Greetings Liberty Lovers,
As many of the people who will read this are well aware, we live in anything but a free world. If we stand idly by and do nothing the rules will be written for us and we will be told by politicians who have been purchased on behalf of corporations through police at gunpoint to obey. People will die over this for no reason other than police are allowed to be roaming murderers. This is the harsh reality we live in and its not getting any easier. But we do not have to accept this. We can change this. But to do it effectively we need to work together.
The division among anarchists is not helping anyone at all. Yes, if you are a communist you don't want to live in a capitalist environment. Yes, if you are a capitalist you have no interest in living in a communist society. These are things everyone already knows. There are other ideological divisions out there, but I mention this one as I see it the most frequently. Now everyone has their preferences for the type of society they would like to live in. It's not my aim to put anyone's selection down on the basis of my personal preference. Anarchists were once united under one single banner. First and foremost, anarchists reject the initiation of force against peaceful individuals which in turn invalidates the state. All banners have this in common. What's more effective? 16 small groups preaching different interpretations of property rights and economic system? Or one large group working together to educate the ignorant against the crimes of statism. I don't need to be a communist to agree that children getting blown apart with tax dollars is fucking wrong, nor does one need to be a capitalist to share that point of view with myself. The state's crimes are vast and it doesn't even meet its own standards of law as it breaks its own rules repeatedly because rules and law are for peasants. An AnCap and an AnCom could easily work together in a social situation to point all things things out to the propagandized statist. But more often than not even a loose cooperation in this regard devolves into an argument between the two. Now the target audience is no longer paying attention as the standard argument between these two groups blew way over the head of the statist. Now time was just wasted.
Now I'm not trying to blame the mentioned groups above for destroying liberty or any silly shit like that but on the same note, all of us could be far more effective if we worked together. Even loosely when running across one another. There are plenty of places out there for debate and that is good, I'm not putting down the exchange and evolution of ideas. But I am saying there is a time and a place for certain things.
*"The anarchists greatest enemy is not the state itself, but the belief in the state."*
So what does this automatically tell us? It tells us that people need to be educated. They first need to be deprogrammed from their lifetime of heavy indoctrination and chemical manipulation. Long before they even have the mental capacity to evaluate economic models and consider what interpretation of property rights suits their personal preferences best, they need to be aware that the state is not their protector. And anyone who has talked to a democrat or a republican who religiously watches CNN or Fox to base their world view upon is very lost at best. This is where there is opportunity for unity despite the choice of sub ideology. All anarchists can agree the state is anything but good. All anarchists should have an idea on how to bust the state out on these factors to include the hows and whys.
Marketing. Anarchists are absolutely fucking horrible at marketing their ideas. Yes, its easy for me to teach an aspiring AnCap AnCap principles. They are already interested in it. More often than not if I find myself in this role its because someone had taken an interest in the philosophy by watching others under the same banner speaking about it. This is the standard for ideological recruitment via social media. But what are anarchists doing to appeal their message to a broader range of people? What are anarchists doing to reach people who are outside of these social media avenues? What are anarchists doing to target demographics that would be partial to such an ideology like those recently disenfranchised by the action of the state to their detriment? I'm not talking about posting flags all over the place. We have social media. We all have a boost button. We all can shoot our message across the internet. Attention can be drawn by something as simple as #Freedom. We have these things, its time to begin using them. These are all things we can do at the individual level to become effective in advancing the message. This is by no means the only way, but as a whole we all need to cover much more ground.
Now there are those of us who have access to way more resources than those of us who just kinda have the normal day job gig. That means by sheer virtue of the command of resources more can be done. If you own your own business and are rather successful, you can lobby for freedom. Corporatists invest their money in monopoly security via legislation enforced by the state. This is a two way exploit. Rather than just pass laws to dick your market over at your gain, you can do the exact opposite. Peel back regulation to get the application of the proposition to apply to the greatest number of people possible within that spectrum in a positive way. Take credit for your actions. Make it public in a tasteful way. If you can make some positive impacts for others in your market and provide opportunity to others that otherwise did not exist prior to your action people will be grateful for it so long as you don't come off as a conceited asshole talking shit about your achievements. But If you can successfully deregulate sections of your market handling image shouldn't be that big of a deal. As a business owner myself, in the current business environment we live in this is the most direct way that we have to make positive change within the system. Outside of this you would have to introduce legislation and even then you have to rely on numbers to get such things through and you have to not only garner your support but more then likely the average voter will be in opposition to whatever you present because well they don't know anything worth knowing.
The number one greatest thing anyone can say about anarchism is there are no good examples. This is entirely debatable of course but, the best thing anarchists could do is provide peaceful examples. This is still far and away for many anarchists due to the fact that the state is crushing the populace with poverty via socialist/corporatist legislation. But its not out of reach for the dedicated. Don't confuse that point with easy. None of this, even writing articles on Steemit I would deem as particularly easy. But investing your time wisely and making good choices will pay off. If you are an AnCom find other AnComs get some property and begin a commune. Make it work. AnCaps do the same. It will take dedicated individuals that the organizers can trust. Your core team will be key. You will have to have plans in place for where the edges of your bubble come into contact with the american statist reality, but its not impossible although there are tougher things to deal with in that interaction such as taxation. It will be difficult, but if you are successful your community will grow. Growing examples of anarchism are a net win for all anarchists. It shows people live proof that anarchism is not rampant chaos but the exact opposite, consenting adults interacting voluntarily with respect for one another.
In conclusion, as anarchists we need a bit more unity. Does that mean caps and coms need to suddenly start agreeing with one another? Absolutely not. But focusing individual efforts to the benefit of the advancement of the anarchist ideology as a whole is a net win for all. It would be a much better world if people just needed to choose the kind of society they wish to live in rather than state vs no state. Make the no state argument first. All the sub ideologies will attract their eventual newcomers. Advance the point that leads the individuals to contemplate a decision such as interpretation of property rights and economic model. Let the AnComs AnCom. Let the AnCaps AnCap. At the end of the day, its better for all anarchists to manifest this particular paradigm rather than "My anarchy is the only true anarchy." Leave the choice of who's anarchy is suitable for whom to the individual. As long as people can be lead away from the mindset of the necessity of statism, those pushing for that ideological progression are literally making the world a better place.