Originally posted on the Benrik website: http://benrik.co.uk/...
So, I haven't been updating. I've welched on just about every Benrik Task between this blog entry and the last one. I haven't posted a new chapter of Ghost Dance. You can read what I have posted here: http://authorofghostdance.wordpress.com
Between school, the play, writing, ceramics, and all my other projects, I haven't found time for blogging, which I know isn't an excuse. I'm going to start doing better, to quit half-assing, very shortly. In the meantime, I feel like I ought to at least post something, so here's a short essay I wrote for my Advanced Placement Civics class. I think it's pretty good.
Here goes:
I do not consider myself a Liberal, Conservative, or Moderate because none of those labels account for one’s views on the size of government; I believe in dramatically reduced government, and in today’s world both Liberals and Conservatives seem to favor bigger government. If I had to name a political party I support, I would say the Libertarian party because they are for smaller and weaker government, but I prefer not to be identified with any political organization that large, no matter what its professed views may be. I am against not only big government, but any institution that has grown so large and complex that it is no longer under the direct control of its members, be it a government, a city, a party, a church, or a school. I believe that things were better under the Articles of Confederation because things were much less centralized; the nation was weaker, but because the federal government was weak the Individual was strong, and the Individual is concrete and is more important than abstracts like the State and the Greater Good; to those who say that a strong and centralized government is needed to combat terrorism, I quote Nietzsche: "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster."
My father is a green Conservative with views comparable to those of Teddy Roosevelt, and my mother is a typical Liberal. I am something of an Anarchist because I am against any form of esoteric government, whether it calls itself Republic, Democracy, Parliament, Monarchy, Fascism, or Socialism. I believe in government rendered totally egalitarian and exoteric, wherein all government activities are completely transparent and things are run by the people directly without anything in between. I like the way that things were done on Caribbean pirate ships during the Golden Age of Piracy: The captain’s word was law during raids and attacks, but at all other times it was a Meritocracy in which any crew member had the power to challenge the captain for the right to command. I do not believe in taxation or in any kind of public services or institutions. Institutions vital for the health of society, such as schools, should be run by the people involved in them, not by the government.
My anti-authoritarian views on life and politics are rooted in something that happened to me when I was in the seventh grade. I would rather not discuss the specifics, but will say that I experienced first-hand horribly unfair treatment and abuse of authority by leaders I was expected to trust my education and personal welfare to. From there, my beliefs were further influenced and developed by my reading works by Ayn Rand, Alan Moore, George Orwell, and especially Edward Abbey, author of the novels "The Monkey Wrench Gang" and "The Brave Cowboy" and essay collections "Desert Solitaire" and "One Life at a Time, Please," amongst many others. My interest in history—particularly the Spanish Civil War, the American Revolution, the Golden Age of Piracy, and the stories of Leonidas and Spartacus—were also important influences.
Those who claim that an Anarchist state could not defend itself against outside aggressors or would collapse into disorder need only look at the Spanish Civil War which, as early-twentieth-century writer and activist Emma "Red Emma" Goldman said, "destroy[ed] forever the notion that anarchism stands for chaos." When General Francisco Franco led Spain’s army in a Fascist coup against the standing Republican government, the incumbent leaders were defenseless: Their army was against them, and they were afraid to raise and arm militias from amongst the populace for fear it would lead to a Communist revolution. Seeing that no help against Fascist takeover would be forthcoming from their government, the Spanish people stormed police and military armories and fought the army to a standstill. Without formal military training or organisation, and even though their enemies were receiving substantial aid from Fascist Germany and Italy, the Spanish people were able to hold their own against the Nationalists for nearly four years, from the start of the war in 1936 to the fall of Madrid and Valencia in 1939. The constant fighting and the Nationalist sympathies of the police meant that the Spanish government had no real power over its people during the war years, rendering the Republican-held zones of Catalonia and Barcelona de facto autonomous regions. In these parts of Spain where there were no police, facilities like factories and hospitals were under small-scale collective control, and almost every citizen was armed, the quality of life generally improved, as detailed in George Orwell’s "Homage to Catalonia."
Essentially, I believe in the right of the Individual to control his own destiny. No man is more qualified than himself to decide his own destiny, and no human being can be so virtuous or talented that he has right to decide the destinies of others. Government as we know it today is a cast-iron dinosaur, an extension of archaic systems which have no place in our modern world; people should be expected to take responsibility for their own actions, their own welfare, their own safety, and their own destiny.