what is anarchism

even though this is in the community board, i dont see any reason to get so snippy with equalfights - especially since s/he's new to all this. would it kill us to make a good first impression?

equalfights: on the most basic level, a few people have answered what Anarchism is, when mentioning working class control of society (etc etc). the problem is, though... if you dont understand much about the class system, a bunch of the at least basic ideas behind socialist thought and all that, it's kinda hard to see where Anarchists (or other types of socialists) are coming from. not that i'm saying you're necessarily like that or anything, but it's difficult for many people - it certainly was for me.

some of the flak you've been getting in the latter messages, like guy making the hippie crack and the talk of Anarchism as a philosophy and all this sort of stuff, there's a little bit of Anarchist baggage behind this - which is strongly tied to hippies and punks. a problem which pisses off many Anarchists today (at least, most of the people who frequent these forums) is the confusion of Anarchism - which is not just a social philosophy of sorts but also, i suppose you could say, a *method* of struggle with a fairly clear end-vision - with a sort of... personal philosophy. like treating Anarchism as if it simply meant living by an unusual personal code of ethics, eating a particular diet, dressing a particular way, or withdrawing from society-at-large to live in a wee little community of people who act like this (which many people here would argue is not a form of actual social struggle, not a way to genuinely change the world, but rather a *withdrawal* from the world... a form of escapism). there's more into it than that, it's hard to explain really quickly, but... maybe you get the idea? anyway, most of the people on this board are *quite* against this sort of thing, and want Anarchism to move out of a sort of subcultural ghetto to become a genuinely relevant, effective social *movement*, as it once was in a number of places some decades ago (in a large way). so some Anarchists can get a bit sensitive over this, please excuse us for the difficulties!

beside this, most Anarchists are pretty solid atheists, and philosophical materialists (ie: basically against mystical sorts of explanations of the world), so get a bit wary when someone comes around professing a belief in this or that religion. beside that, the sort of way that various religions view and explain the world is usually much different than how Anarchists, or other socialists, will do it. and there's the whole thing about most (if not all) religions being guided by a religious elite, an upper class of its own, which usually molds the doctrine to their interests of keeping and possibly expanding on their position of privilege. although it's a bit more difficult to make such an argument when it comes to someone who believes in a religion without adhering to any religious organization.

anyway, it's kind of difficult to explain things *well* off the bat... i find that most socialists (including Anarchists) will often use expressions and such that mean nothing to a newcomer, or will mean SOMETHING, but not the thing that the socialist is talking about. considering that there's a lot of information to possibly give, it *might* help if you had any slightly more... specific? sorts of questions to ask, based on what you've heard here so far (particularly on the main point(s) of Anarchism, which was mentioned by Bob Savage and Guy and Jef kinda too).

if you're interested in something to read on your own, to get a bit of a better idea, a good starting place is this, the Anarchist FAQ:

http://www.infoshop.org/faq/

but it's quite large, and nobody would expect you to read the whole thing in any short time (or possibly ever, i'm not sure if i've read all of it or not, and they occasionally add things after some time too). but it's a good source, which covers a lot of the basics, goes into some of the more advanced stuff, and talks a bit about history too. i'm sure people here would be happy to provide you with other things they view as essential (or just realy good) reading - i have something else in mind, but it's a bit difficult as starting material i think.

anyway, which ever way you find yourself in the end, take care equalfights