Why I Am An Anarchist

This post is meant to address any confusion people may have about my political and economic viewpoints, lest they inaccurately classify me as socialist, communist, or other such beast due to my support for movements like Occupy Wall Street (even though said movement has nothing to do with socialism or communism, but only with ensuring a fair, representative government that doesn't marginalize 99% of its citizens).

I'm going to touch on the major political and economic schemas and address the problems I see in each.

Oligarchy and Plutocracy

I'm not separating these two out, as they seem to go hand-in-hand (most oligarchies seem to end up as plutocracies, assuming they didn't start that way).

The problems with oligarchy and plutocracy should be self-evident to anyone not in such a ruling class, and are essentially identical (most oligarchies seem to be plutocracies in actuality).  The glaring problem, obviously, is that most get no voice at all, and a few get almost unlimited voice; it adds insult to injury when the only qualifying factor for those with a voice is the amount of resources they or their family have managed to horde.  It should be obvious to anyone who knows me at all that I don't support "governance" of this type.

Capitalism

The problem with capitalism is that it promotes the very opposite of charity, of caring about one's fellow man.  It's truly ironic and disturbing how many people who identify themselves as Christians also strongly promote capitalism, as Jesus' teachings were completely at odds with its basic principles (he was really more of a communist).  Capitalism isn't a form of government, but rather an economic policy.  Perhaps it would work acceptably without abstractions like markets (e.g. stock markets, where nothing tangible is exchanged, not places to purchase actual goods/services, whether physical or virtual) and money; however, these abstractions ultimately allow amoral sociopaths to do things like completely wreck the economy (thanks so much for that, Wall Street et al).  I don't even like money (it too easily becomes an end rather than a means to an end, and disconnects one from the actual means of one's living), so I'm not a fan of capitalism in general.

Communism

The problem with communism is that it places excessive trust in one's peers, a trust that isn't viable beyond a certain population level.  It works in kibbutzes, but cannot be extended to a national level.  It works as an economic philosophy at a small scale, but not as a political framework; it degenerates into oppressive oligarchies or autarchies as we've seen historically in eastern Europe and to this day in China and N. Korea.  Within a small community, communism can work (this has been deomonstrated in the aforementioned kibbutzes), but I can't condone trying to apply it to a larger population as it only works when everyone participates fully.

Socialism

The problem with socialism is excessive faith and trust in the State.  Sometimes it works reasonably well (e.g. Scandanavia), though it tends to do so in small, culturally-homogenous nations.  Other times it degenerates into oppressive manifestations; remember, the Nazis were self-labeled socialists.  The embedded notion of resource sharing appeals to me, but the excessive State and the implications of marginalization for those who disagree with it ruin it for me.

Democracy

Democracy, when practiced in good faith (note: the US does not practice it in good faith), gives a voice to all.  The problem is that it still ends up with one (possibly only marginally) larger group of people forcing decisions on one or more smaller groups of people (who collectively may represent a majority themselves).  In the US there is also the problem of lack of informed voters (often misinformed voters, misguided by various propagandas from every side, and lulled into laziness by sensory overload), which often ends in what amounts to messy, lowest-common-denominator, group-think/mob-rule solutions with which almost nobody is actually happy.  While perhaps better than the other alternatives above, it still leaves a lot to be desired, and still, even in the best of situations, leaves many at the mercy of the most common opinion without regard to whether that opinion is just.

Parting Thoughts

Regardless of the face it takes, the State, that grand but flawed theory that acceptable consent can be found amongst very large groups of people, always ends up doing disservice to significant portions of those whom it claims to represent and serve.

I am an anarchist.  This does not mean I favor violence and chaos, but rather decentralized, non-hierarchical, community-based decision processes founded on informed consent and respect for individual sovereignty and community autonomy.  Like communism, it requires all members to work together in good faith in order for progress to happen (and some interesting ideas have been fielded about community-driven, rather than State-driven, mechanisms to ensure such participation).

We are one world, one people, and always were; it's just become more obvious now that it's harder to ignore each other.  If we do not soon learn to work together (in whatever form or framework) without marginalizing each other, we will surely tear ourselves and our world apart.