What is the anarchist game plan?

[error]

First, this is not a game.

Second, what is this about a game plan? Why is a "game plan" even required? And who would follow whom?

We are free people. We need no leaders and our plans are our own. Why would everybody need to follow exactly the same plan?

[Josh]

The lack of a game plan IS the game plan 

[BagOfEyebrows]

I see another game plan in your post: learning about yourself, growing as a person, finding out what makes you happy.

I still like all the activism efforts underway and I feel really optimistic about the progress we're making. In a way, we're training police to respect innocent people and get back to being something closer to peace officers by standing up for ourselves when we're not doing anything wrong, and so on. However, let's not forget the things that really matter along the way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onK2bzuwRNc

thank you so much for posting that video -

[AntonLee]

The fact that you ask what "the anarchist game plan" is shows serious ignorance about anarchists.

I don't believe in anarchism.  I believe fully in government...  so long as it's me, free to do the governing.   

while reading, at first, I was  , but then I 

[MaineShark]

The fact that you ask what "the anarchist game plan" is shows serious ignorance about anarchists.

I don't believe in anarchism.  I believe fully in government...  so long as it's me, free to do the governing.   

while reading, at first, I was  , but then I 

Heh.  Anarchy is the lack of a State, not the lack of a government.

If we are neighbors, and we get together and agree how we'll manage our shared road, we've created a government.  But since none of us are pointing guns at each others' heads and engaging in coercion, saying "you must pay for the road according to my rules, not ones that we've unanimously agreed to," that government is not a State.

Wherever there are multiple people, there will be government.  There doesn't have to be a State, though...

Joe

[KBCraig]

Everyone tells me to blow you guys off

I think you misunderstood them. What really happened, was they read what you wrote and told you, "Blow me!"

[dalebert]

thank you so much for posting that video -

Gladly. I think one of the most important parts of freedom is being proactive in your own life and in following your personal passions. Sometimes the rest can become too much of a distraction if you let it.

[Russell Kanning]

We went through a thorough game plan last night on Bonfire Night ... if you were not here to participate, we cannot inform you about our gameplan

[dalebert]

We went through a thorough game plan last night on Bonfire Night ... if you were not here to participate, we cannot inform you about our gameplan

LOL! Damn. Now you guys are going to move on without me.

When I see this subject title, "What is the anarchist game plan", all I can think of is some foosball, maybe a little DDR, followed by spankings and then the oral sex! Naughty, naughty Zoot, for lighting the grail-shaped beacon!

[coffeeseven]

The lack of a game plan IS the game plan 

Dude I can't believe you gave them our entire plan. hee hee

[Russell Kanning]

sometimes dale frightens me

[BillKauffman]

The strategy of anarchists has always been "dual power" or "counter-economics/counter-institutions". Essentially to build the new society in the shell of the old. Agorism (radical, untaxed  black markets) is a dual power strategy from left-libertarianism. Mutualism is another.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_power

Dual power is a method of struggle for the revolutionary transformation of society. It presupposes a pre-existing, fundamentally flawed social order. Within that society, those who envision a different future create alternative institutions (AIs) that embody their vision. AIs are places for experimentation with new social forms as well as places for liberation for those who are oppressed within the larger society. As AIs spread and diversify, they take on more and more of the functions of a larger social system: creating over time an "alternative social infrastructure" that fulfills economic, political, social, and cultural needs. In addition to their direct functions, AIs demonstrate the viability of new ways of organizing society, and attract interest to the ideals behind them.

As the ideological monopoly of dominant institutions is broken and people increasingly rely on AIs, those who benefited from existing arrangements may seek to dismantle their upstart competitors. At the same time, those who seek fundamental changes in society or who find the alternative ways of organizing it valuable may seek to enlarge and strengthen the alternative infrastructure. Counter institutions (XIs) are created both to defend the AIs and to promote their growth. These work to challenge and attack the status quo while creating, defending, and securing space for opposition and alternative institutions. They do this with everything from political protests, to direct appropriation (of plantations, government buildings, factories, etc.) for the use of alternative institutions, to civil disobedience or armed resistance. The line between AIs and XIs is seldom entirely clear as many alternative institutions are also self-promoting or defending. Together the AIs and XIs form an alternative source of power in society which is "necessarily autonomous from, and competitive with, the dominant system, seeking to encroach upon the latter's domain, and, eventually, to replace it."

During the process of building the alternative institutions and the ideology that supports them, the advantage of dual power is the creation of real, and not merely political, momentum towards the revolutionary transformation of society. Actual changes are ongoing, rather than postponed to a revolutionary moment, so needs unmet by the pre-existing order are being met during the struggle and no sector of society is told that its concerns can only be dealt with after victory is achieved. That is, creation of AIs and the political space for them has intrinsic benefits, apart from the advancement of the revolutionary project. Over the course of building AIs, the society at large is empowered, committed to change, and skilled in running society. Simultaneously, the credibility of a revolutionary vision is increased immensely by putting it into practice and by refining and improving it over time. It is also conceivable that factional splits between revolutionaries and reformers (and all the shades in between) could be reduced by having a common project that both find useful. Those forces that would be sent to suppress a revolutionary movement find themselves confronting people who have taken control over their own lives, rather than armed cadre attempting to impose a vision on the country, potentially obviating military conflict or at least reducing its severity. Successful dual power rebellions end with the acceptance of the new social forms by much of the populace and the realization by the old rulers that they are no longer capable of using their systems of force against the revolutionary movement. This can occur because noncooperation has crippled the old structures of power, because too few people remain loyal to the old rulers to enforce their will, or because the rulers themselves undergo an ideological conversion. At this point, there is not general confusion. The disappearance of old leaders and structures of power is accommodated by the expansion of the alternative system. The alleged "necessity" for a revolutionary vanguard to guide the revolutionary impulse is shown to have no basis: because the people have already learned how to govern their own affairs, they need no tutelage from above. The possibility of co-option is minimized: "When the people recognize their true power, it cannot be taken away by rhetoric or [...] imposition."

Dual power is a strategy, rather than an ideology, and it could plausibly be used to advance a variety of forms of social change. However, the advantages of the strategy make it most compatible with perspectives that emphasize the exercise of power at the community level, that seek to make the revolutionary movement accountable to the people, that see the capability to revision and transform society as common rather than rare, and that seek decentralized forms of power. Call this version of the strategy grassroots dual power, the bottom-up transformation and replacement of the mechanisms of society.

[J’raxis 270145]

sometimes dale frightens me

Sometimes?

[Tom Sawyer]

sometimes dale frightens me

followed by spankings and then the oral sex! Naughty, naughty Zoot, for lighting the grail-shaped beacon!

Not to worry Russell it is only a Monty Python line... 

[les nessman]

Everyone tells me to blow you guys off and frankly I can see why but i want to give you all one last chance. Answer the following question succinctly, clearly and precisely:

What is the Anarchist game plan to get government off our backs?

An oxymoron (plural oxymorons or, more rarely, oxymora) is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. Oxymoron is a loanword from Greek oxy ("sharp" or "pointed") and moros ("dull"). Thus the word oxymoron is itself an oxymoron.

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