Anarchism: It’s not what you think it is
When the term’ anarchist is mentioned, what’s the first image that pops into your head? Perhaps it’s a young person, their face concealed by a black scarf, hurling a Molotov cocktail at the police. This common perception often leads to a dismissal of anarchism as a whole, but is it really accurate?
As Chomsky points out, a vast majority of people dismiss it as “utopian, formless, primitive or otherwise incompatible with the realities of a complex society.”
Now reading this, you have two options. Just stick with the majority opinion, or actually find out what anarchism is really about. If you pick option 2, this is for you.
What is anarchism?
One challenge with anarchism is that no definition of it would be agreed upon by everyone. It unifies various flavors of the same philosophy under one term. Going by the linguistic roots, it’s a combination of the Greek an + arkhe, meaning without rules. That, however, is simplistic at best. Rudolf Rocker defines anarchism as:
“A definite trend in the historical development of mankind, which, in contrast with the intellectual guardianship of all clerical and governmental institutions, strives for the free, unhindered unfolding of all the individual and social forces in life.” — Rudolf Rocker
The last piece already indicates that anarchism does have a constructive perspective. Sure, rejecting the state is a core fundamental and explains the appeal to university students in their rebellious years, but it’s not all there is.
Moreover, most don’t even ask what exactly anarchists reject when they reject the state but assume they must oppose all social organizations. They don’t. The state is rejected as the “professional apparatus of people who are set aside to manage society, to preempt the control of society from the people” (Bookchin). Consequently, anarchists reject the state not because of its function but because it prevents the people who are affected by decisions from having a say in them.
It’s not even like anarchists reject the idea of collective action. Chances are, no anarchist in their right mind will oppose labor unions. Nor will they reject the idea that in a society, you might, at times, need ways to address individual acts’ of violence.
What they do question, though, is if the state is the best to exercise such a power. And questioning the status quo is something we should be accustomed to in crypto. After all, it’s the reason Bitcoin started in the first place.
What is it, if not a big question thrown at the current financial system wondering why we’d have to rely on a system that’ll use our funds to bail out big institutions, that’ll inflate our purchasing power away, and asks us to strip ourselves naked whenever we want to borrow funds?
One more thing, before getting into what we can learn from it, anarchism exists in two big distinctions:
- social: a stateless form of socialism, a form of society that balances individual initiative with collective action and puts decision-making in the hands of those in a group and not into those of “representatives”
- individual: that’s maybe the type most associate with the term, anarchism, where each individual pursues their own desires at will.
Social anarchism, in particular, leans very heavily toward what many in the governance space are trying to accomplish: Direct democracy in which initiatives can rise from the below and attain maximum solidarity instead of being pushed upon people.
Ah, and before I forget, the reason why people have one image in mind when anarchism seems rather reasonable as a theory is that there is a huge gap between how people choose to exercise their idea of anarchism and the actual philosophical theory.
Next time you see someone vandalizing, claiming to be an anarchist, ask them if they are also a socialist. It could be a fun conversation. The correct answer should be a resounding yes, but not all socialists are anarchists, so beware.
Crypto meets Anarchism
- Questioning existing power structures ✔️
- Empowering individuals to make their own decisions ✔️
- Advocating for freedom ✔️
Crypto and Anarchism have quite a few aspirations in common. Unsurprisingly, in the 1960s, when crypto was still used to refer to cryptography only, this gave birth to Crypto Anarchy.
Crypto anarchists used cryptography to achieve freedom and privacy. They dreamed of creating a society where individuals could interact without intermediaries while protecting their information. Sounds familiar? That’s the most positive version of the Web that blockchain enthusiasts are propagating.
Unfortunately, though, we’re still far off from that, potentially also because we’ve forgotten some of the constructive thoughts from anarchism. As so often when creating a playground that’s open to anyone, nefarious actors are never far from using it for their sake. We’ve seen this play out in crypto broadly and in NEAR when, during the short-lived memecoin hype, some of them rugged.
An important distinction anarchism makes is that there is no complete freedom. An anarchy is simply the absence of governments and coercive establishments. Still, anarchists advocate collective action and organizations that people can enter and exit as they wish.
That’s something we can learn from anarchists. Currently, in crypto, the reaction to yet another bad thing happening is normally:
It’s time we figure out the social layer and request accountability because the freedom to transact and exploit should not mean freedom from consequences.
Ultimately, what applies to anonymous internet groups will also apply to the crypto space. Their future “will depend on the strength of their communities and their ability to educate others about their ideals and values.” (Faster Capital)
Written by Near Intern / @NEAR_intern
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