You might as well attach electrodes to Merwyn's nuts. If you want to have a thread about how we grant authority to people who may not deserve it, it must not contain pork metaphors.

And Merwyn, you would drop to your knees if a cop simply told you to. Whether or not you think they are pigs doesn't change that.

I would ask that everyone try to read this for the overall message and block out that word, it's really not important to the opinion.

I find myself perpetually frustrated by the stereotypes held about people of similar political, social, and economic values as I have. When you hear the word anarchist, you most likely think of molotov cocktails, rock throwing, and other violence. That's what the news organizations focus on also. Anarchy is not about violence, it's not opposed to it, but violence is not its m.o. either. Anarchy is about you being able to live your life and be happy unmolested by governments, gods, and masters (like your boss at work). It is not chaos, or disorder, quite the opposite, it is complete order, social order. The symbol that many anarchists use to identify themselves is called the 'circle A'. I'm sure you've seen it. What many people, many anarchists as well, don't know is that it's not a circle around the A it's the letter O. O standing for order. We don't want to fire all the cops and let the streets run wild, we want to create a community in which cops aren't needed because everybody has what they need. How much crime would be left, I'm talking crimes that have a victim, if everybody simply had everything they needed? I think it's a good question and worthy of some discussion.

Ask the guys at Enron.

I agree that your notion of anarchism is a worthwhile topic of discussion. What if everyone had what they needed indeed? As someone who recently bought a green laser point just for kicks, I am probably far beyond my "needs."

Something else is responsible for 300 people not clobbering 50 pigs.

The trouble with this post is that the gut level reaction to this kind of thing, at least for most people that the IAC wants to "wake up", is "dumbshit kids". 

There is indeed a great deal of questioning of power that ought to happen, that could happen.  But people don't simply wake up and begin examining the ideologies of capitalism or structures of power because some kid says to clobber "pigs" (besides which, I don't think this is the conclusion people would come to if they took the time to examine the power structure).

In a world that is so screwed up as ours, propaganda like the IAC's strikes me as not just inffective, but downright obnoxious. 

The Canaanite's Call

So often this is used as a rallying cry to persuade us to overlook violent and opportunistic foreign policy. "They" don't hate us for our freedom in reality, they hate us for our vacuum of freedom. They hate us for our pop culture, they hate us because we hate them. They hate us because we turn a blind eye to the violence we bring to their neighborhoods.

Let's say that tomorrow a bomb goes off on 4th Avenue in front of Cafe Vita that kills 26 people and injures 32 others. That would be headline news for weeks afterwards. Yet this is the kind of thing that happens in Iraq almost daily with barely a mention in our press. We are so disconnected from what is going on that we somehow justify innocent lives being taken in the name of what? Security? Liberty? Freedom? No. Our policies have brought us none of those things despite what we are spoon fed.

I'm willing to admit that the IAC Communiques are directed toward a certain audience, but I post them here with hope that we can discuss the bigger picture.

I feel like I am not free. I feel like I am tied down by the system we live in and that the government is not at all representative of my needs. I live in America, and that is supposed to mean something. It's supposed to mean that I have access to inalienable rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness among them. I don't feel like I, or the majority of the working class have access to those rights. What can I do about that? What are my options? Vote? That hasn't turned out well. My options on the ballot don't represent the needs of the people, they only seem to represent the ownership class. Where should I channel my frustration? Do my views not matter? Should I simply slink away and allow the status quo to rule regardless of my opinion? Does my opinion really matter?

I want to live in a society that allows people to control their own lives. I want to be able to stand up for and voice my beliefs without being called immature. I want to be able to take action without being called a vanguardist. I want to create a culture of inclusion and community in Olympia that takes every single person's needs into account, without exception. That is not possible now. Our system will not allow it.

I post these communiques not because I want you to take them seriously, but because I want you to see the fun that can be had if we are free. These missives are written by people who feel free to express themselves and the joy they feel through social organization. The author recognizes the power in the individual as well as the spectacle. I hope to spread that feeling, and the power that goes with it, to everyone, so that we can all be free to be happy.

This may be slightly off-topic, but, I like to make the argument (I believe in it) that the problem is not the form of the society, i.e. whether it's democracy (though that certainly helps) republic, anarchy, capitalism, socialism, communism, etc.. The problem is not the "what" of society's design. The problem lies in the "how." How is it? How is society? Is it (or will it be) equitable, fair and just? Or is it (will it be) corrupt, exploitative and unjust? I think that the goal for society ought to be nonviolence, truth, humanism, sustainability. What form (democracy v. communism v. anarchy, etc.) that is in is of less import. I think this goal is achievable in a variety of societal forms or structures. Some, I will agree, would be easier than others.

I also want to mention my concern with what I sometimes interpret as a violent sort of anarchist movement. What will a violent anarchism, that seeks to overthrow the current (corporatist) capitalism, replace the current system with? How can a violent and vengeful movement hope to create or lend itself to a truly peaceful and life-serving society? Maybe that's not the goal here... I think the goal should be a better society and I think that a life-sustaining, life-serving, nonviolent basis for whatever type of societal structure, as well as the foundational movement to create that new structure, is critical.

In the Course of Events