I got some feedback from Pax (who I presume is an anarchist) regarding my post titled “PDX Peace March Spin”. Pax evidently wants to explain why some anarchists don’t support our troops and pointed me towards some anarchist literature available on the internet.
As best as I can determine, anarchists (at least some anarchists) condemn soldiers for placing themselves at the disposal of ‘the state’. They blame soldiers for following orders instead of their “own guiding ethics” – for being part “marionette”. In short, it seems that anarchists don’t distinguish between the soldier and the state – that is, they seem to hold individual soldiers responsible for the political/policy decisions of their commander-in-chief. (Do anarchists vote?)
I’m not sure that this particular line of reasoning is a fair or complete characterization of soldiers or the ‘state’. For me, what an individual soldier does is a sacred thing. To paraphrase, there is no greater way to show love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
As paradoxical as it must seem to anarchists, long periods of stability and peace correlate very well with the golden ages of dominant world empires. (Does PAX ROMANA ring a bell?) Is peace ever a possibility without a really big stick to back it up?
While reviewing anarchist literature, I noticed that a popular format for writing appeared to be something called a ‘Zine’. Many of these were rich with hand drawn images, and it struck me that these are essentially ideal ‘narrative images’. So what happened is, I was inspired to write my own ‘zine’. (It was fun but really hard and kind of explains why it’s taken me so long to post). The title of my “zine” is:
As best as I can determine, anarchists (at least some anarchists) condemn soldiers for placing themselves at the disposal of ‘the state’. They blame soldiers for following orders instead of their “own guiding ethics” – for being part “marionette”. In short, it seems that anarchists don’t distinguish between the soldier and the state – that is, they seem to hold individual soldiers responsible for the political/policy decisions of their commander-in-chief. (Do anarchists vote?)
I’m not sure that this particular line of reasoning is a fair or complete characterization of soldiers or the ‘state’. For me, what an individual soldier does is a sacred thing. To paraphrase, there is no greater way to show love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
As paradoxical as it must seem to anarchists, long periods of stability and peace correlate very well with the golden ages of dominant world empires. (Does PAX ROMANA ring a bell?) Is peace ever a possibility without a really big stick to back it up?
While reviewing anarchist literature, I noticed that a popular format for writing appeared to be something called a ‘Zine’. Many of these were rich with hand drawn images, and it struck me that these are essentially ideal ‘narrative images’. So what happened is, I was inspired to write my own ‘zine’. (It was fun but really hard and kind of explains why it’s taken me so long to post). The title of my “zine” is:
American Fascist Troops & Police:
Keeping Anarchists Safe and Free for Over 200 Years
Provocative! I like it!
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