collective?". But I also accept that this is idealistic, wishful thinking. The world does not work that way, much as one might wish it.

    The quote from Plato is well used, but he was not the one sentenced to death by the city-state of Athens for "corruption of the youth" - that was his mentor Socrates. Of course, this does not invalidate your point.

    My main purpose in commenting here is to simply defend anarchism as a position - it may not be helpful to society as a system of (non) government, but it's an idea toward which to strive. Also, not all anarchists are clueless posers - and nor is the core tenet of anarchism "do whatever you want". It is, as is so often the case, more complicated than that.

    All in all, however, an interesting and well-written post. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous8:50 PM

    same old same old "Anarchism is a fashion, an adornment, not intended to fix any problems but in the meantime, hey, we have something to do, we can sell tshirts, we look cool to our friends, we can use this to explain our disillusioned underachiever behavior and shattered lives, we can tell our parents to screw off, etc."

    cant you think up something of substance to attack anarchists with?

    ReplyDelete

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