This comic is from PartiallyClips.com, which hosts Partially Clips, which is much funnier than Cliptoons (which is kind of like a one-panelled version of the former), but they're longer and wouldn't fit in the blog. Anyways, you should definitely read some of the Partially Clips comics (here are two of my favorites)

Internet Firms to Defend Policies

I saw this article in the Washington Post (click on the title for the link) the other day and it interested me. Here's the first paragraph:

"Yahoo Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. will go on Capitol Hill today to defend corporate policies for dealing with China that they say balance business interests with human-rights concerns."

With an opening paragraph like this, you know something evil is brewing (in complete disregard for Google's famed slogan of "Don't be Evil", which, btw, seems to indicate that they set the bar pretty low). It should be pretty obvious that business interests are far more important to these companies than those pesky human-rights concerns. So far it seems like these companies aren't going so far as to murder union leaders, but helping authoritarian and repressive governents repress people is really not a road most morally sound human beings want to travel down.

Apparently, the arguement is that since they're operating there, they have to cooperate with the country's laws, they're actually benefitting the people of China by being there, and they didn't even know what China was going to do with the information. So they're saying that not only do they have to do it, but they are also doing a great service to the citizens of China by disregarding human rights, although they weren't aware that they were doing it. I think it may have more to do with China's wopping 1.3 billion person population and drastically growing market. You can call me cynical, but I was under the impression that money was important to corporations.

Questions on Anarchism

This is a response to aditya's comment on my most recent article.

First of all, I'd like to say that it's great to be able to talk with intelligent reasonable people about anarchism, because it's pretty much impossible to develop an understanding of something without debate. I'm also starting to realize that, although anarchism has been around as a coherent philosophy for over a century, there are still lots of holes that need to be filled in. So in some ways I feel like I'm actually treading new ground in some of my discussions, and in that context, dissenting opinions are almost essential.

With regard to your questions, I've tried to address them as thoroughly as possible. However, like I said, some of these ideas are actually not very developed within the school of anarchist thought (at least as far as I know), so I'll mostly be drawing from my own interpretations. Not to be said that there are no ideas, just that the majority of anarchists (including myself) aren't actually that familiar with the ideas of 19th century anarchists, and even if they were, they would probably be relatively outdated. Secondly, anarchists differ drastically in their beliefs about the nature of humans and the particular applications in human society. So I really can't represent the actually opinions of all or even most anarchists.

There are quite a few schools of thought that deal with the economics of potential anarchist societies. In fact, the anarcho-capitalists have no problem with capitalism (as long as it's completely unregulated), as the name implies. However, I won't be discussing their beliefs, since the right wing anarchists are pretty much just insane (I mean, nobody in their right mind actually thinks privatizing the police is a good idea). In terms of productivity, it's kind of subjective. For example, a certain economy can produce quite a bit, but if the products aren't supplied to the people who need them, the productivity is really useless. I know that's a simplistic interpretation of economics, but a more complex analysis would require a much longer essay, and I would probably need to know quite a bit more about economics. In fact, although I've only taken one class on econ, I imagine that there probably aren't that many classes that deal with "productivity" in ways that actually take into account helping out people. I could be wrong.

However, like you said, if society was structured in the way that you suggested was the natural result of anarchy, then it would be completely impossible to be as productive as our current economic system. The problem is that in order to create the right kinds and amounts of products, you need massive coordination. Small, isolated groups can't create in bulk, and even if they were able to, they couldn't very well figure out what would be best for everything without constant and aggressive communication with the rest of the world. In fact, the highly coordinated Soviet Union was much better off economically before it underwent massive liberalization in the 80s. As much as I disagree with the centralized character of that particular atrocity, the fact is, some of the economics were sound, for precisely the reasons I've been discussing. But I've gotten ahead of myself; I'll get more into the proposed material structures of anarchy later on. Either way, I'd be interested in reading the book you suggested to get a better view of the whole matter (wikipedia didn't really give me much information).

If you want to know more about specific economic policies that different types of anarchists propose, wikipedia has a pretty good introduction here. There are georgist anarchists, anarcho-syndicalists, anarcho-communists, individualist anarchists, and more. Although I can't reasonably talk about the efficiency of each of these economic models, the links might explain a little about their aims (also, this link about participatory economics might be of interest; although it is not explicitly anarchism, it's definitely very compatible with it).

I tend to attribute the function of any given society to the economic, political and social structure more than to the motivations of the individuals within it. However, technically motivations are a subset of the social structure of a society, and I'll leave it to you to assume how large of a subset it is. Anyways, if the main motivations of capitalists is "a moralistic obsession with hard work and 'deserving what you get'" then the corresponding motivation for anarchists would be "a strong sense of self-determination coupled with a desire for solidarity and cooperation". That's a little vague and probably sounds a little too lofty for the average human being to follow, but I don't really see how the same argument can't be made for the capitalist motivations (at least if you asked a disinterested third-party observer).

There are almost as many different ideas about the political and social organization of anarchism societies as there are about economics. The two most notable that come to mind are primitivism, federalism, and regionalism. There's a pretty good description of the latter two here (and if you really want to get an in-depth knowledge, a lot of the books cited, especially Proudhon's, should be illuminating). Now, these approaches for the most part confirm your suspicion in some ways. Primitivism, which I actually have spent a good deal of time researching before I thoroughly rejected it (for reasons which I don't really need to go over), is pretty much exactly what you're describing, and regionalism is not too different. My interpretation is that the breaking down of society into affinity groups does not literally mean the destruction of urban areas and the establishment of hundreds of millions of tiny 12-person communes around the world. I see it as more of an administrative and economic partitioning. The biggest structural changes I foresee are the workers taking control of the workplaces, and more specifically the factories (although I know the US is post-industrial and more of a service economy, but we're talking globally here), which hopefully will avoid the capitalist oppression of most of the west and the government-controlled mess of the USSR and other "communist" countries. It will also hopefully avoid the need for the tiny sectarian communes you're so worried about (again, sorry for the simplistic analysis). As for the politic changes I can't even attempt to do a basic explanation. However, this guy can:

"Solicit men's view in the mass, and they will return stupid, fickle and violent answers; solicit their views as members of definite groups with real solidarity and a distinctive character, and their answers will be responsible and wise. Expose them to the political 'language' of mass democracy, which represents 'the people' as unitary and undivided and minorities as traitors, and they will give birth to tyranny; expose them to the political language of federalism, in which the people figures as a diversified aggregate of real associations, and they will resist tyranny to the end."

It's a nice little quote. Now I can't really go into more detail because I literally haven't managed to find anything more detailed than the sweeping generalizations our the anarchist "founding fathers". Now I personal think the reason for this absence is not do to internal inconsistencies within anarchism, but rather due to a complete rejection for what you call "ideological authoritarianism". Although this a very sound policy in my eyes, it ironically causes one of the two most serious problems facing modern anarchist movements, both of which will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

The irony of this ideological libertarianism is that in this case it leads to striking similarities with what might be the most egregious form of absolutism that exists: Christianity. By rejecting the idea that we can accurately describe what a state of anarchy would be like, we are inadvertently attributing a certain magical quality to it. The language of anarchists is one that appeals to pretty much all human beings (in fact, some of the language we use was cleverly exploited by the founding fathers of the USA, and is still used today as gross caricatures of freedom and justice), but due to our natural hesitancy to arrogantly dictate the conditions for anarchy, we are left simply with the rhetoric. In this form, anarchy is indistinguishable from the Christian idea of heaven (although perhaps slightly more concrete).

The second problem with anarchism as it currently exists, happens to bring the similarity with Christianity even closer. This lies in the complete reject of the current society, and one-minded focus on the One Big Revolution. This idea draws from the very worse streams of Marxist vanguardism that should make any self-respecting anarchist sick. The idea of one momentous shift in world politics leading to the "heaven" that is anarchy seems like was plucked straight out of the book of revelations. The analogy is so obvious, that I almost don't need to spell it out. In some ways, the anarchists are waiting for the rapture. Of course, I would argue that we are not nearly as far gone as the Christians, but it is still a problem that needs to be addressed.

I've very worried about the similarities between some aspects of anarchism and Christianity not simply because I hate Christianity and everything that has to do with it, but because of serious implications on the present and future of the movement. The vagueness of the predictions for a future society and the idle preparation for its coming can cause serious atrophy in the theoretical and practical foundations of the movement, respectively. However, I am confident that, although these problems are very serious, they are not so fundamentally ingrained in the movement that it is impossible to overcome. Anyways, this stuff is really only interesting to anarchists probably, so I'll get back to the issue at hand.

And the issue at hand is...

Human Nature.

Anarchists have had an interesting relationship with human nature, as is expected for any radical philosophy, or really any philosophy (but I believe that any real philosophy should be radical). I'm not exactly sure if there's a consensus among anarchists about human nature (there rarely is) but I personally agree with your conception of it. It is impossible to say exactly what it is, because in order to do so, you would need to examine man in a completely natural state; a state that does not in fact exist. The only way you can reasonably talk "human nature" is be describing/predicting the way human beings respond to a certain situation. I think most people would agree that the same person will react drastically differently depending on the situation they finds themself in. I think one of the aims of political philosophy is to determine what organization of society is such that it creates the best situation for the most amount of people to act right. If I were to phrase it more broadly (which I won't) the resulting generalization would probably be the only aim of political philosophy.

I'm not confident to definitively say what situation is most conducive to causing good behavior, but I don't think it's a capitalistic one and I don't think it's an authoritarian one. That's more or less why I'm an anarchist. I believe that direct action, not appeal to a higher power, is the most effective way to accomplish your goals. Of course, just because you're not submitting to authority, that doesn't mean that you're not cooperating. On the contrary, horizontal associations induce cooperation, rather than inhibit them. If you are on the same level as someone else, and you have similar interests (as people in similar situations are wont to do) then you're likely to work with your equals to accomplish similar goals. Anyways, it appears that I'm saying this with certainty simply because the text flows more easily: I do not mean to imply that I am 100 percent sure about any of this. Furthermore, I apologize for the trillionth time for being overly simplistic. For a more detailed account of the practice of modern anarchist societies, find about any book on the Spanish Revolution that has an overtly anarchist viewpoint.

Finally, on the current turmoil in Africa, I don't think I know enough to address that issue directly. I also would like to note that the mainstream accepted meaning for anarchy doesn't not have anything to do with the tenets of anarchism or the society that anarchists predict. The phrase you're probably looking for is "violent anomie" which is really actually a pretty good descriptor of places other than those in Africa, such as the U.S.A (each of the letters in USA has a link to a different symptom of our particular case of anomie).

On the subject of transition to anarchic societies, I would also like to direct you to the Spanish Revolution. It was by no means a complete transition, but there are reasons to believe had the fascists not been around, and the communists didn't meddle, it would have gone through and it would have been a relatively peaceful revolution. But that's just speculation. The current goal of anarchists with regards to an ultimate revolution is creating the foundations of the "new society" in isolated pockets with the current one. If enough people in this country internalized anarchist ideas (or at the very least semi-anarchist practices such as direct action, voter abstention, cooperation, self-determination, worker-controlled companies etc...) then a violent revolution would not be necessary. The history of the world has had a few non-violent revolutions, so there's some sort of precedent for this type of thing. Ultimately, if enough people support an overthrow of the government, the powers-that-be have no choice but to concede. In that situation, the only thing that could lead to violence is the government having too strong of a desire, and the only country that could possible succeed in squashing a popular uprising is the USA (what with the billions of dollars being spent in the military yearly). Either way, I think truly anarchist society can not possibly come out of violence. If you would like a more detailed analysis of why, I can give it to you, but right now I'm really tired of typing.

My Great Endeavor

I've seen a lot of anarchist texts that address anarchism from an insider's perspective; they have a great appeal to anarchists (and non-anarchist radicals) who are looking to expand their knowledge of the obscure political philosophy of anarchism, however an important demographic is left out in most of these texts: namely the majority of mankind. Very few of the essays, articles, and books on anarchism that I have read provide a simple, illuminating look at anarchism that can be readily understood by non-radicals. The few that I have managed to come across have been hopelessly outdated. The time has come for a tract that appeals to the unfocused disillusionment of the masses and helps people direct their frustration towards useful and sustainable action. Not to be said that it should only appeal to people who are in some ways critical of the system. On the contrary, the bulk of this essay will be focused for the most part on people who are steadfastly devoted to life-long service of the status quo (particularly the more liberal democrats).

I’m going to try to write a longer piece that will hopefully accomplish the aforementioned task, but I’m not a very disciplined writer, so chances are I won’t succeed. However, I will most likely be able to write enough for at least a few cohesive posts. I was going to ask Zeeshan to help me write some of this, but at this point I pretty much consider him to be a lost cause. So it appears that I will be entering this ultimately doomed endeavor alone.

The first “chapter” will deal with the question of why people cling to mainstream politics, and what exactly they think they’re doing by participating in the spectacle of government. I’ve just started writing it, so it will be a while before I post it, but it should be pretty sweet. I imagine that it will provide the most appeal to most people, especially those who don’t give a rat’s ass about Anarchism, and have no interest in learning about it.

On a final note, I’d like to remark on the inspiration for this whole enterprise. For the first time in the history of the philosophical talks I have with my dad over dinner, he actually brought up the topic of anarchism of his own volition. We talked about it for the next hour or so, and for the first time in my life I was able to argue with someone who was actually capable of stringing two coherent thoughts together on the topic of anarchism (not including the anarchists I have argued with). The trick was that, although he didn’t know that much about anarchism, he was a great arguer and also knew a great deal about political philosophy (it may also be because he‘s not a moron, unlike the bulk of people who I talk with about politics). Although the main points he was making were ones that I have heard time and time before, he was actually capable of forming them in articulate and logical ways, and I was really able to elucidate my views on the matter. It really helped me not only understand exactly what I thought about the matter and expand my knowledge of a practical anarchist society, but gave me the tools to argue more comprehensibly on the topic with people who don’t really know what they’re talking about (as well as the people who seem to have some sort of clue).

The New Anti-Semitism

So I've been reading the wikipedia article on "the new anti-Semitism" which is apparently strongly associated with left-wing groups and anti-Zionism. Some people have actually gone so far as to say that any form of anti-Zonism is synonomous with anti-Semitism (one report by the State Department even bizarrely characterized critics of US foreign policy and globalization as anti-semitic). However, the less insane Zionists contend that anti-Zionism can lead to anti-Semitism (though they don't really seem to indicate how this happens) or is a kind of a front for anti-Semitic sentiment. Clearly some of the people involved in leftist politics - and in particular opposition to the state of apartheid in Israel - hold anti-semitic beliefs, but it's really hard to tell how serious of a problem this is. Since the issue of Israel is very politically charged, and anti-Semitism has been (and still is) a very serious problem throughout the world, it is difficult to sift through all the rhetoric to get to the heart of the matter. However, one thing is very clear: someone's views about the state of Israel should not be delegitimized simply because they are in fact anti-Semitic. Anti-imperialism and anti-Jewish sentiment are two distinct issues, and it's almost never appropriate to attack someone's character in the context of a political debate. Secondly, the legitimacy of the accusations seem somewhat suspect. Thomas Friedman (who I've recently learned is pretty much pure evil) says that "Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vile. But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction — out of proportion to any other party in the Middle East — is anti-Semitic, and not saying so is dishonest." While the far Left does have trouble examining all the injustices in the world, it is psychotic to assume that focus on Israel is due to anti-Semitism. Using that logic, my criticism of the US stems not from a reasoned analysis of global and domestic politics and a passion for justice, but a virulent hatred for all American citizens (sadly, I'm sure a lot of people might agree with that assesment). And furthermore, when people condemn the terrorist activities of some Palestinians but not the terrorist activities of other groups (including *gasp* The USA), are they being islamophobic? Israel's relationship with the US, along with it's strategic presence in the Middle East and its "interesting" attitude towards the Palestinian problem are some of the many reasons that the Left (maybe innapropriately) focuses on it as a target. Again, there are legitimate critiques to be made about the Left's choices of entities to denounce, but racism is not one of them. That doesn't mean that discussion of possible anti-Semitism within the movement (or any other movement) shouldn't occur, just that as they stand now, they are unreasonable and most likely an attack on criticism of Israel instead of a pure objection to bigotry.

NCOR 2006

So I just returned from the National Coalition of Organized Resistance (click on the header to see the webpage) and it was fucking sweet. There were hundreds of anarchists roaming around the campus of American University this weekend. Along with a ridiculous amount of tid bits about activism and anarchism, I also learned that apparently Sidwell is a radical training ground. Including me and Zeeshan, there were five kids from Sidwell at the conference, including one from our grade. We saw Cat Dawson, Ben Hartman and Tom Frampton (apparently he's part of a radical folk collective; the music's pretty fucking good and you can download it all on the webpage). Zeeshan and I hung up with Ben extensively during the weekend, and we briefly talking to Cat, but did manage to talk to Tom. Anyways, I don't have anything substantive to say, but it was just so refreshing to be with such a large group of people with virtually identical political beliefs to myself. Not that I don't like intellectual diversity, it's just that it's rare for me to be around even two or three people who could even stand to listen to me talking politics. The highlights of the weekend were the Pacifism and Anarchism lecture by Coleman McCarthy, the Against Apocalyptic Anarchism workshop (Zeeshan missed it; the bitch) and the Weatherman workshop in which two former members of the Weather Underground spoke (Bernadine Dohrn and Laura Whitehorn). I felt like a complete political novice (both intellectually and with regard to activism) so it was kind of despressing, but it the potential for achievement and the copious good examples were also inspiring. Alright well I have nothing more to say so I'm gonna cut this off before I start rambling too much.

Some Notable Quotes

I spent way too much time compiling and editting all these quotes. Luckily I was drunk most of the time!

Is there a God? Who knows? Is there an angry unicorn on the dark side of the moon?
- Edward Abbey

An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.
- Victor Hugo
Ninetythree

What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?
- Ursula K. LeGuin

But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
- Umberto Eco
Foucault's Pendulum

What we imagine is order is merely the prevailing form of chaos.
- Kerry Thornley
The Principia Discordia, 5th edition

All humans are hypocrites; the biggest hypocrite of all is the one who claims to detest hypocrisy.
- Peter Wastholm

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like. I have prepared one of my own. I have placed some rather large samples of dynamite, gunpowder, and nitroglycerin. My time capsule is set to go off in the year 3000. It will show them what we are really like.
- Alfred Hitchcock

If I can send the flower of the German nation into the hell of war without the smallest pity for the shedding of precious German blood, then surely I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds like vermin.
- Adolf Hitler

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
- Voltaire
War

Peter: Ok, here's another riddle. A woman has two children. A homicidal murderer tells her she can only keep one. Which one does she let him kill?
Brian: That's... that's not a riddle. That's ... that's just terrible.
Peter: Wrong, the ugly one!

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences; what others say in a whole book.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

God does not play dice with the universe: He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.
- Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Good Omens

To make and apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the Universe.
- Carl Sagan

I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.
- Albert Einstein

It's an incredible con job when you think of it, to believe something now in exchange for life after death. Even corporations with all their reward systems don't try to make it posthumous.
- Gloria Steinem

Then I saw a sign which said 'Drink Canada Dry' - so we started.
- Brendan Behan

Once you see that everything is unreal, you can't see why you should bother to prove it.
- E. M. Cioran

There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbours will say.
- Cyril Connoly

All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher.
- Anonymous

Imagine, if you will, a worldwide conspiracy to deny the existence of the color yellow and whenever you saw yellow they told you no, that isn't yellow, what the fuck's yellow? Eventually, whenever you saw yellow, you would say: that isn't yellow, course, it isnt blue or green or purple, or... you'd say it, yes it is, it's yellow, and become increasingly hysterical, and then go quite berserk.
- David Edgar
Mary Barnes

Someone from Greenpeace walked up to me the other day and started yelling 'MURDERER! MURDERER! What do you see when you see a cow grazing one of Mother Nature's beautiful green fields, what do you see!?' Now I'm a vegetarian but I just didn't like his attitude so I said 'Mate, when I see a cow I see a steak wrapped in a leather jacket.'
- Will Anderson

The tragedy of it is that nobody sees the look of desperation on my face. Thousands and thousands of us, and we're passing one another without a look of recognition.
- Henry Miller

It was Christianity which first painted the devil on the worlds walls; It was Christianity which first brought sin into the world. Belief in the cure which it offered has now been shaken to it's deepest roots; but belief in the sickness which it taught and propagated continues to exists.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Ye have locked yerselves up in cages of fear and, behold, do ye now complain that ye lack FREEDOM!
- Robert Anton Wilson
The Principia Discordia

Ye have cast out yer brothers for devils and now complain ye, lamenting, that ye've been left to fight alone.
- Robert Anton Wilson
The Principia Discordia

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.
- Thomas Paine
The Age of Reason

Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.
- Charles Bukowski

Do not fear your enemies. The worst they can do is kill you. Do not fear friends. At worst, they may betray you. Fear those who do not care; they neither kill nor betray, but betrayal and murder exists because of their silent consent.
- Bruno Jasienski
Yasensky

Hell is when there is no reason to live and no courage to die.
- William Markiewicz
Extracts of Existence

The party is not concerned with perpetuating itself. Who wields power is not important, providing that the hierarchical structure always remains the same.
- George Orwell

A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.
- George Orwell

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.
- George Orwell

He was an embittered atheist, the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him.
- George Orwell

If you have embraced a creed which appears to be free from the ordinary dirtiness of politics - a creed from which you yourself cannot expect to draw any material advantage - surely that proves that you are in the right?
- George Orwell

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
- George Orwell

It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.
- George Orwell

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.
- George Orwell

The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
- George Orwell

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.
- George Orwell

What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?
- George Orwell

The Christian view that all intercourse outside marriage is immoral was, as we see in the above passages from St. Paul, based upon the view that all sexual intercourse, even within marriage, is regrettable. A view of this sort, which goes against biological facts, can only be regarded by sane people as a morbid aberration. The fact that it is embedded in Christian ethics has made Christianity throughout its whole history a force tending towards mental disorders and unwholesome views of life.
- Bertrand Russell

Maybe this world is another planet's hell.
- Aldous Huxley

Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.
- Bertrand Russell

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The hands that help are better far than the lips that pray.
- Robert G. Ingersoll

I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great intrinsic depravity, the one great instinct for revenge for which no expedient is sufficiently poisonous, secret, subterranean, petty - I call it the one mortal blemish of mankind.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Education is the process of driving a set of prejudices down your throat.
- Martin H. Fischer

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

In heaven all the interesting people are missing.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy.
- George Bernard Shaw

Laws are only words written on paper, words that change on society's whim and are interpreted differently daily by politicians, lawyers, judges, and policemen. Anyone who believes that all laws should always be obeyed would have made a fine slave catcher. Anyone who believes that all laws are applied equally, despite race, religion, or economic status, is a fool.
- John J. Miller
And Hope to Die, in Jokertown Shuffle Wild Cards IX

Religion is the opium of the masses.
- Karl Marx

They are deceived who flatter themselves that the ignorant and debased slave has no conception of the magnitude of his wrongs. They are deceived who imagine that he arises from his knees with back lacerated and bleeding, cherishing only a spirit of meekness and forgiveness. A day may come - it will, if his prayer is heard. A terrible day of vengeance when the master in his turn will cry in vain for mercy.
- Solomon Northup

In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy.
- Fran Lebowitz

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
- John Maynard Keynes

Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse it true.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

Either god should have written a book to fit my brain, or he should have made my brain to fit his book.
- Robert G. Ingersoll

I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.
- E. M. Forster

Now, if anything at all can be known to be wrong, it seems to me to be unshakably certain that it would be wrong to make any sentient being suffer eternally for any offence whatever.
- Antony Flew
The Presumption of Atheism, God, Freedom, and Immortality

Faith is a cop-out. It is intellectual bankruptcy. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits.
- Dan Barker

Ask youself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves - or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.
- Ayn Rand

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
- Albert Einstein

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher regard those who think alike than those who think differently.
- Freidrich Nietzsche

Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.
- Toulouse-Lautrec

I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.
- Clarence Darrow

Where it is duty to worship the sun, it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat.
- John Morley

Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.
- Jean Rostand

In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.
- Karl Marx

In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality.
- Karl Marx

Religion is the opium of the masses.
- Karl Marx

Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the boot-maker.
- Mikhail Bakunin

The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.
- Mikhail Bakunin

To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.
- Mikhail Bakunin

The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.
- Karl Marx

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.
- Karl Marx

The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.
- Karl Marx

He who desires to worship God must harbor no childish illusions about the matter but bravely renounce his liberty and humanity.
- Mikhail Bakunin

The liberty of man consists solely in this: that he obeys natural laws because he has himself recognized them as such, and not because they have been externally imposed upon him by any extrinsic will whatever, divine or human, collective or individual.
- Mikhail Bakunin

People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.
- Mikhail Bakunin

In existing States a fresh law is looked upon as a remedy for evil. Instead of themselves altering what is bad, people begin by demanding a law to alter it.
- Peter Kropotkin

Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name! Every fool, from king to policeman, from the flatheaded parson to the visionless dabbler in science, presumes to speak authoritatively of human nature. The greater the mental charlatan, the more definite his insistence on the wickedness and weaknesses of human nature.
- Emma Goldman

Law never made man a whit more just; and by means of their respect for it, even the well disposed are daily made agents of injustice.
-Henry David Thereau

If we cannot by reason, by influence, by example, by strenuous effort, and by personal sacrifice, mend the bad places of civilization, we certainly cannot do it by force.
- Auberon Herbert

Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination.
- Emma Goldman

John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities?
- Emma Goldman

Perhaps it is this theory of all work and no play that has made the Marxist such a very dull boy.
- Herbert Read

We see that not only is the emperor naked--he is a murder, tyrant, brigand, liar, and bungler.
- James Harris

Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now controls the past
Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now?

Anarchism does not mean bloodshed; it does not mean robbery, arson, etc. These monstrosities are, on the contrary, the characteristic features of capitalism. Anarchism means peace and tranquility to all.
- August Spies

'What I believe' is a process rather than a finality. Finalities are for gods and governments, not for the human intellect.
- Emma Goldman

The essence of all slavery consists in taking the product of another's labor by force. It is immaterial whether this force be founded upon ownership of the slave or ownership of the money that he must get to live.
- Leo Tolstoy

Man must not check reason by tradition, but contrawise, must check tradition by reason.
- Leo Tolstoy

The great are great only because we are on our knees. Let us rise!
- Max Stirner

I do not wish to remove from my present prison to a prison a little larger. I wish to break all prisons.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Anarchists are opposed to violence; everyone knows that. The main plank of anarchism is the removal of violence from human relations. It is life based on freedom of the individual, without the intervention of the gendarme. For this reason we are the enemies of capitalism which depends on the protection of the gendarme to oblige workers to allow themselves to be exploited--or even to remain idle and go hungry when it is not in the interest of the bosses to exploit them. We are therefore enemies of the State which is the coercive violent organization of society.
- Errico Malatesta

When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.
- Dom Helder Camara, Archbishop of Recife

Workers and their families may starve to death in the New World Order of economic rationality, but diamond necklaces are cheaper in elegant New York shops, thanks to the miracle of the market.
- Noam Chomsky

In the hands of a people whose education has been willfully neglected, the ballot is a cunning swindle benefitting only the united barons of industry, trade and property.
- Daniel Guérin

Only after the last tree has been cut down,
only after the last river has been poisoned,
only after the last fish has been caught,
only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten.

Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.
- Edward Abbey

Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of the cancer cell.
- Edward Abbey

Liberal-Democracy seldom voices any arguments against anarchism as such-other than relying on prejudice-because its objections are purely authoritarian, and unmask the innate Statism and authoritarianism of liberalism.
- Albert Meltzer

In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

It is not necessary to advertise food to hungry people, fuel to cold people, or houses to the homeless.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

One of the little-celebrated powers of Presidents (and other high government officials) is to listen to their critics with just enough sympathy to ensure their silence.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

Talk of revolution is one of avoiding reality.
- John Kenneth Galbraith

The salary of the chief executive of a large corporation is not a market award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself.
- John Kenneth Galbraith