Considering HBO's The Anarchists

When Steemit first launched, I began following the development of an anarchist community in Acapulco, Mexico. Founded by Hive account@jeffberwick and anchored by an annual Anarchapulco conference, this community struck me as an interesting political philosophy experiment. I liked that a bunch of people were putting their beliefs into practice in a concrete way. And yet, from my perspective, the way this was being done closely resembled rich colonizers playing at anarchism without any of the accountability that a functional anarchist society would necessarily entail. Although I considered checking it out in person, it was never clear that this community could accommodate someone like me, so I stayed home.

HBO's new documentary The Anarchists left me feeling good about this decision to stay home. It painted Anarchapulco as an alcohol-soaked drama fest dominated by angry male personalities. I can find crowds of drunk dudes who are mad at the government at any bar in the Midwest, so the idea of traveling thousands of miles to experience that kind of social ecology borders on hilarious.

This is not to suggest that HBO's portrayal of the Ancap movement was all bad. It described some of the most important issues around anarchist child-rearing in clear and positive light. Whatever else they are, Acapulco's Ancaps appear to be good and thoughtful parents. This alone lends weight to the philosophies they espouse.

Truth be told, I probably would've fit right in at Anarchapulco when I was 18. And I identified with some of the documentary's main characters, in particular the young couple on the run from cannabis-related criminal charges in the US. As someone who relies on black market cannabis to manage a horrid chronic illness, I view the drug war as a crime against humanity. The refugees produced by this war rarely receive mainstream airtime, but this documentary told their stories.

In general, the more time that passes, the less inclined I've become to identify as an anarchist. I still believe that individual freedom is sacrosanct, and that the legitimacy of any governing body can only be derived from its protection of this freedom. But unlike many anarchists, I think the purpose of this freedom is that it allows us to meet our obligations. These personal, social, environmental obligations are the bonds that hold societies together. Without freedom, these obligations can't be effectively met.

This focus on obligations starkly contrasts many of the views espoused in The Anarchists. There was lots of talk about protesting government taxation, but not a word about how the funds withheld from the government would actually be used. It's true that taxes fund the war machine, the incarceration industry, and all kinds of other awful stuff. I can't fault anyone for wanting to withhold funds from our corrupt regime. But I also don't agree that taxation in any form is theft. It's a mechanism for allowing people to meet their social obligations in a complex society.

After reading this response to the film from Hive account@maxigan, it's clear that HBO probably left out lots of key information in an effort to tell the story they wanted to tell. And of course it did. The sordid consequences of outlaw lifestyles are easier to sell than the messy and often boring reality of people fumbling their way through putting philosophy into practice.

I did like that the documentary left the viewer with a question I've seen come up time and again in intentional communities. This is the question of what to do with the people who create problems for others. In an anarchist community, what do you do with the drunk coke dealer who keeps making death threats? How do you respond to those that want to mess up the event you've worked hard on? Is there an obligation to care for community members harmed by violence? If there is such a thing as a Freedom Movement, these might be questions it should take seriously.

(Feature image from Pixabay.)

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• Small Gods of Time Travel is available as a web book on IPFS.
• The Paradise Anomaly is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• Psychic Avalanche is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
• Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.

See my NFTs:

• Small Gods of Time Travel is a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt that goes with my book by the same name.
• History and the Machine is a 20 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on my series of oil paintings of interesting people from history.
• Artifacts of Mind Control is a 15 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on declassified CIA documents from the MKULTRA program.