Aspects of Anarchism

national | miscellaneous | news report

Sunday August 11, 2002 12:14

by Al S - Anarchist Federation Ireland

ireaf at yahoo dot ie

Militarism

OF ALL THE ‘ISMS’, militarism is the most poisonous, destructive and dangerous. When active it destroys people, cultures and rational thought. When relatively passive (though it is never truly passive), it enters the minds and value systems of society in a way that reinforces conformity and obedience. Military values require uniformity, not only of appearance but also of attitude and values. The armed forces expend considerable effort in ensuring that soldiers at al levels accept without question the inherent and unquestionable superiority of their methods, aims and ideology. In the heat of battle there is no scope for questioning the validity of the campaign or particular action. Robot-like acceptance is paramount. Militarism, the glorification of military values and methods, has a long history. In Europe, Asia and South America that undoubted symbol of militarism, the military uniform and with it social prestige, has existed for thousands of years, as witness Assyrian...

...carved reliefs looted from Iraq but now in the British Museum showing the disciplined ranks of the king’s army; these are well over 2,500 years old. Military values also accept without question the validity of hierarchy. Orders start at the top and are passed down to the ranks. Whilst there is scope for individual decision-making – no large organization can cope without some imaginations and initiative – this is only permitted within a strict and rigid chain of command. Despite skepticism within the ranks, orders are there to be obeyed. Obedience is an essential feature of the military approach and, in wartime, failure to obey can lead to severe punishments...

For more of this article, check out 'Aspects of Anarchism', a new collection of articles by the Anarchist Federation, now online at:
http://flag.blackened.net/af/ace/aspects.html

Other aspects include Anarchist Communism, Freedom, Organisation, Class Consciousness, Direct Action, Exploitation, Racism, Crime, Violence, Freedom and Solidarity.

save preference

Comments (3 of 3)

19th Century bullshit

by anarchism is archaism

Wed Aug 14, 2002 13:15

Bakuninists are as bad as Leninists

No revolutions before personal evolution

ask not what the IMC can do for you...

by whatever

Sun Aug 11, 2002 16:54

'10 reasons to like or dislike IMC.'

ask not what the IRL IMC can do for you
ask what you can do for the IRL IMC.

in otherwords... quit yer bitchin' & put up or shaddup!

monuments to the deserters.

by iosaf - reclaim the streets!

Sun Aug 11, 2002 14:54

iosaf at email dot com

codols23 barCelona 08002

0034 93 412 0430

Internalisation of capitalist values and the absolute reification of the person allows the breaking of one our species apparant strongest taboos (MURDER).

It has always struck me as odd that nowhere in the world do we see monuments to the deserters.

I remember when living in London the monument to the internationalists including anarchists of the Spanish Civil War.

In every city I see monuments to the fallen, often to the "unknown soldier".
His corpse so reified and depersonified that it assumes the relicular power of state totem.

Yet nowhere except for the back gardens of a few friends have I seen any monument to the deserters.

Those fighters who at some stage said enough.
Ya Basta.
Those who finally could take no more.

I have often exchanged these ideas with others who remember two incidents deemed notorious in the recent history of the global anarchist movement.

(like the Irish republican movement a very very broad church that might take more than twenty reasons to either dislike or like)

I refer to the graffiti attack on London´s centotaph during Mayday celebrations some short years ago, and the extinguishing of the eternal flame in Paris.

The late twentieth century saw a return to serious consideration of what was meant by nomadic activity.
I would recomend reading a joint doctoral address by Deleuze and Gittari. entitled "Nomadologia"

They argued quite effectively (in our opinion= Codols23Barcelona a small house of poor poor gobshites) that the war apparatus has always existed exterior to the state apparatus.

After long consideration of their theses I thus began to counsel activists not to focus their priamry activites on the military-industrial complexes but rather to concentrate their energy on providing catylistic change in other areas of the hyper-capitalist system.
In the Irish state I am on record as recommending activism on the THORP/Sellafield installation and achieving parity of esteem for the peoples of the IRish states.
That means parity of esteem not only for those living in the militarised zone of the north east of the island but also all those living in Ireland.
Be they IRish or British by ethno-cultural formation or newly arrived migrant/immigrant or Irish traveller.
Agus gan amhrais na daoine í gconaí í na Gaeltacht.
I once made reference on this portal of the indymedia network to the execution site of Anarchists by Franco´s troops in BarÇelona but one lifetime ago.
I pointed out that the bullet holes in the church walls still provide striking evidence that amongst the firing squads were those who deliberately took false aim.

So remember the deserters.
Remember the dead.
Remember the volunteers who saw no option but to break the taboo.
Remember the conscientious objecters who then as now are almost always subject to vilification.

Finally it occurs to me that IMC Ireland is regularly used by some of poor cunning to "fly kites" by starting silly debate the only purpose of which appears to be to monitor the users of this IMC and provoke fractitious rivallries.

Maybe someone ought write an article on 10 reasons to like or dislike IMC.

Upcoming Events

New Events

Other Press

User Preferences

Feeds

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

The Saker

Public Inquiry

Voltaire Network

Aspects of Anarchism

Comments (3 of 3)