Get Schwifty

me: ok

me:

Some things you can’t do alone, Bruce.

I think we are using anarchy as it was originally intended. From the ancient greek anarchia. It literally means “without an archon”. Without rulers, leaders, authority. It did not in any way mean the absence of order or law.

The only reason anarchy became synonymous to chaos and lawlessness is because elites and intellectuals that highly favored the existence of large states and deference to authority loudly trumpeted the merits of their system in opposition to anarchy (statelessness, society without rulers) which they began to smear and characterize as disorder and chaos in order to promote their cause.

Diogenes of Sinope, Crates of Thebes and especially Zeno of Citium advocated for forms of organizing society without state structures.

Meanwhile philosophers like Plato envisioned an utopia with an all powerful state whose existence was absolutely necessary for the application of law. A society ruled by philosopher-kings that are in no way accountable to the public.

Considering these two sides and the fact that philosophers like Plato were much more popular and useful for later intellectuals to justify the existence of their rulers and states, it’s probably a given that anarchy was repeatedly painted as a bad thing until it became synonymous with chaos.