"Anarchist" as like "protestant"

Steve Witham (sw@tiac.net)
Fri, 16 Jan 1998 21:22:56 -0400


This is not meant to explain or protest on behalf of anarchism, just to
present an interesting analogy:

There is no Protestant party line. Different types of protestants
believe different sorts of things. The one thing they have in common is
a belief that an intermediary between God and People isn't needed. There
is no protestant alternative to the Pope except personal prayer and good
living, variously defined.

Similarly, all an anarchist believes, all anarchism says, is that
government isn't needed to intervene between reality and people.
We don't all believe in the same things. We offer no alternative to
government except various ideas about things people can do on their own.

In this light the progress of Western Thought is a slow painful
simplification.

"Jetison The Superfluous!" --from an animated movie about Mark Twain.

--Steve