Thursday 11 January 2007

Aναρχία

There are at least two ways of understanding the word anarchy. The first of them, and unfortunately the most common among those who think they know everything –who, sadly, tend to rule our countries– and among those who do not know enough –whom just go with the flow–, is that the state of anarchy is an state of chaos and disorder.
In the Spanish dictionary (RAE) it seems that the meaning of the words 'anarchy' and 'anarchism' are pejorative (anarquía, anarquismo) but in one of the dictionaries of the English language you can find the, almost, perfect definition of this word. I say 'almost' just because nothing is ever perfect (one would say only God is perfect) so not even a definition.

Anarchy isn't the absence of govern only, neither only the fact that it would be a situation of cooperation. Anarchy is a situation in which all human beings involved agree in something, all of them want the same, and all of them know that things must be done and who must do them.
You may wonder: but there are things that people do not like to do. I think that's wrong. Once, when I was a child, I caught an infection (a fungus) on a foot after showering in a public swimming pool –pretty disgusting, yes. The thing is that I went to the chiropodist and I asked her how come she ended up in that career. She told me she had always liked it. I thought that taking care of others feet is disgusting.
I gave this example because you might think that being a dustman is even worse: I reckon that's not true as, as per what I have seen in the UK, over there they are British, i.e. they want to do this job (I imagine it is well paid) but in Spain it is normally done by foreigners (so I imagine it isn't well paid). Also, if you want to read about bad jobs, read this article.

I am a bit special in some things: one of them is order. I like things to be in order and, if applicable, alphabetical order. I have my books, my CD's (and won't follow or otherwise you'll think I am too weird to be read). The reason I keep them in order is not because I am a freak (which as well) but because it is easier to find them afterwards (unless I don't remember the author or artist).
That's what I think of Anarchy. I think that Anarchy is the tidiest of all possible govern situations. As I said, because everybody wants the same.

In that series "3rd Rock from the Sun", there was this one chapter where something I thought very intelligent was said. If you haven't seen the series you wouldn't know that "they" talk about all the important matters of human life. In that chapter they talked about politics. At the end, they said something like: "Why do we chose Democracy?", "Because among all the different governments, this is the only one that seems to work out."
Yes, perhaps that's true: if we recall history we see that the best of all the political situations is Democracy. But we haven't tried Anarchy yet (oh, c'mon, don't come to me with that).

But, isn't the reason we haven't very obvious? Of course, to have Anarchy and make it work people would have to want the other's happiness and would have to share and be comprehensive. And I don't think this is possible for human beings.

1 comment:

coque said...

I don't see the pejorative thing in RAE's definitions. I mean, at least in the definitions of the political theory.

maybe we live in states too much "legal", but as societies become more complex, more situations need to be controlled (in a good way).
power doesn't have to be opressor.

in the first societies I'm sure that they tried anarchy, but when there is too much people, it becomes very dificult to carry on with it. anarchy expects too much of people.

it may seem a contradiction, but the actual embodies of modern anarchy are neoliberals, and they call it "minimal state"