Condemning Domination Versus Justifying Anarchism

My argument for anarchism differs fundamentally from many that are popular today. Rather than assuming some moral axiom—the "non-aggression principle" for instance—and deducing that anarchism is morally imperative, I analyze what institutions are required to domesticate communities and deduce that they inevitably cause mass human suffering and destruction of the habitat. No new moral idea is needed to conclude that such institutions are intolerable and must be abolished. Anarchism follows from this conclusion.

Further, I believe attempting to morally justify anarchism is a weak argumentative position compared with showing why Domination is intolerable. As the philosopher Karl Popper said in a different context, one doesn't have to define "good meat" to know "meat gone bad." Far better to say Domination should be abolished because it causes intolerable effects on us and our world than because an abstract moral argument condemns it. And far better to say domesticating communities is intolerable because it inevitably produces such disastrous effects than because the institutions of political power violate a moral principle. The moral arguments stand or fall on the validity of their premises. Mine rests on a more substantial basis of facts.

Finally, I believe attempts to morally justify anarchism embody the authoritarian thinking anarchism opposes. Communities don't need moral authorities to dictate how they should be organized, and anarchism needs no justification. If anarchism is truly the natural way communities lived for all but three percent of our human family history, then communities would naturally restore anarchism in the absence of Domination—and restore it by creating forms of community that serve human well-being better than anything anarchist theoreticians could imagine.

Engines of Domination 2018 Director's Cut Released

We're thrilled to announce releasing a major remake of Mark Corske's Engines of Domination. That film was awarded "Best activist film of 2014" by Films For Action, translated into six languages, and has had over 77,700 views counting all known uploads and translations. The new 2018 Director's Cut, produced by Reckless Aesthetics, features a more serious style, improved clips, professional actors performing the Socratic dialogue, and a script revised for clarity and some changes of emphasis recorded in a new narration. You can view the film at https://youtu.be/_WZ40iYPNFQ, and download the HD 2 GB master file at https://drive.google.com/open?id=1o0zKdq8R4RlMPYOJPd5Lb2iobqA0nndP.

After producing the original Engines, my collaborator Justin Jezewski and I began producing a documentary about the Dutch anarchist movement Provo, entitled Provo! The Great Anarchist Happening of Amsterdam. But by late 2016, we decided to put that project on hold to produce a new version of Engines. I felt that the fast-increasing authoritarianism worldwide and Trump's victory in the US elections warranted a more powerful and timely message than the original film could provide, and we'd long thought of ways to improve it. Now I believe we've created a vastly superior film that presents the essential ideas in my theory of political power far more clearly and memorably. I hope you agree!

Proud as I am of the film, however, I'm equally proud that it explicitly presents my ideas as a theory, not as some immortal truth discovered by a great philosopher. I've done nothing of the kind, and I'm nothing of the kind. I've merely found a novel and fruitful way of thinking about the most important problems confronting our world. Today, there are intense factional debates among anarchists who adhere to various ideologies, but I believe ideological thinking is a kind of internalized authoritarianism that betrays the spirit of anarchism and defeats its purpose. My foremost goal is to provoke thought, not to induce people to think as I do. Please think about my ideas, and proceed to think even better ideas of your own.