Rant: The Rise of the AnCap Political Party

The following all express a similar concept, in slightly different ways.

Chanting With the Crowd

by JamesCarlin

Yet again, I find several persons guilt-tripping and lecturing me for not actively engaging in the day-to-date activities of the AnCap community, not engaging in argumentation, and my disinterest in pursuing AnCap converts. If others want to do that, great, but why me?

The critiques themselves are of little significance to me, as some may have observed, I don't bend to ego or identity-manipulation very easily, so it makes little difference to me if persons label me or perceive me as being anything between god & satan. There's probably some truth in the critiques, but I fail to see what I could gain, and as such won't be argued or guilt-tripped into compromising my other values.

Imagine you're standing nearby an occupy wallstreet protest, and on the the protesters turns to you and says, "Hey man, why aren't you chanting thing with the rest of us?" (video link)

The AnCap community I first 'joined' was a peaceful group of individuals who saw through the veil of political manipulation. Today there's the community is rife with politics and manipulation. The other day I saw an "I'm a new AnCap" discussion, and quickly there were several persons attempting to propagandize the new guy & manipulate him into adopting their position. I couldn't help but think "WTF, this isn't a religion, give the new guy some room to breathe and think."

Politics, arguing, debate, converts. positions … it's all a game. A game of manipulation, deceit, power, control, and exploitation. It's also probably the least pleasurable and most destructive game. It's like a game of boxing, but instead of a boxing ring of voluntary participants, it's a game the "boxer" initiates on random unsuspecting strangers. As I've also said it's a "Bull$#!t Game."

Whether the AnCap community has reached religious status yet, I can't say. What I can say however, is it's no longer a group of persons who see through the veil, but rather it is The AnCap Political Party.

The Trenches of War

by JamesCarlin

*"Why not join AnCaps in the trenches of battle?"*

When one is fighting in the trenches, all one sees is death, bullets, mud, and and a bunch of assholes on the other side. At some point, soldiers lose sight of the reason they were righting in the first place - the war no longer about protecting virtue, but rather defeating the other side.

Sure I've been in those trenches, and know the war, but do 'you' remember why you're fighting, or even what you're fighting for? Of all the wars fought and enemies slain under false pretenses; how can one be sure they're shooting in the right direction, or should even be shooting at all?

*"Traitor! Heresy!"* Perhaps. Perhaps 'you' have betrayed your own cause as well. I've never made a good little soldier, nor would I want to. The world is 7-billion people; many of whom are fighting in the same goddamn trenches, and not accomplishing a damn thing. Of all the way I could waste my precious little life, it sure as hell isn't going to be on that.

Notes:

  • Disclaimer: It is not my intention to discourage persons from spreading AnCap values and theory
  • Disclaimer: It is not my intention to be condescending.

The Devout

by BobCrosswise (source)

A fine illustration of why I maintain that the first thing to understand about anarchism is that it would be flatly impossible on any sort of scale in today's world, or, more to the point, with today's people. It's going to require a fairly substantial set of intellectual, philosophical and psychological changes in most of humanity before it even stands a chance, and that specifically because, as these "ancaps" illustrate, too many of us just can't rise above the tendency to adopt and inflict dogma.

It definitely reminds me of the rise of the "devout atheist" - the people one can see crashing about most forums who have obviously merely replaced an absolute and mostly unexamined hidebound attachment to one dogma with an absolute and mostly unexamined hidebound attachment to another. Sure - it can be argued that their current inflexible position is at least a bit more sensible than their previous inflexible position, but that's sort of like arguing that hitting yourself over the head with a two-by-four is a bit more sensible than hitting yourself over the head with a lead pipe. It's only true insofar as you ignore the underlying problem of hitting yourself over the head.

High on the list of things that humans need to grow past before anarchism will be possible - of "hitting yourself over the head" things that we need to simply stop doing - is the substitution of, as you've termed it elsewhere, positions for ideas. If/when anarchism will work, it will be because people will, when faced with any situation, think rationally through to the conclusion that serves to best further their enlightened self-interest. So long as they remain unable/unwilling to do that - so long as they substitute prepackaged positions for that process of thought (and worse yet, try to foist those prepackaged positions on everyone else) - anarchism will be impossible.

But bless their hearts - at least they're trying.

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