Rules Without Rulers The Possibilities And Limits Of Anarchism Matthew Wilson by Matthew Wilson 9781782790082, 178279008X instant download after payment.

Anarchism, it has been said, lies like a seed, buried beneath the weight
of the state. True enough. But who will tend to it, help it flourish and
grow, when what it offers is so vague, so simplistic, so one-sided? People
are impatient for change, and even many of those involved in far less
radical politics could be easily convinced that more, much more, needs
to be done. But to take the leap that anarchism requires, to demand and
fight for such a profound change, to run the risk of dismantling
capitalism and the state only to find ourselves in an even worse
situation, to ask people to do this will require an anarchism that is ready
and able to answer the challenging questions that people will quite
reasonably ask of it. It is clear that it matters little what horrors our
system throws at us, as long as we are left without an alternative. At
present, anarchism is not giving people the confidence to believe it can
offer that. Fortunately, there is no reason why it cannot do this. At least,
no good reason. Through the usual trappings of ideology, not to mention
the subtle but powerful blocks to criticism that arise through personal
relationships (after all, to criticise a movement is to in some way
criticise our friends within it), political cultures have a highly developed
immune system; sadly, they keep themselves immune, not from external
threats, but from internal critique. Anarchists see this clearly when it
comes to capitalism, or communism; when it comes to themselves, the
blinkers are there to protect them just the same. It is time we took the
blinkers off, stopped, or at least paused, from our critique of the world
out there, and looked inwards. People will be convinced by our
arguments only when our arguments are convincing.