An Ode to An*rchism
The problems of our day are ushering in a new radicalism and awakening our political consciousness—but how do we turn it into action? With the access to knowledge we have today we are oversaturated with seemingly insurmountable issues. We lack the ability to collectivize towards a solution for any of them, despite many of them sharing a common thread. Becoming helpless bystanders in the digital age, we are paralyzed by the illusions and distractions of late stage capitalism. So how do we turn our collective acknowledgment into collective action? By what means should we operate under and organize?
ANARCHY 101
Noam Chomsky, On Anarchism. Read a copy of the PDF or transcription.
In his book On Anarchism, Noam Chomsky argues that all power must be justified by the governed. Anarchism believes in restricting state power and utilizing it only where it is needed by the people. In this sense, it highlights the tensions between the Republican/Democrat and Capitalism/Communism divides on the interference of the state and finds a balanced solution. Some of the most effective state imposed solutions are rooted in anarchist logic and the move for horizontal organizing, such as unions, and state welfare.
Anarchism demands reconstructing economic life from the ground up—putting power in the hands of our producers, while cutting out the greedy and privileged middlemen brought on by capitalism, monopolies, and privatization of industry. Co-operative labor becomes a means of freeing labor from economic exploitation. Chomsky writes of the joy in labor—labor not as a means but as a want. In the ideal anarchist world, wage slavery is abolished and instead exist free associations of free producers engaged in a militant struggle. This way of life seems unsettling for some, but even in small doses, spontaneous, organized chaos is necessary to force the hands of power and redistribute it back to the people.
There are many sub-sects of anarchism, including Chomsky’s focus anarcho-syndicalism, which emphasizes production for the interests of the community. Anarcho-syndicalists believe that power corrupts and that any hierarchy that cannot be ethically justified must be dismantled. It is a collaboration of workers with a hand and brain in each branch of production, allowing workers to manage themselves.
This sect of anarchism reveals the revolutionary approaches to dismantling unjust power in an industrialized setting. Moreover, the principles of solidarity, direct action, opposition of hierarchy, and over-involvement of the state can be applied generally to each branch of anarchy or any issue in society in any part of the world. As Noam Chomsky attests, our best approach is to look at history. Personally, beyond the western and whitewashed canon of anarchism, I have found my own connection to anarchy that is rooted in more ancient and worldly methods.
AFGHANARCHISM
I first arrived at anarchism after taking a deep dive into my Pashtun roots. The politics of Afghanistan are generally misunderstood and many are unfamiliar with its historic resistance against imperialism. That is in part due to propaganda reframing its history. What Chomsky refers to as collective amnesia, is intentionally orchestrated by the institution to prevent future organizing movements. Much like the Haitian Revolution, successful forms of resistance are targeted and manipulated to prevent collectivized resistance. The more I learned about my people the more I realized this was yet another example of that.
It is not to say that Afghans, or more specifically the Pashtuns of Afghanistan (who are known politically for their role in the Taliban), are perfect role models. In fact, they are very far from it. But it is important to recognize that their values and mission have become warped to the same extremes of the imperialist projects they fought against. Even the Taliban struggles in untying their own institutional threads from CIA backed projects of the 80s and 90s, or Pakistan’s strategic involvement in building out the Taliban.
Regardless of the outcome, Pashtuns have successfully driven off and dismantled empires from as far back as Alexander the Great, to the Persian Empire, Mughal Empire, USSR, and more recently the US. Like other indigenous peoples faced with colonialism, their land is valued for its resources and geopolitical location. Unlike many indigenous peoples, the Pashtuns were able to continuously reassert themselves against crushing superpowers. What’s their secret?
Beyond a shared ethnic identity, Pashtuns are united by an ancient tribal code called the Pashtunwali, which dates back over 4000 years (since before modern day Abrahamic religions). They are noted for their extreme aversion to centralized authority and rather instead utilize the Pashtunwali and jirga, a communal justice system whereby judicial trials are carried out by the community leaders/elders in a roundtable discussion.
During the reign of British-colonial India, the region of the Pashtuns was referred to as Yaghistan, which roughly translates to the land of lawlessness and rebellion. Many attempts have been made to divide and conquer these peoples but, despite their lack of sovereignty, their anarchist ways offered them survival in their way of life. Their statelessness has allowed them to resist against the attempts of homogeneity and globalism that pervaded around them. As writer Nicky Reid puts in her article Afghanarchism: What American Radicals Can Learn From the Pashtuns:
“We need our own currency, our own economy, our own schools, militias, agriculture, and perhaps above all else, judicial systems. One thing the Pashtuns learned long ago that is universal is that we do not exist for the state, the state exists for us, and it’s only as powerful as we decide it should be.”
AMERICAN APPLICATION
Curiously enough, I found that the Pashtuns’ greatest strength in protecting themselves from the sham of colonialism and aristocracy was their ability to ignore the enemy. One of the methods that allowed colonialism to endure and thrive is the means of manipulating existing power structures to support the colonial mission. Tribal chiefs often became the bourgeoisie of their communities, being bought out by their colonial officers to rule their peoples by the means of the oppressors exploiting them. Meanwhile, Pashtuns were hardly impressed with the riches of the enemy occupiers, and hardly respected the powers that entered their land. Their long and severe distrust for westerners was documented as far back as the 17th century, and leaders acted in self-interest only to the point of manipulating their enemy. Ultimately, they organized on Pashtun lines and never took the disrespect of their people lightly.
If we were to apply that to our current American situation, it would look like a radical and spontaneous move away from the current model of success and a closer tie to our local communities. We exist in a society that worships the upper class and continues to feed the wealth of the masses to them. We relentlessly support the hands of oppression through their praise. Even in cultural capital we see how the upper class relies on the spirit of the lower class to fund themselves, establish an image, and mine from their ideas. How can we collectivize to stand up against these giants? Ignoring them is a start. Boycot their work, their music, their reality shows, etc. And if you wish to partake, why not try stealing back? (So long as you don’t get caught.)
We are living in a true gilded age, where the billionaire class is larger than it has ever been and class gaps are wide enough to usher in a revolution. We have become so passive and pacified we can’t even recognize our own power. Start by watching where your money goes. Then take to organizing alongside your community. The Black Panthers focused on organizing, educating, and staying militant in their cause. By forming our own communal systems we can steadily replace the state and put forth new demands. Slowly and surely, with a clear goal, an aversion to state authority, and a respect for those who stand beside us, we can reclaim a new world order.
Chomsky On Anarchism flier.
Assortment of anarchist logos for a variety of subsects. Source.
