A Philosophy for Anarchism

Spanish translation:
https://libertamen.wordpress.com/2024/10/15/una-filosofia-para-el-anarquismo-2024-aryanam/

###

Philosophy is nothing but a landscape of perspectives, worldviews, and paths, some meandering and some straightforward, some solitary and some crisscrossing with the neighboring paths, some long and some short, some trekked in multitude and some in solitude, some forgotten and some revered, some new and some ancient, all to understand and nourish the abilities and needs of self and a myriad of others. Being is becoming, the traveler and the path both change in the journey. Yet, even if the destination is all the same, not all paths are suitable for all. One needs to stay true to oneself and the path’s needs and abilities. To each according to their needs and from each according to their abilities.

This path depicts a self-differentiating world. There is only one voice, one origin, one source, with a myriad of ever-changing expressions. There is no hierarchy among the multitude of different expressions but ones distinguished based on our needs and abilities. In difference, all realize actualization, recognition, and existence. Humanity is no different. To make a difference, one must understand one’s and others’ needs and abilities and then act within those abilities to fulfill the needs. To change, one must be willing to change. To each according to their needs and from each according to their abilities.

Recognizing self and others, inspiring difference, and affecting change all necessitate interaction. Peering close, underneath the myriad of groups, communities, and societies, through the rich tapestry of minglings, collaborations, gossiping, camaraderie, and intimacy, when building genuine affinity, relations, and friendships, socialization is at the core of human interactions. We socialize to cultivate our commonalities as a seed to recognize and foster our differences through cooperation and collaboration. Socialization is the key to understanding our fellow abilities, needs, and desires, for making a difference. United in difference, this is the basis of human sociability. To each according to their needs and from each according to their abilities.

Groups, communities, and societies are nothing but a crisscrossing web of interconnected and interdependent associations and relationships to varying intensities and degrees based on individuals’ needs, desires, and abilities. Individuals are each integral to our socialization, its building blocks and foundation; The presence or absence, association or antagonism, contribution or withdrawal, fulfillment and disappointment, and happiness or anguish of each significant, as if each deliberate and attentive beating wings of butterflies inspiring a storm of change. Then, individuals are each the measure of difference, envoys of change, in unceasing flux as their perspectives, abilities, and needs grow and wane, eternally unfit, whether solitary or collective, to be arbiters and authority on each others’ needs and abilities. To each according to their needs and from each according to their abilities.

There is a countercurrent to immortalize the self, arresting the world from change and focusing solely on either similarities and differences, free from all undesired consequences, invulnerable from the differences made by self or others, no matter how unlikely, unsightly, and minuscule; a will dictating conformity and uniformity on the similar, and the othering and vilifying the different; a sterile, barren, rigid, and dead trend, ending only in domination and destruction. Change, repetition and difference, this is how the world reproduces itself. Life is no different. Humanity is no different. Each difference is a potential for new expressions, resulting in new needs and abilities, new associations and collaborations. To each according to their needs and from each according to their abilities.

Fruitful socialization begets trust and honesty. Deception is poison. Shrouded in falsehood, one can’t be understood or understand another, no flourishing socialization, no informed consent, ruined from making a genuine difference, ending with nothing but foolish relationships, fickle communities, and corrupt societies. Institutions like the state, religion, patriarchy, racism, capitalism, or concepts like debt, duty, honor, virtue, property, social hierarchy, paternalism, and self-sacrifice; Deception has many faces and many names, yet wears the husk of humanity, detracts from the cultivation of our commonalities and differences, sabotages, corrupts, appropriates, exploits, and dominates all the same, forcing and inciting us to deceive ourselves and others, all to compel each other into cycles of obedience, then claiming our ingenuity and resistance as their providence. No genuine needs and abilities could be expressed by the docile and subservient or acknowledged and reciprocated by the domineers and oppressors.

Different worldviews may prescribe different ways to move through and interact with the world. This path, unable and unwilling to present a flawless beacon of veracity, an everlasting belief, or a small island of assurance and conviction in the sea of uncertainty and change, offers nothing but a seedling growing with our personal experience and a tool to track to the trends; a compass. We are fellow nomads trekking through life without a predetermined destination, each with different values shaped by different ever-changing needs, abilities, and visions for self-actualization. Yet, we all recognize the necessity of freedom and autonomy to develop and collaborate to fulfill our own needs and desires. Then, in the absence of societal power, the absence of rulers and ruled, the absence of domination and exploitation, the absence of social hierarchies, the absence of obedience, we would have the sole reference-independent compass not centering anything in existence, no humans, no animals, no nature, no ancestors, no Gods, and not our current interpretations of reality: Anarchism. We need not put trust in the compass, ceaselessly evaluating and verifying its capability and efficacy, destroying the old and building anew to make a difference, to be different. To each according to their needs and from each according to their abilities.