THE CHARACTER AND CONTOUR OF A FREEMAN
“Some things scratch the surface while others strike at your soul.” ― Gianna Perada
When one becomes an anarchist he does not fling explosive cocktails at common people. She does not don black attire, incite riots, or write anarchist cookbooks with recipes on burning buildings. It is true that one can be anarchist and commit trouble galore, but that is not the case on the whole. Modern anarchists are generally peaceful and pensive. They resemble most everyone and sport similar excitations, interests, hobbies, appetites, and other humanly behaviors. They simply vie for social and political change. They just want to be free.
They are not wild-eyed maniacs with violent histories or knife scars from gang fights. Everyone tends to have these preconceived notions and fantasies, because governments have painted anarchists to appear as an insane group of desperadoes who want to ignite the world in a conflagration of chaos. Not true. This is a pernicious lie.
Anarchists would rather plant gardens of woodruff and wine cup flower, and live peaceably in the woodlands while wooing nature. The figure of the anarchist is much less alarming than previously suspected. In reality, the anarchist is a figure of destiny, a symbol for what mankind seeks to become — the orgiastic manifestation of peace and truth brought to bear in a kaleidoscopic explosion of love and unity.
Indeed. The term “Anarchy” is a humble term. It means “without rulers.” It does not mean blow things up or sow disorder. Anarchism is an apolitical philosophy that champions the individual and decries the monarch. Anarchy is the triumphant concept that people should live unobstructed by laws and rulers, but instead be consumed with love and kindness. Anarchism is the face of the future echoed in the cries of the people. It is written on the voices of the downtrodden and dominated. And ultimately, the person who believes in peaceful anarchism is a person whose silhouette and character has often been shaped by cultural traumata and painful experiences.
Here I will explore the depth of the anarchists character and their motivations, with the intent to create more anarchists, as well as show people the color and poetic beauty of the anarchists deep self and love of peace.
Traumata and Close Encounters with the State
Many anarchists are born out of the chaos of modernity. They are the product of an unwholesome environment, characterized by an epidemic of violence against the population. They were created by the myriad of Molotov cocktails shot into the bosom of society by State machinery. When a grotesque monster like government grows into a raging behemoth, the play of nature starts to unwind on the stage of life, and the anarchists arise to contradict the brutality of these bad men.
It is true that many anarchists have awakened as a result of talking to people. They have come into knowing because other anarchists and activists have started to color the world with anti-authoritarian thoughts.
On the other hand, the rest of anarchists were victims — they have experienced the tumult and torture of governmental culture, the lucid nightmare foisted first hand upon them. That is what brought them into the fold.
They may have been accosted, harassed, kidnapped, caged, and ransomed by State enforcers. Some may have had their children kidnapped for silly reasons by CPS or other agencies of evil. Others may have come to acknowledge the perils of modern maliciousness by introspecting about their childhood. Perhaps they have done the math, pieced the puzzle together, and now they comprehend the inhumanity they experienced at the hands of State education and indoctrination. Perhaps they were even drugged as children, called sick and dumb and dead. The reasons for their metamorphosis are many and understandable, as the world has become too unbearable for them.
It has been this traumata and direct experience of an agonizing society that has brought them to attention. The naughtiness of this dirty, rotten culture, with its all-seeing government poisoning everything, has made them cognizant of the abuses and injustices they have suffered. It is these experiences that have colored their character and shaped their humanness. And that is why they now call themselves anarchists, and why they fight to alter the culture of authority and make life livable for future generations.
John O’Donohue in Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom inadvertently exposed the nature and beauty of the anarchist soul:
“When love awakens in your life, in the night of your heart, it is like the dawn breaking within you. Where before there was anonymity, now there is intimacy; where before there was fear, now there is courage; where before in your life there was awkwardness, now there is a rhythm of grace and gracefulness; where before you used to be jagged, now you are elegant and in rhythm with your self. When love awakens in your life, it is like a rebirth, a new beginning.”
What happens when this grace and gracefulness unfold in the anarchist’s soul? What happens upon experiencing this rapturous metanoia? What occurs after these anarchists have unplugged and rid themselves of their fetters? What does their character contain? What are its contents?
The Contents of the Anarchist’s Character; A Matter of Principle
The anarchist is a person of sheer principle, of unyielding dignity and decency. Once they become what they may have not expected to be, they might adopt a central thesis for living, a framework of interconnected thoughts, to explore, invest in, and radiate outward. It is these traits that form the shape and contour of the freeman, which will allow him or her to act as a thought leader, someone who will allow the seed of anarchism to grow and bloom within folks who have not directly experienced the hot steel of government violence.
Some anarchists have even attested to how the realization of anarchism has made them whole, how they have never felt so powerful, intelligent, and loving. Before their epistemological advance, they were disconnected, confused, and clouded. But after they embraced truth, their mind expanded like the universe after the Big Bang. And they gained an interconnected mental network of principles.
The basic principles they now accept are called axioms. They are self-evident truths. A person owns himself and the fruits of his labor. She owns her property. And he has a right to self-defense, defense of that property; however, she also accepts nonaggression where his neighbor stands, for this is the dictum of cultural respect. It is antithetical to the barbarisms of socialism, communism, and the rampant Statism. It is these principles that have lifted the fog of thought, as if the anarchist has taken a smart drug without the side effects.
Ralph Waldo Emerson composed a beautiful poem called Boston Hymn in defense of the aforesaid principles, including individual liberty and self-ownership. The poem was meant to combat slavery, but it is as relevant today. Here is a bit of it:
“But, lay hands on another
To coin his labor and sweat,
He goes in pawn for his victim
For eternal years in debt.
To-day unbind the captive,
So only are ye unbound;
Lift up a people from the dust,
Trump of their rescue, sound!
Pay ransom to the owner
And fill the bag to the brim.
Who is the owner? The slave is owner,
And ever was. Pay him.”
PrincipleBuilding and Thinking for Oneself
An anarchist should also build his own principle, and ally himself with the notion of thinking for himself. He must be his own form of art and work his art like magic for all to experience. It is his personal manifesto lived out for everyone to see, so that the entire world learns to turn itself toward him, explore his dimensions, and realize the glory of living decently and peacefully– it is a kind of sainthood, except its goal is to stimulate people to adopt self-efficacy, self-esteem, self-realization, and nonviolence. The goal is never to indenture people to him, to enslave them as a cult figure would enslave the gullible.
Above all, the freeman leads by example, and his beauty and bodacious grace should shower all the world in what the world should be, what it wants to be, in petals of peace and goodwill. In turn, people will react to this; they will listen, adhere, consider, contemplate, and learn of the advantages of truth over the despair and violence of government. It is within this silhouette of principle and grandeur that everyone musters the courage to accept self-responsibility and self-dignity.
Conclusion; An Ode to Anarchists
Ultimately, the anarchist reverberates with the hymnal of truth through the winding tunnel of a destructive reality, of which some refer to as a form of damnation. But it is a hell that can be doused by the purity and character of the freeman.
So this is an ode to anarchists with the strength of character to wake up; this is a compassionate way to say thank you for turning away from the travesty of governmental evil. It is also a periscope turned inward, for other to see the shimmering stature of the anarchist, and what the poetry and music of his soul looks like, in the hopes that more will have a realization and begin to comprehend not only the reasoning and logic of the anarchist tract, but to feel the pain and longing of the anarchist as individual.
The goal is to place this yearning for freedom on display, to allow others to feel it so deeply that it rattles their bones, and grabs them so intensely that it thrusts them headlong into understanding, and encourages an eruption of truth in their spirit. And this is of utmost and vital importance. Future generations deserve this call for peace above all, as they are born an anarchist and deep down, their wish is to die as one, peacefully and serenely — without ever knowing this beast called government.
