Note that the site is in archived, read-only mode. You can browse and read, but posting is disabled.
Welcome to Anarchy101 Q&A, where you can ask questions and receive answers about anarchism, from anarchists.

Note that the site is in archived, read-only mode. You can browse and read, but posting is disabled.

Categories

–1 vote
edited to remove extraneous tags
by
edited by
i'm not negotiating here or anything, but i'm curious about your tags. care to explain them?
I can do both: What is wrong with the U.S is that it is united states, by which I mean that it is an attempt to unify a disparate collection of regions and people and that it is states, which as an anarchist I am opposed to.
well silly if you flesh out your answer then it's an answer, and doesn't need to be made a comment! :)
but thanks, regardless.
i find myself paralyzed by the broadness of the question.

3 Answers

+2 votes
 
Best answer
1. united
2. states
by (13.4k points)
+3 votes
Not enough TV channels.
by (2.5k points)
It's a group of people calling themselves "states," sanctioning themselves in the name of "the people" to do violence to "the people" for disobeying "the people."
The state is inherently violent, monopolistic, and oppressive.
It arrogates to itself (per the belief) "rights" which no other individuals are perceived to have ("tax, regulate, legislate")-
The State is nothing but a group of thugs claiming the "right to rule society," who either believe they actually have the "right to rule," and that it makes their violence ("law") different than other violence ("crime") which it not "sanctioned by law" ("the state said it's 'okay'"), or who understand what "the state" is and manipulate other peoples belief that they have acquired this "right."
"The State" isnt' necessarily "the problem," or "a problem." "The State" is nothing but a group of "politicians," "legislators," "law makers,"  A bunch of people scribbling commands down which are then generally issued to "the public" (everyone else found to be within whatever their perceived borders are). The issue is peoples belief in 'authority,' their 'right to rule,' who therefore initiate violence upon others at the request of "politicians," "the state,"  etc, in situations which most people would view such actions to be obvious violations of "rights" (non-violent activities, free production and trade, etc).
"The State" is nothing but a group of "politicians," "legislators," "law makers,"

and don't forget - the largest and most heavily armed police and military in the history of humanity, forcefully backing up those politicians etc.
I was going to answer rule by force, but Redblood beat me to it,...
+1 vote
Like dot, I find this question's broadness somewhat difficult. That said, since this is a website about anarchy, I will assume that what you mean is what is wrong with the u.s. for anarchists. Also, i'm gonna assume that you mean the u.s. culture, since the u.s. state is easy to describe as wrong entirely from an anarchist perspective.

With those self imposed limitations, the question becomes what do you think makes the u.s. a worse place for there to be anarchy?

I think the position of being a first world super power with a collapsing economy puts many people in a situation financially where they have just enough to lose. And compared to other first world nations where people might have social/economic security to give up by resisting, we have a penal system here that's far more barbaric and intense. The combination of the two, which is certainly not a condition for all, but many, is a powerful disincentive towards risk, something that anarchy leans towards pretty strongly.

Another "wrong" of the u.s. is the media, but I don't know if its about how there is too much t.v. or commercials or angry video games or what have you relative to other places (because this question certainly implies relativity). U.S. media creates an image that excludes other places from the imagination of its consumers. Other countries, if nothing else, have so many shows, movies, and songs from the u.s. in their daily media that people grow up knowing the world is more than what they can see, which helps them practice imagining other possible ways of living. That is the kind of imagination that anarchy comes from.

Not just in media, but also IRL, the places we think of as "better" for anarchy are often places where people in them are closer to other projects and people and countries and cultures and travel more freely, building connections and cementing the understanding of states as abstractions.

...
by (1.5k points)
...