I guess this my first "story".
I have a few topics I want to talk about and they all compete for equal space in my mind as I explore the varying questions, conversations, and ideas that each topic begins to wake.
I want to talk about Purist Anarchists and the detriment I feel that Purism has on the entire movement.
I want to talk about dating in the Anarchy/Lib pool... what a joke!
I want to talk about the general disposition of the men and women who are Anarchists/Libertarians....
I want to talk about when it's okay to shoot a cop...
I want to talk about who the police really are.
I want to talk about Christianity and Anarchy. Christianity inside of Anarchy...
I want to talk about The Walking Dead.
I want to talk about where we go from here...
I suppose I'll start with an intro...
I grew up in a very conservative, Christian home. I attended private school until I was 15 and was a leader in my church youth group until I was 18. I did very well in school. I followed all the rules. I followed the rules because I had a great, crippling fear of what might happen to my life or people's opinions of me if I did anything other than what was expected of me. I feared my mother. I feared my principal. I feared my teachers. I feared my bosses. I feared cops. I was afraid of everything.
Every choice I made until I was 24 was made because I was too afraid to think for myself. I lived a life that was picked for me by the society around me, my social circle, the expectations of my family. I went to school - to college. I "spent" a lot of money on degrees (of which I have not begun to pay off). I hated the "careers" I picked: criminal justice, education, banking, and insurance.... I was miserable. I ate junk food to feel better and gained weight at unreasonable speed. I was sick, tired, and depressed. I hated almost every aspect of my life. The only thing I did not hate was my daughter but I was so miserable with my life that I couldn't even enjoy being a mom because I wouldn't get out of bed some days.
And then one day it occurred to me that this was no life I was living. There had to be another way. I used the almighty interwebs... and looked up changes I could make to my diet. That was the first piece of information that changed my life for good. I began eating "Paleo" and immediately felt 10 years younger. I was suddenly a human again. The depression went away. The ache, the pain, and the misery... it vanished (faster than the weight... Over 1.5 years, I lost 80+ pounds from changing my diet ... alone).
Once I began exploring the travesties of our food industry, there was no going back. I remember quickly becoming enraged at the U.S. government for the controls that bled through into simple daily choices... like what kind of food I could purchase, how fresh I could purchase that food, and whether or not I could even GROW my OWN food...
I quickly began exploring the political realm of my ever-changing beliefs and found that my fury was best identified with a group of people called Libertarians.
I was a Libertarian for about 4 months when reason took control and I realized I was an Anarchist. I had this conversation with a new "Lib" the other day... Me:"Oh okay. Yeah, it's only a matter of time." Her:"What is?" ... Me:"Your Anarchy... it's coming." Shoutout to Caryn Harlos here because someone memed her and it's one of my favorite memes of all time See below
Anarchy, to me, is the only reasonable solution once a person decides to take responsibility for their actions.
Anarchy means we have no rulers. What do people have rulers for? Why do you need someone to tell you what is good or bad for you? Why do you need someone to tell you where you can buy something or what kind of that something you can buy (for example raw milk vs. pasteurized milk)? Why do you need someone to dictate your choices to you? How can you accept the limitations of having either THIS choice or THAT choice? Why can't you go create your own option? Why do you prefer a life limited? Why are you complacent with having your life decided for you? Why do you accept the limitation of your potential? Does it strike you as degrading that someone who you've never met in a place you maybe have never been is making decisions about what you can or can't do.... because they find you incapable of making that decision for yourself?
If any of that makes you uncomfortable... you owe it to yourself to explore Libertarianism (at the least)...
I choose to be in control of my life. My choices and the results of those choices are my responsibility. I am capable of deciding what actions to take in my life because I am a person who thinks critically about how those choices affect others... I do not live in a way that is harmful to other people. And if by some mistake or misjudgment, I were to cause someone harm, I am able to be accountable for that on my own, apologize, and make amends without someone telling me to do so. To be forced to live this way is disingenuous.
And that is what government does: FORCES. Everything is by force. Or the threat thereof. If you don't follow rules there are laws, fines, courts, police, military, and a plethora of institutions ready to come and find you, point the giant, shiny gun of "freedom and liberty" at you and tell you that for the sake of all the "freedoms", you need to stop being free.
A family member of mine became very angry with me and verbally attacked me over Facebook (because that's the real mark of mature love...), trying to warn me that I had fallen into a dangerous trap. Her argument was that anarchy was dangerous and selfish.
I felt like a 6 year-old when she said that because I wanted to respond with something along the lines of "takes one to know one!" ... Government is dangerous and selfish. Government is dangerous, it has weapons and prisons... Government is selfish... it takes your money and wants to control your every move, giving it immeasurable power.
Anarchy is the very opposite of that. Anarchy is about mutual respect for life and voluntary interaction with the people around you to better yourself and the person you're working alongside. More or less, anarchy seems to be peaceful and selfless.
If anybody has fallen into a dangerous trap, it is those who believe the government exists to do what is best for them...