Anarchism decrypted

[professor rat]

" . . . following Joseph Proudhon, “anarchists around the world began creating a theory and practice that was diverse yet centered around some basic points of agreement: (1) opposition to hierarchy, (2) decentralization [of state authority], (3) a commitment to freedom and autonomy, and (4) an opposition to vanguardism as it was expressed in authoritarian socialist traditions.”

 This list should further include: a vehement rejection of the state as an ostensibly necessary governing agent for complex social organizations; the refusal or rejection of unjustifiable coercive power in all its forms, of authority, and of alienating and exploitative capitalist social relations; distrust of property ownership of the means of production by either private (capitalist) or state (socialist) interests; rejection of (in fact, a deep disdain for) institutionalised (state-supported and/or hierarchically organized) religion as it manifests as an oppressive and exploitative ideological force; faith in social formations founded on a practice of mutual aid; praxis in both the forms of direct action and philosophy; prefiguration of nonhierarchical and affinity-based communal social organization; a refusal of sociopolitical blueprints, part of a larger philosophy described by Allan Antliff that “pointedly refuses determinism”; and, as the word “anarchy” indicates, a rejection of particularly patriarchy, since it is the dominant authoritarian ideology underpinning most (all?) contemporary cultures. . . "

Assange told the Icelandic anarchist historian Herbert Snorrason: “I don’t like your tone. If it continues you’re out. I am the heart and soul of this organization, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson, original coder, organizer, financier, and all of the rest. If you have a problem … piss off.”