I consider myself an anarchist, and am happy to take this opportunity to explain what Anarchy means to me. I was VERY lucky that as a student at A Level (college) my politics teacher was a self confessed Anarchist. Ms Heaton was my favourite teacher, and she gave us such a fantastic insight into the world of politics from such an unbiased viewpoint. She was also very good at teaching us about Anarchy as she was a living example of it. We loved her, in fact I even won an award called the Jackie Heaton appreciation award at the end of the year! Ms Heaton was quite unconventional as a teacher at my school, and stood out in many ways. She wore Doctor Martins Boots, and was always so gentle and sweet to us. We would sometimes move all the tables to the side of the classroom and sit on the floor, or even just have a lesson outside when it was appropriate. Ms Heaton didn't have many expectations of us, and if we missed a class for whatever reason she would be last person to tell on us! It is Ms Heaton who helped me to realise that I am an Anarchist, and I would like to share what that means to me now!

Firstly, it is fair to say that Anarchy does NOT exist in our world in its real pure form. The main reason for this is because Anarchy does not believe in centralised State or borders. Since our whole world is governed by States and centralised power.. there is no living example of it to point you to. The closest thing we have to Anarchy is the Internet, and indeed Steemit is one of the best example of Anarchy that I have seen on-line..

There are many forms of Anarchy that can be defined based on what people decided is important to them. Therefore we cannot actually define Anarchy in too much detail as a lot of specifics depend on the person defining it. Therefore my opinion of Anarchy is a very personal viewpoint and there may be some people who are also Anarchist and have some different views. That is just fine, and is perhaps what Anarchy is about!

Who's world is this?

Does anyone have more right than the next person to claim anything in this world? We were all born equal, and we are all born exactly the same. We are all HUMAN beings, and we all have the same needs as each other. The land that we live on was given to us by the cosmos. The light and energy that drives this entire planet comes from our Sun. It is the Sun and the Earth who have blessed us with our life and have given us everything we need to exist. These gifts are universal and are given to us all with no claim or demands, they are just a part of the natural cycles of the universe.

This world does not belong to us! There is a famous Anarchistic saying that "Property Is Theft", and I am a believer in this saying. That does not mean that I don't OWN anything.. perhaps a radical anarchist might feel that way and would own no possessions.. My feeling is that we do not have the right to claim anything as being ours and only ours. We do NOT own the land we walk on but we share it with all life. We all have the same RIGHT to be on any part of this world as a birthright. That doesn't mean we can't have personal space, but rather the way we feel about our personal space is based not on a feeling of ownership but rather one of appreciation. We can feel blessed to have abundance rather than entitled to it.

This feeling of being grateful allows me to act quite differently. It makes me want to SHARE what i have.. because I am SO appreciative of abundance .. and I don't feel that I am entitled to it just because I worked hard, or got lucky or whatever.. I just feel like I am blessed for what I do have, and that makes me want to share these blessings with others.. This perspective means that I am someone who tends to give a LOT away and don't expect anything in return. I can think of SO many examples when I have done this, and is a part of the reason why I like to pay things forward.

My Rules or Your Rules?

To me being an anarchist means that I understand rules are needed, and I tend to follow them when they make sense or serve a common purpose.. such as road traffic rules.. With that said, i will happily break the speed limit if it is needed to keep me safe. Rules are important to me, but I am also VERY happy to break them! When I come across rules that are unjust, or created by centralised powers in a negative way I will flout them. In my view we should pay most attention to the rules set by our immediate and local community / family. These are the most important rules because as opposed to rules set by some powers far away who have no care or insight into my needs. As an Anarchist I believe centralised powers are just wrong, and will always lead to great disharmony. When something is centralised, it becomes disconnected from all the most important aspects that are needed to have compassion, fairness, and with overall benefit to the people.

Unfortunately, the saying "Power Corrupts, and absolute Power corrupts Absolutely" is one that holds SO true when we apply it to politics and centralized power. It is a sad state of affairs to see the extent to which politics has failed the world today, and the main reason for this is due to centralization of the power structure. We have NO idea who our leaders really are, nor any way to reach them, communicate with them or be heard by them. If this world was based on small communities governed locally, things would be SO much better because all of these problems would no longer exist.

What is the essence of Anarchism?

So now we get to the essence of this post. You see Anarchism is about honour. It is about honouring this world and each other. It is about being flexible to the needs of others and not imposing our views on others. No persons view should be more important than another's, because that is arrogance. It is about reverence and compassion which is a deep foundation of Anarchy. With reverence and compassion we can listen to the needs of others and make room for them. We should not take up all the space in our world and declare that everyone should follow our ideas, and worse still impose them on others. Instead we should lead by example, and shine as a beacon that inspires. Most of the problems in our world stem from an attitude of "I am right and you are wrong", or "Do as I say". Anarchy is therefore also about tolerance and acceptance, because we must embody these characteristics in order to be flexible, respectful and compassionate.

Anarchy and Matriarchy are very closely linked, and Matriarchy is also something that I have not seen in its true form in this world, whereby we nurture each other and embody the feminine traits of caring, love, and respect for all life. This extends to animals, plants and our whole planet. As an Anarchist I have great respect and love of ALL life and don't think any person or animal has more rights to anything than another. This means that I LET animals share my space with me, even uninvited ones like spiders and ants.. unless they are becoming an nuisance or causing me problems, in which case i evict them. I do not kill bugs or insects (except for rare occasions when i probably shouldn't but get overwhelmed.. such as an ant invasion!).. and even then I've learned to flush them out with water rather than poisons.

This is OUR world, this world is yours, and mine. We are all equal in the eyes of the sun and the moon. We are just specs of cosmic dust in this great universe and we should always remember and be humbled by the gift of life.

I leave you with an old favorite song!

 

The 8 Pillars of @TribeSteemUp

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