I’ve often been told that Anarchy would never work because if we got rid of Authority (usually meaning the police, as that’s the only form of authority most understand) then everyone would go psycho-crazy! Punching people in the face, stabbing old ladies, stealing candy from kids, putting recyclables in the trash, eating tacos with a fork and knife: basically, the world would collapse. It’s a common perspective, just go ask your friends and neighbors: ‘anarchy’ boils down to something along those lines. And it’s, of course, totally wrong. The guiding principles of autonomy and mutual aid always get drowned out by the roar of potential mayhem, and once it’s decided that humans are raging beasts, restrained from their killing instinct solely by the presence of police, well there’s really no use in debating the point. However, if you ask for examples of such crazy behavior, they’ll be a bit stumped; it’s not common. But Mutual Aid, the practice of helping each other out, that happens all the time in the animal and human world.
When you really think about it, the world at present is exhibiting those misanthropic characteristics that so many fear, the mayhem is already around us. Remember Katrina? Remember how the government and the police failed its citizens and could not provide the basics for life; food, water, and shelter? I do. And I remember that the only way people were able to get shit done was by banding together, either to loot stores for supplies, to coordinate impromptu toilets, to provide medical care, or to attempt to rescue themselves. Humans, even alienated and isolated city dwellers, can always rely on their instincts for preservation (of self and others) to pull them out of danger: in an instant, all the crap socialization that dominates the modern world melts away. Gone are the learned habits that keep you from talking to neighbors. Away go the fears that limit interaction between different peoples. To the dustbin with the “respect for property”, that linchpin that defines so much of our current reality. Such was the case with Mark Morice. After the storm, he saw people in desperation, found himself a boat, and managed to save over 200 people in need of rescue. What did he get in return? The ‘owner’ of the boat files a lawsuit, suing him for taking it without permission and for “mental anguish”. That is an accurate snapshot of the world as-it-is, circa 2006. No need for lawless thugs to threaten you, the threats come from thugs that use the law to make less of you!
Is that a good enough reason to indict the current social order, or is that just utterly flippant? Sure! Just as the religious can find meaning in any mundane act, I’ve decided this lawsuit is the one that tied the noose on the present: the jig is finally up! What, then, does it mean that the lawsuit has been dropped? It becomes even clearer that humanity is catching up with our modern world. When the logic under which we operate is so visibly corrupt that the whole thing comes into question, that’s when they change it’s guise in an attempt at survival. In the end, the empire has no clothing: it’s rotten to the corpse!
And on that cheerful note, might I suggest that anarchy could be no worse? EL CHAVO!
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