Intro to Anarchy: Power & Violence | Philosophy Tube

when we think of anarchy we think of violence and chaos we think of characters like the joker v and discord but anarchism is actually a very broad school of theoretical and practical commitments a lot of people think it's about resisting government but even that is just one facet of it schools and education economics theater art religion and spirituality sexuality linguistics history sociology ecology and our relationship to the environment defense policy marxism it's possible to approach all of these and more through the lens of anarchism which is why if you scroll down to my comment section right now you'll probably see a lot of people in there going oh why didn't you mention this person or this theory anarchists are like fish and anarchist theory is like the ocean fish live in and move through the ocean they have that in common but there are lots of different kinds of fish and they have lots of different kinds of behavior and sometimes other animals take a dip in the sea and share a little bit of space with the fish too there's also a common myth that anarchists are egoistic focused on the individual sometimes even to a selfish extent and some anarchists are egoistic max sterner for instance said that the individual should be placed under no external constraints that all forms of government even morality and family were despotic but some anarchists take a much more community-minded focus especially because in the last 50 years anarchism has hugely changed both theoretically and practically the philosopher david morland says that although there's lots of different kinds of anarchism the common theme both of the anti-government kind and all the other kinds is resisting power he writes anarchists whether old or new are united in their belief that power should wherever possible be uprooted and eliminated that's why anarchism is so broad and various part of the legacy of post-structuralism was that people realize there's lots of different kinds of power and power works in various different overlapping and intersecting ways and anarchism to its credit totally rolled with that and said that if there's lots of different kinds of power there'll be lots of different ways of resisting it the variety of power also explains why different anarchist groups sometimes use very different tactics and sometimes even disagree with each other about what the best tactics to use are speaking of tactics one thing that's become important to a lot of modern anarchists is praxis praxis means putting the theory into action walking the walk as well as just talking the talk that's why a lot of anarchist groups put a focus on direct action protest and demonstration so an anarchist approach to a problem might be let's not just sit around and talk about how good it would be to be environmentally friendly let's build a garage and start converting our cars to run on biofuel let's not just write an article about how it sucks that women's shelters are being closed down let's squat in an abandoned house and build a women's shelter of our own the author and political theorist murray bookchin wrote there can be no separation of the revolutionary process from the revolutionary goal praxis is important to a lot of different groups not just anarchists professor sarah ahmed's resignation from goldsmith's university over that institution's failure to address endemic sexual harassment of students is an example of feminist praxis starting a youtube channel to give away free education when the government tripled tuition fees is i guess an example of some kind of praxis anarchists don't have a monopoly on this idea remember big ocean a lot of different kinds of things sharing it but as you read modern anarchist writers you'll find that they have an eye on how they can build the change they want to see in the world okay so for anarchists there's a focus on resisting power and doing more than just talking about it but why why resist power well what is power we mentioned before there are lots of different kinds of it so what's the one theme that power has in common political scientist michael taylor says that power is the ability to alter the range of someone's available actions to expand or to limit somebody's options so for instance if i'm the government i can pass laws that limit your options i can repeal laws and extend your options parents expand or limit the options of their children that's another kind of power your boss probably expands or limits your choices in terms of when you're allowed to turn up at work and when you're allowed to leave if you injure somebody or kill them you exercise power over their choices in terms of how they can use their body if you commit hate speech you limit somebody's options in terms of how they are seen in public and maybe even how they see themselves all different kinds of power all to do with altering somebody's available choices there's an inseparable relationship between power and violence violence is much more than just being punched in the face like with power there's lots of different kinds of violence the norwegian sociologist johann galton says that violence is the force that limits people's options pbs idea channel did a great video on violence a while ago in which mike says that to inflict violence is to remove an agent's choice whether it's the direct violence of a punch to the face or the structural violence of buying life-saving medicine and raising the price so that people can't afford it and they die violence is what boxes people in we see the relationship between power and violence played out in politics some people say violence has no place in politics but actually violence occupies every place in politics if you choose not to obey the laws of your country sooner or later you will be confronted by the direct violence of the police and the structural violence of the penal system governments maintain their sovereignty against invasion and revolution with the direct violence of the armed services national borders are maintained through the direct violence of arrests and detention centers and the structural violence of fences and walls economic growth is sustained through the structural violence of capitalism violence absolutely saturates politics the entire point of a government is to distribute manage legitimize and maintain a monopoly on violence the french philosopher michel foucault said that politics is just the continuation of war by other means so if violence is the removal of choice and power is the ability to expand or limit someone's choices then violence is at least half of all power to the anarchist then power is just the ability to inflict violence on you far from itself being violent anarchism could be seen as the philosophy that resists violence the most although like i said before some anarchists disagree about tactics and praxis a lot of anarchists focus on government power because that's one of the most visible kinds but it's not the only one just as a coral reef is one very interesting ocean environment but it's not the only place you find fish remember theory is a big ocean lots of different kinds of things living in it you can take direct action to prevent the violence of me being evicted from my flat for not paying the rent at patreon.com philosophytube if you want to help me give away free education i could really use the help and i'd really appreciate it and as always please don't forget to subscribe [Music]

Channel: Philosophy Tube

Views: 318,095

Rating: 4.9426003 out of 5

Keywords: Anarchy, Philosophy, Government, Politics, Economics, Power, Violence, Resistance, Revolution, Country

Id: bCAUmh99hMI

Length: 7min 54sec (474 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 20 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/UNBANNABLE_NAME]

We've got a lot of agitating, educating, and organizing to do comrades!

[u/PuzzlePrism]

Just wanted to thank the mods here for posting this. I haven't really found a branch or type or whatever you wanna call it of specific leftism that appealed to me outside or anti-capitalism but I really like the basics of Anarchism that are put forth in this video. Even got me to do some external reading on the more specific subsets. Thanks y'all, much love!

[u/[deleted]]

I thought Anarchism was zany, but this video opened my eyes. The whole different kinds of violence thing makes so much sense. I might just have to read the bread book

[u/TurnerJ5]

I really like the person featured in this video but I can't find anywhere to make a one-time donation to him, only '$x per month' pledges. Can anyone elucidate me as to how to give him a one-time donation?

[u/CommonLawl]

There can be no separation of the revolutionary process from the revolutionary goal.

[u/madviking]

i've always thought of ancaps more as hagfish than anglerfish

[u/billum4]

I am ignorant in anarchism, but have always been intrigued. Yet I don't find videos like this too helpful. Is anarchism a political party, with ideas of how a government should operate (if a government should exist at all)? And if so, has there been a time in history where people governed themselves in a way similar to anarchism's principles?

[u/LostMyCannon]

Great video. But as an acquaintance of mine pointed out of myself in conversation recently, I think he's unfortunately conflating "power over" with "power to." That is to say, "the ability to alter the range or choice of someone's actions" is "power over." This is the kind of power anarchism/anarchist theory is ostensibly trying to eliminate.

But "power" as a concept also includes "power to." This would be the ability to self-affirm or achieve one's goals. This ties in with what the speaker is saying when he talks about converting your car to biodiesel, or starting a women's shelter. It is an exercise of agency, of power to actively do something. That is part of my beef with the various protests going on (though I'm all in favor of protesting the installment of a new ruler, but it'd be even better if there was protest every time a new ruler was installed), they are reactive forces, negative. The active force is the building of new infrastructure to support a new system.

If on the spectrum of anarchism to fascism we consider fascism as the ultimate limitation of individual choice, than anarchism would theoretically be the ultimate liberation of choice. But that's sort of a false liberal/neo-liberal/whatever view which posits the individual as sole agent of change. For in fact through organizing, and associating with each other we increase our power of action and capacity. This is key, because it is an increase in "power to" not "power over", and so grants us more agency without a contingent increase in violence. (obviously these are not inherently quantifiable metrics, but whatever)

The endpoint of this rambling is that his endpoint about "anarchism" representing a resistance against violence is great, but that should not be confused with the abolition of power. Just as anarchism does not necessarily require an abolition of hierarchy. It is organization and structure that emerges or is designed by voluntarily participating agents. And in being voluntary, it is inherently a non-violent, non-compulsory system.

[u/[deleted]]

Thanks so much for not making this sub full tankie. Glad to be represented. Also, philosophytube is great (except that he doesn't understand Stirner and shits on him for no reason).