There seem to be more than a few anarchists, or anarcho-blanko (socialist, communists, whatever tag you want to add to the end). While I myself do not claim to be an anarchist, many people seem to classify me as one.
I’m just wondering, how many people here who call themselves anarchists (or something close) have actualy been to a protest in the past year? How many people went to an immigrants rights rally on mayday? How many actually participated (knowingly) in the strike (student and worker!)? Who buys new things? Who eats at fast food resteraunts? who eats at chain resteraunts?
How old ore you people?
Who votes?
As for me, I’m 22, I have a job (very small (7 people) construction company), I do not have to pay taxes.
I don’t vote in national or state elections, I do vote in town elections.
I Do eat at chain resteraunts, and buy from some (very few) chain stores. I don’t eat fast food, or buy any kind of sweatshop made goods. I havn’t bought anything new in months, with the exception of art suppies, and a (very) few neccesities.
I goto as many protests as I can, and even help organize some. I was part of the mayday strike and protests.
I don’t really call myself anarchist, because I believe that all out Anarchy in this country would turn it worse than it already is. But I pretty much don’t care about the government, and I do whatever I want, and don’t pay attention to 'em.
Just because you’re being paid illegally under the table does not mean you don’t HAVE to pay taxes. It means you are ILLEGALLY not paying taxes. Since you choose not to pay taxes I assume you also take it as your responsibility to not use any government services, were home schooled or did you do to private school?
You mean “ILLEGAL ALIEN RALLY”! “Legal Immigrants” have all the rights any other AMERICAN CITIZEN has. Everybody I’ve talked to wishes for a “rally” like that EVERYDAY, because guess what? There was NO TRAFFIC THAT DAY! And no business were closed anywhere I could see. And I was driving all over LA County that day, again with NO TRAFFIC! Yeah, some pockets of the mostly mexican communities had there stores closed, which is like biting off your nose to spite your face! Total Backfire. Brought home to the COUNTRY just how BAD the Illegal Alien problem reaaly is! Stop the invasion NOW! That’s MY protest.And THIS time, I’m in the majority!
I am a semi-anarchist, but I dont belive in direct action against governments. Also, I only support anarchy for anarchists; I dont belive that an entire county could be released at once from the grasp of govermnet control. If this was done, yes, there would be killing, raping, decay, etc. But small community groups (I don’t like the word collective, it sounds too Communistic) of anarchists can work. More realistically, I think community governments would be more “fail-safe” than a purely governmnet-less society. Although this does not allow for a person to exercise what they want entirely, it would be much less oppressive than the govermnet of a large capitalist govermnet. These community govermnets would be a good step towards full autonomy.
I havent been to many protests and shit because I can’t drive…
I said I do not have to pay taxes, and yes, that is what I meant. Don’t make enough money in a year, (I’m a student) to have to pay taxes.
I reaize living in my parents basement is super lame, thats why I pointed it out. I might as welll be fair and point out my low points if I’m asking other peope about theirs. Also, as I said in my first post, I don’t caim to be an anarchist.
As for the immigrants, I don’t believe in (the moraity of) borders, and the fact that these were some of the largest demonstrations in the history of the US woud prove you wrong. If you woud like to discuss it, start a new topic for it though, pease.
The point of anarchy is that only those who want it woud have it. If people wanted to organize, fine, that’s awesome, but don’t incude me unless it’s something I believe in. I am a firm believer in community, and as I staed in my first post, I don’t vote in state or national elections, but I try to be very involved in my town. Also, I have no probem with communism or socialism, other than the fact that someone is telling me what to do. If people coud decide to do those things on their own, it would be great. I guess the probem is with peope too.
I guess I would consider myself a partial anarchist.
As far as protests, I go as often as possible. We have the right to gather peacefully and I use that to the utmost.
As far as purchasing power, since i am poor, I don’t really purchase much.
I try and avoid McDonalds, but that is hard since they own Chipotle.
I am 23 and vote at every chance i get.
i am one of the people who feels that if you don’t vote, don’t use your voice, you have no right to critize who gets elected and the choices they make.
i have done canvassing, tabling, marches, protests, pretty much everything, i guess if you want to know more, i can tell you.
and what does living in your parents basement have to do with being an anarchist?
I’m curious… how does consumerism have anything to do with one’s view on government? Granted, in some roundabout way, some of the money you give to large corporations ends up in congressmen’s pockets via corporate lobbyists… but what does it matter if I go and buy myself a pair of jeans from the mall? Even if I were to be totally “counter-culture” and sew my own clothing, I’d still have to buy my fabric from someone…
To me the association does not fly. For some reason, I found that association made quite often at the college I went to (UC Santa Cruz)… there were a lot of kids who considered themselves activists and took part in silly protests such as demonstrating against Taco Bell for their consumption of tomates from farms who employed day laborers with no benefits. This same group did take some positive action, such as helping to collect signatures for petitions, but it seemed they just wanted to find some cause against which to direct their leftover teen angst.
In this observation, I’ve got the impression that the term “anarchist” is somewhat loosely used. By its dictionary definition, anarchism represents action taken against governmental control… but some “anarchists” seem to be against corporations, or even soceity in general. Perhaps the term “counterculturalists” is a better word for these people… could this be the group you’re referring to, nick? I just don’t see why an “anarchist” cares so much about my choice of restaurant…
You can do what you will with our government… JUST DON’T TAKE MY IN-N-OUT BURGER AWAY!!!
No. I haven’t the land nor the technology to do such a thing. Perhaps I could join a colony of farmers or sheperds and use their services, but being an urban dweller limits me to growing my own food, and only a small amount at that.
This is all an aside to the question at hand… what does consumerism have to do with anarchy?
I do make my own clothes. I dumpsterdive all the materials I need, or go through my old stuff, and turn it into new stuff. Yes, I realize this is not sustainable, but for now, it’s great.
here’s what corperations have to do with government:
A big corperation gets it’s products made in some country using sweatshops. The people in said country are paid slave wages. This is because the World Bank / IMF / WTO has the countries in a strangle hold over debts and forces them to drop wages in order to pay back loans that they can not possibly pay. if government was for the people, then they would be making a decent wage (a living wage), but government is for the corperations, and therefore the CEO’s make insane amounts of money off of this (profit does not need to be lowered). It’s called chicago school economics. IF you want to know more, then look up IMF / World Bank / WTO.
Another example is FTAA. Free trade agreement of the americas basicly allowed products to be made in south america at slave wages, then imported to the USA to be sold at enormous profits. NAFTA does the same thing, except with mexico.
Most state (and private) schools (mine included, but we are trying to change that) buy all their apperal from companies using sweat shop labor. Here is an example of the government directly profiting off of sweatshop labor!
Do you really think that bush’s cronies arn’t prrofiting from the war in iraq? Clearly the government is out to help big coreperations, and screw everyone else.
Aside from that, anarchists are not just idiots that want to overthrow the government into chaos. (Well some of them are, but it’s easy to tell the diffrence if you care). Stopping rampant consumerism is a first step to cleaning up the enviornment. Consumerism is the reason Walmart can exist, and Walmart is one of the reasons sweat shops exist. Anarchists care about all the people of the world, and the world itself. By making those priorities, ewveryhing doing harm (governments and corperations) becomes something bad.
Right now, that doesn’t mean stopping everything, and going to live in a cave. I work within my constraints. I’m doing the best I can, but like I said, I’m still living in my parents basement, leeching off the system. I goto a state school. I drive an SUV (For good reason). I still have an Ipod and a computer.
