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"No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker." - Mikhail Bakunin

Hey Andy

I just did my first blog ever I hope you like it. Sorry I haven't been here much. We lost some family member recently and one was very tragic and sudden.

Anyways, I'm back and feeling better. I hope to do many more in the future. I'll be watching for responses because I'm such an ego manic.
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\" Every great change must expect opposition because it shakes the very foundation of privilege. \" - Lucretia Mott

Hi,
I believe that we are all born anarchists but by social conditioning and the education system we are taught to respect authority and attempt to climb up the ladder, and so the status quo persists. The real problem is how to break out of that circle and how do we get the kids to grow up as free thinking individuals while the state education system is still churning out job seekers.
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ann arky

Excellent points, welcome to the site.

-Andy
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"No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker." - Mikhail Bakunin

hallo!!! i'm dover... when i spotted this link on openarena forums i figured i'd run by and join... what with me and my ideological appreciation for all things anarchy... hey, what can i say, there are really, and truly, no actual rules, ever. they are only threats, and most of them empty... urk. i'd like to contribute what i can... esp if it helps me get the satisfaction of knowing i'm involved in what i believe in... so do you guys host stuff or what... cause.... i got software... you can haves it for the downloads section... to take some of the weight off the guy who hosts me right now, and to get it out there to the peoples that want it... i am a fairly active member over at kvraudio and i'm involved in some other forums around, but generally i go broke and homeless quite often... oh yeah, and what up ohio!!! i have lived a bit in Xenia, quite a little out of the on the way place, yeah... gummo whatup.. i don't know if i know anybody over in warren, but if i'm ever around there again, we can kick it and have a faygo, or whatever...
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type \"doveraudio\" into google.

Hi dover, welcome to the site.

Yeah, if you need hosting for anything let me know. You might even be able to add it yourself through the downloads section, though it's only had limited testing.

I've been getting more in to free software development myself. Over the past few days I've been working on basically a front-end for MagpieRSS. It pulls in RSS feeds, writes them to a database, and retrieves them for display. (An early test version generates the headlines under "The Latest" on the home page.) Hoping to have an alpha release very soon, maybe today or tomorrow.
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"No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker." - Mikhail Bakunin

Hellllllooooo, My name is Phil.

I am 19 years old and I live in central California. I am a writer and I am currently writing a book called "Anarchology: Our Endless Struggle". I have been studying Anarchism for about 5 years now so needless to say I am a very political person. I am a full time student.

I started something called "Anarchist Community" that is a bit like this website ( www.anarchistcommunity.tk ( subject to change url ) ) but a bit different in the sense its supposed to be the backbone to a movement, with all the e-ganstas and "Anarcho-Chaotics" online its a bit difficult, but im dedicated. I started a local Collective recently called ACC ( Anarchist Community Collective ).

When it comes to my political belief I am infact an Anarchist, but only an Anarchist, I do not concider myself to be part of any of the many branches of anarchism because I support them all.

I am ALWAYS up for political debate with anyone anytime, as long as it can stay mature, I love debates but I dispise arguments.
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" We must not fight with fire in our hands, but with fire in our hearts "

Hi Phil, welcome to the site.

I've probably been in to anarchism for about 4 or 5 years or so myself.

Looks like a pretty cool site.


I generally agree with you. I'm interested in different ideas that might be considered anarchist to some degree, anarcho-syndicalism, zapatistan democracy, council-communism... I don't necessarily subscribe to any particular method completely, I think people often tend to get so caught up in one particular method they might miss the point entirely and end up yet another rigid ideologue. Humanity is complex and ever-changing, and no static formula has all the answers. An idea expressed by Noam Chomsky, Mikhail Bakunin (my signature), and Bruce Lee in some form or another.

I tend to think of anarchism as a libertarian-socialist spectrum of ideas. A dynamic ideology of mass liberation.

Now I'm gonna rant here for a bit, nothing personal. I'm also an aspiring writer, and might use some of this in a future blog post...

I personally though, don't think very much of so-called "anarcho-capitalism." I find it to be an extreme, right-wing, elitist perversion of anarchist ideas, born of western entitlement, and contrary to the humanistic ideals that are the root of anarchism.

I believe in practice, if it could exist, it would be a form of economic fascism that would greatly privilege the few at ruinous cost to the many. Something like an even more extreme form of neoliberalism, both of which are essentially off-shoots of what is often called, "Chicago School Economics." Proponents of which include Milton Friedman and Murray Rothbard.

As Chomsky has pointed out, the countries that have followed the neoliberal rules have done horribly, and the countries that have violated the neoliberal rules have prospered. Here is an excerpt from "What We Say Goes," by Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian:

The rigorous application of neoliberal rules typically requires dictatorship, because the people don't like them. The most rigorous application was in Chile after the Pinochet coup in 1973. That's when economists from the University of Chicago became involved. They could do anything they wanted. The country was under the rule of a vicious police state, so nobody could object. By 1982, under the influence of the "Chicago Boys," Chile suffered probably the worst collapse of its history. The government had to step in and bail out virtually the whole of private industry and the banks. (Does this sound familiar? -Andy) In fact, Chileans called this "the Chicago road to socialism." The state ended up owning more of the economy under Pinochet than it had under Salvador Allende. That was the great neoliberal experiment. Finally, the military itself couldn't handle the situation anymore and turned it back over to the civilians. And Chile slowly recovered with a mixed economy of a complex sort. It's called a "free-market miracle," but in fact the economy relies very heavily on a nationalized copper company, Codelco, which was originally nationalized by Allende. Pinochet didn't dare privatize it. Codelco is very efficient, apparently, and is the biggest copper producer in the world. It also provides far more revenues to the state than the private companies, subsidizing social programs and other expenses. So if copper prices go up, Chile does fine. And in other ways, the economy is somewhat liberated from the orthodox prescriptions that had devastated it.
The same is true in neighboring Argentina, which rigorously followed IMF rules-that means treasury department rules, the ones that Thomas Friedman extols-and created a total catastrophe. Finally, Nestor Kirchner was elected. He radically violated IMF rules, and there was a significant recovery. Argentinians are now ridding themselves of the IMF, thanks in part to the fact that Venezuela helped them buy out their debt.
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In fact, the United States doesn't follow the rules it imposes on others. During the last 25 years, to the extent that there has been a limited imposition of neoliberalism in the United States, it's been the worst prolonged period in U.S. economic history. In a period of twenty-five years with no wars and no major recessions, real wages have stagnated for the majority of the population. When did that last happen? It's true that the economy has been great for Thomas Friedman and his friends-and for people like me, people in our income bracket. For the top half of one percent of the population, it's just magnificent. You can call it a golden age, if you like. But that's certainly not true for most of the population.

I like to debate, sometimes, or argue. Debate and argue are synonymous actually. An argument doesn't necessarily have to degenerate to name-calling, though. Which is what I think you are getting at.

-Andy
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"No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker." - Mikhail Bakunin

Haldo everybody

My name is Robert Miller. Im 15 years old. I live in Dublin in Ireland but I will be moving to London inn the summer.

I have been interested in politics and social justice and what not for about a year and a half. My interests mostly started with the anti-war movement and ending poverty. Since about the end of the summer in 2008 I started searching for a system that would fit into all of things that I see as moral - equality for everyone, lack of domination, all that jazz - and that was what led me to anarchism.

My morals were always very anarchist inspired, I just never knew it. I first found out about anarchism through reading Noam Chomsky. I had also misperceived anarchism as no structure but I started reading his criticisms of our current world and when I found out he was an anarchist I realized that it must be something more than what I thought because he is so intelligent. So I got the book "Chomsky on Anarchism" and thats how I got into it.

I believe that the ultimate goal of any society should be to empower all the people to be happy. Everything else should be leading to that end and if it isn't then it's not in the interest of anyone.
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Peace and love. Robert Miller

Hi Robert

Great that you've got an early start, I didn't really start to follow politics until I was in my early 20s. (I'm 28 now)

Other than that though my experience is similar to yours. (I wrote a bit about it in the first post of this thread.) I was introduced to anarchism through Noam Chomsky's work also.

-Andy
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"No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker." - Mikhail Bakunin

My name is Damion a.k.a. Nightmare
My main interest is explosives, I love to experiment with different chemicals to see if I can get a nice boom. I don't want anyone to get me wrong at all, I wish no harm upon any member of this earth, I believe that all can be shown the error of their ways. By the way, I am actually 17, I don't know what I was thinking when I make my profile, must have hit the wrong key. Anyway, I am not exactly in the best graces with most of the staff at the school I go to, they all believe that they are in control of me, and if you show one sign of stepping out of line, they will go berserk. That's about it for me.
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Let flame fall from the skies, and all will know our fury

Hi Damion, welcome to the site!

I hate to impose, but I have to ask that you not use this site for spreading knowledge of explosives. If you are familiar with the case of Sherman Austin, then you know that that was the excuse they used to raid his home, confiscate his computer equipment, throw him in jail, and prohibit him from using computers.

If you aren't familiar, Sherman Austin is an anarchist webmaster, and someone put information related to bomb making on his site. If you search our news archive, we've covered the story.

Needless to say, if we want this site to exist, it's probably not in our interest to give authorities any excuse or attract any negative attention. I hope you understand.

That aside, I hope you find this place a useful and informative place to exchange ideas.

-Andy (personman)
AnarchismToday.org
andy @ anarchismtoday.org
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"No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker." - Mikhail Bakunin

click here for more information
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0

Greetings, I am hexyss. To state that I am an Anarchist and leave it at that would be dishonest to myself and you. There are many degrees of being anarchist, ask 50 people to define a label and you will find 50 different churches. I trust there will be some excellent opportunities to discuss this concept and other topics with you, my fellows, here. You will get to know me as my expression of anarchism is expounded in the future. Until we meet again.
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“The difference between capitalism and communism is that with capitalism, man exploits man, whereas with communism it\'s the other way around.”—Anon.

Hi hexyss,

I very much agree that stating "I am an anarchist" is a bit of an over-simplification. The term is a bit subjective. However, of the various "isms" out there, Anarchism is the one I identify with most strongly.

I'm not JUST an anarchist, I'm a lot of things, but an anarchist is one of them. I think though, that even classic anarchism recognizes that any single "ism" is not the answer to all problems, like in my signature for example.



Welcome to the site!

-Andy
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"No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker." - Mikhail Bakunin