What Does it mean to be Anarchist?

First thing that stands out to me is the no rules thing.
Anarchy isn't no rules, literally it's the absence of a centralised leadership and anomie is the absence of rules. But I'm badly hung over, so I could be off a bit.

 

Anarchy is Democracy that works...

 

Im sure there are plenty of others here that could explain this better than me but I'd say we are simply fighting to be free. As for the type of revolution, well there's some debate to that so i can't give you a straight answer, but you will find that few of us (if any) want a direct conflict with the state and all of its many gleaming guns and bombs, direct action is very much supported however. Rathryn already said it but anarchy doesn't necessarily mean no rules just no government (or perhaps i should say hierarchy?) as for how can it be a good thing, think about your daily life and all the bullshit you have to deal with from day to day, try to think about how many of your troubles are caused by coercion, Im sorry if this is a little vague but i think this is something you should be forming your own opinion on (and i admit part of the lack of explanation is due to my horrible ability to botch up explanations) so for more self questioning please click on the following link! http://zinelibrary.info/files/firetotheprisons2.pdf

Well i think that's pretty interchangeable there, given all the different types of Anarchy you could just as easily say "Anarchy is Communism that works..."

 

i believe anarchism is direct action torwards distruction of an immoral or inhumane system

 

To my own personal understanding, in a world much too immature to be able to accept an anarchist state, it is your own sense of breaking free from social standards and doing what feels right to you, setting your own morals, rather than following a cultural or religious set of "moral laws" that you must follow. It is to be a human being and not carry the cultural title of "person" but realize that in being a human, you, too, are an animal with natural needs suppressed with the label "wrong" or "Immoral" Being an anarchist, even if you don't directly call yourself an anarchist, you have set yourself free and given yourself the ability to do such things.

When all the people in the world decide to grow-the-fuck-up and realize that war is a sorry excuse to gain money or oil with consequences of the deaths of thousands of human beings for all the wrong reasons, and that even the president's shit stinks too, and he's no better than the rest of us, asking themselves, "Why the hell is there JUST another human being in an office, having all this power over us, with his minions (congress, parliament, etc), thinking that they are better than us and know what's best for us? Why do we need these laws when we know what's right or wrong in our own personal beings?" an anarchist state would take place, where all the people decide what goes and what doesn't on their own time. Sure, there'd still be fighting amongst everyone, but again, humans are animals and we fight, but there'd be no full-scale wars for dumbass bullshit. And sure, we'd have gangs of people trying to run everything, but all the people who want to be free won't stand for it, and take care of the problem.

I kinda lost a little train of thought while I was typing that, so if it seems like I've just gone off rambling and such and nothing makes sense, feel free to correct me, I just woke up. lol

 

Anarchy is not no rules but no rulers... it is the belief that we are fully capable of governing ourselves. Rather than in capitalism where we live for the betterment of ourselves only, not caring what or who we must destroy on our quest for private gain... anarchism on the other hand is the idea that we live for the betterment of all, or for the commonwealth of our society. The idea is that if we all have equal access to everything, then we wouldn't have to fight, lie, cheat, and steal from each other. I mean think about it, if you have the equal opportunity at everything that your neighbor has, then there would be no need to envy your neighbor. I think one way to look at Anarchism is to truly understand the theory of Communism... where everyone has equal wealth, and equal power, a system in which after setting up total equality the government is to dissolve as no longer being necessary. Anarchism is the society that takes it's place after the government has dissolved.

The rules in anarchism are common sense rules. Obviously don't murder (unless for some reason as a collective everyone decides it is a necessity or for the safety of the commonwealth; examples might be in the case of a murderer, or in the case of a potential fascist trying to take power... this is for the people to decide, not for a police force or government to decide), don't steal (when in a society where all wealth is equal and shared there is no need for theft anyway, where as in a capitalist society theft is necessary for us to take back what has been stolen from us), and so on and so forth.... like I said common sense, and all things would be for the betterment of all, and not for selfish gain.

Okay I think that is a good start... this is just a really broad generalized overview. Okay and I want to point out, knowing what anarchism is, and how it can and will work... we must understand that there are a lot of people to whom this sounds impossible, and it is so deeply ingrained into many of our psyche that this cannot work, that it is vital that we educate people, that we plant the seeds of change, and that a violent revolution would in fact do nothing other than put new rulers into place. We must start to educate people that we can have a better society, and I believe that as more and more people lose trust in our current government, that more people will start opening their minds to the possibility of anarchism.

 

Oh, and Probe, read CrimethInc books and whatnot, that'll help you understand it a little better.

www.crimethinc.com

I'm sure you can order them off there, I've never ordered any myself, but my ex-girlfriend ordered me the beginner's guide a while back. That should help a lot.

 

@ungovernable: your answers seem pretty easy... I mostly agree with them, yes, but...
But answers shouldn't be that easy!!

 

The answers are easy. Some say too easy, and that's why anarchy can never work, because anarchists are too naive, that people will always want more and will bully the weak. Also too many people expect others to make the decisions for them, politicians, bosses etc etc.
So a lot effort and time has to be put into explaining our ideas, then finding examples of where those ideas are successful. The trouble is, that quite often, where they have succeeded, they have then been stamped by by superior forces-laws, police, armies etc.