The problem isn’t anarchism or any other ‘ism’; it’s violence

I'd like to thank the worker-owners of Firestorm Café — Emma Chandler, Evan Edwards, Scott Evans, Meg Hen, Daniel Lee, Sara Lynch-Thomason, Joe Rinehart, Eli Scott and Rebbecca Soup — for their collective comment in last week's issue [Commentary, "Sound Bite Vandalism: An Anarchist Response to Media Hysteria," May 12]. At a time of great confusion and concern, their statement is remarkable for its calm intelligence. I applaud them for trying to clear the air of some of the misconceptions surrounding "anarchism" by pointing out that the movement has a long, diverse and in many ways admirable history. But there is a further point to be made here: The real problem is not anarchism or any other "ism," but violence, which seems to tempt people of every political stripe, or of no professed stripe at all.

And violence produces only more violence, not change. Thoreau knew this, Gandhi knew this, Martin Luther King Jr. knew this. As did (come to think of it) a certain Jewish carpenter. The anarchist community, like all communities, has to come to terms with the violent people who invoke its name in the service of destruction. If the capitalist hegemony you oppose really is crumbling and imploding under the weight of its own injustice, all you have to do is offer a viable alternative, and make it clear that your community abhors violence as a political means, no less than as an end in itself.

— John Crutchfield
Asheville

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5 thoughts on “The problem isn’t anarchism or any other ‘ism’; it’s violence

  1. Piffy!

    [b]Simplistic, Utopian and Pollyannish. [/b]

    That’s how i feel about the idiots who did that crap a few weeks ago and try to justify it with half-cocked theories born from privilege.

  2. Dionysis

    “their statement is remarkable for its calm intelligence.”

    It was certainly “calm’ in tone; it was also ‘remarkable’ that while claiming to eschew profits, they promise to eventually pay their employees a “living wage” and to put money “back in the community.” It would be interesting to know how they plan on doing that without generating profits. The question was posted in response to their collective letter, but no reply was given.

  3. Piffy!

    [b]The question was posted in response to their collective letter, but no reply was given.[/b]

    Actually, i think it was. The basic gist beign that what they pay employees isnt ‘profit’, its an operating cost.

    [b]Who did it, and what did they tell you about it when you spoke with them? [/b]

    I suspect you should tell us.

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