Anarchism: (n) Equality

 The single largest issue we as a species are facing today is the major divide between classes. Classes are the result of an economic or political system that in some way puts certain people above others. This reflects in our lack of support for life in general, as we begin to weigh certain life above others and can thus justify our enslavement or ending of other life whether human, animal, or other species. 

 The biggest issue I’ve found with anarchism is one I encountered after much discussion with my father. If the United States goes anarchist, how are we going to be able to protect ourselves from another country filling the void? And herein lies the struggle. The struggle between individual life and a larger power, generally government. If you think about the concept, all we’re doing is playing into a larger system, similar to the way the organs in your body all play into a larger system, or on a smaller scale the cells do. Think about the way we all began as unicellular organisms, but with the progression of time we began to form more and more complicated multicellular beings. We’re now trying to all be the cells or organs of a larger system—government. 

 From a global perspective, we are often considered to be nothing more than a statistic or a citizen of a country, although in actuality we are all human, we are all life. We’ve drifted so far away from this with the development of civilization, which poses a serious problem to our individual freedom. When we consider the way that now when two countries go to war, people of higher power decide it’s of importance to risk a number of individual lives for the good of the society in general. These high ranking officials don’t risk their own life, which is why we are so prone to go to war. They personally have nothing to lose. When we start to all play a role in this higher power, we lose our individuality, and we lose our human side. We no longer think or act as people, but rather as a part of a society.

 And from a standpoint where the predominant interest is providing the most free lifestyle, anarchy is clearly the answer. It eliminates the machine we all play a part of, and we can once again focus on the only thing that should matter to us as people, our life and our way of living. Two people are much less likely than two countries to engage in warfare, as they have the most important thing to lose, their lives. When two countries engage in war it’s always for one of two things. Either for natural resources which benefit the economy, or for cultural beliefs which protect either the religion (if closely tied in with government) or the government’s political system itself. 

 When we reach the point we’re at now where we’re no longer the most important thing, but rather part of something bigger, it’s easy to get lost in the mess of it. A major issue in our country is mental disorder, and these mental disorders are societal-induced epidemics. By this I mean mental “diseases” like depression and ADHD are essentially nonexistent in an animal, but are staggering statistics in a “developed” nation.

 It has been estimated that everyone will at some time in their life experience some degree of depression. And it’s no wonder why when we’ve lost our human side, we no longer feel human and feel useless as many of us are from a certain standpoint. We no longer control every aspect of our lives, we are all just a part of a society. We are no longer responsible for going out and hunting for food or growing our own food, we no longer create our own homes and decide what we want to do and how to do it. Instead we do what society dictates—public education until we reach the point in which we go to a form of higher education, where we choose a specific path to get to a specific career that has a specific role in our society. Those who don’t follow this path most often work the small jobs that pay minimum wage, a wage that’s intended to provide just enough to enable the worker to have enough for the necessities of life. It’s no wonder the majority of Americans are unhappy with their jobs. All we’re doing is working something we’re capable of doing in hopes of obtaining the highest wages so that we can be a larger part of our society, we become more involved in the economy.

 But ultimately the majority of Americans don’t even know how to feed themselves if it weren’t for them being able to use the capital they earn from their jobs to purchase food from other sources. We are depressed because we’re not what we’re meant to be. We’ve become somewhat insignificant and we don’t live our lives the way we would like to. 15% of those suffering from depression commit suicide, a staggering statistic considering the number one goal for most animals is to keep themselves alive. It’s been estimated that depression will be the 2nd largest killer following heart disease by 2020. 54% of people believe depression is a personal weakness of theirs, when in actuality it’s not their fault that they’re just unhappy because they feel useless, only contributing to a very small portion of our country.

 And depression isn’t just an issue for the people experiencing it. It’s a problem for the entire country. Depression results in more absences from work than almost any other physical disorder, costing employers more than $51 billion every year due to lost productivity, this is excluding the medical and pharmaceutical bills. And this is where pharmaceutical companies try to produce new drugs to cure depression but in actuality all they’re doing is just messing with perfectly normal chemical balances in the body to try to make people more productive. In fact, the only drugs that can successfully bost the happiness of a person are generally the illicit ones. Marijuana, for example, is commonly associated with a general happiness, or a very calming high. In recent studies however, scientists have shown a disconnect from this and the truth, being that long term marijuana use actually accentuates depression. This is because marijuana helps reconnect people with the human side, as THC, the predominant chemical in marijuana, works with the receptors in the brain to change the way the brain works. Consider, for example, the behavior of one high on marijuana. “The munchies” are one of the most commonly known attributes, which is one of the best examples of going back to a more animalistic state, as animals are generally focused on one goal, the predominant goal of life, sustenance.

 However with chronic usage the overstimulation of the brain causes people to realize the futility of everyday life. They begin to only feel satisfied when high, as it’s the only way for them to feel human again. It’s an excellent cure in occasional usage as it makes a human feel human, but with overuse and enough thought, the person realizes the disconnect between what they view ordinary life as being and what being human is.

 Now I’m in no way trying to condone drug-usage, especially those prescribed for societal-induced epidemics (anti-depressants and those used for the treatment of ADHD). These are often complex chemicals that damage the body in a number of ways, to make it conform with humans living in such a complicated society. Adderall and other drugs prescribed for ADHD are perhaps one of the best examples.

 These drugs make the patient focus intently on what they’re working on, which is why it’s one of the most common prescriptions for America’s youth. Approximately 10% of children aged 3-17 are diagnosed with ADHD, many of them receiving prescriptions to help them focus. But let’s first consider how the ADHD epidemic has it’s roots in society.

 Obviously there’s always the most common reason why these disorders are more common in society today than they were hundreds of years ago. Darwinism used to predominate life, if ADHD even existed hundreds of years ago, the person might not survive as it’s difficult to hunt for food when every butterfly distracts the person from their goal. But more likely the reason it’s an issue is because our society is a very distracting society in itself. Why are we blaming our children for not being able to focus when we’re also distracting them in a number of ways. We’re putting them in a room and telling them to do their homework when there’s a television with access to often times thousands of channels, a computer with access to the internet, a way to connect with nearly the entire world, and there are iPods to allow them to always listen to the music they want to listen to as well as the most distracting, phones which have become the new predominant method of communication, even above face to face communication.

 We are distracting our children through technology, and then telling them because they’re unable to focus entirely on one thing they have a disorder. Their only disorder is that they’re human in a well-developed society. So how do we control this epidemic? Medication. We medicate our children to be more productive members of society and more productive learners so they can last in our society. If the only way we can survive in society is through manipulating our natural chemical balances it’s no wonder we no longer feel human.

And this is where the major divide is. The divide between humanity and humans. Anarchism provides freedom for people to be human again, at the cost of slowed technological development. The major reason why we as a country can’t go anarchist right now, is because the world isn’t anarchist. Another society would see land with natural resources not being fully exploited, and would take over. Once the world can go anarchist, we can live freely once more. And we’re making advances. 

 Communism was one of the first major signs that government doesn’t work for humans, as previously the majority of revolutions and wars against a government were fought against a monarchy, in which one human was responsible. But how did these governments recover? Upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, the people formed an anarcho-capitalist economy. We are slowly but surely beginning to realize the futility of organized government. It’s difficult to convince the people who have the power to change to give up their power, but through lots of time and effort, as well as revolution if it comes to it, we can take back our right to be human.

 And the last issue in the abolishment of society is the slowed technological advancement. Obviously if the world goes anarchist now, we’ll have more technology than the free world had a number of years ago. Through the development of already existing technologies we have been inspired to innovate. No, we won’t be advancing at such a rate as how the rate we’re advancing now, but we would be innovating more sustainably. Rather than having the power to own property and resources and overuse these resources, people would be forced to innovate sustainably. Rather than drawing all the hydrocarbons from our planet, we would be forced to look to the natural sources of power such as photovoltaics and wind. 

 It all comes down to two major possibilities. Either we establish global anarchism and slow our advancement as a species, or we become an entirely imperialized planet, one in which there’s a possibility of survival but only through the exploitation of every available resource. We would destroy our planet, and have to hope we advance fast enough to begin interplanetary space travel. If this does happen, we would travel the universe indefinitely moving from one planet to the next, destroying it in the process of supporting ourselves. 

 So in the end we have a choice. Peace for our planet and the deceleration of technological advancement, or war for all eternity while exploiting every resource to maintain our current rate of advancement. Are we willing to be human again? Can we give up the ease of ordering everything we need online so we don’t need to work as hard hoping the corporations and upper class will be able to work everything out for us? Or will we start growing food for ourselves, and learn how to support ourselves and slowly develop new technologies but in the end maintain our own freedom. Will we be equals or are we destined to always be divided between the upper class and the workers?

Ref:

http://www.upliftprogram.com/depression_stats.html

http://cannabisnews.com/news/19/thread19728.shtml

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/adhd.htm

5 months ago  /  22 notes