Anarchy: It is NOT bombs, disorder or chaos. It is NOT robbery and murder. It is NOT a war of each against all. It is NOT a return to barbarism or to the wild state of man. Anarchism is the very opposite of all that.
Interpretation
Anarchy is often misunderstood; it is not chaos or violence but a system of freedom and order.
In this quote, Alexander Berkman emphasizes that anarchy is frequently misrepresented as a state of chaos or lawlessness. He asserts that true anarchism is about creating a society based on mutual aid and freedom, contrasting sharply with the common misconceptions that link it to violence or disorder.
In practice
During a debate on governance, one might use this quote to illustrate the true nature of anarchism.
When the highwayman holds his gun to your head, you turn your valuables over to him. You 'consent' alright, but you do so because you cannot help yourself, because you are compelled by his gun. Are you not compelled to work for an employer? Your need compels you, just as the highwayman's gun.
What is this thing we call government? Is it anything but organized violence? The law orders you to obey, and if you don't obey, it will compel you by force - all governments, all law and authority finally rest on force and violence, on punishment or fear of punishment.
Man's inhumanity to man is not the last word. The truth lies deeper. It is economic slavery, the savage struggle for a crumb, that has converted mankind into wolves and sheep.
War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder.
If no one else, the dying must notice how unreal, how full of pretense, is all that we accomplish here, where nothing is allowed to be itself.
When men understand what each other mean, they see, for the most part, that controversy is either superfluous or hopeless
When women understand that governments and religions are human inventions; that Bibles, prayer-books, catechisms, and encyclical letters are all emanations from the brains of man, they will no longer be oppressed by the injunctions that come to them with the divine authority of *Thus sayeth the Lord.*
Today Americans are overcome not by the sense of endless possibility but by the banality of the social order they have erected against it.
"There's got to be more to life than just living," Foyle said to the robot. "Then find it for yourself, sir. Don't ask the world to stop moving because you have doubts." "Why can't we all move forward together?" "Because you're all different. You're not lemmings. Some must lead, and hope that the rest will follow." "Who leads?" "The men who must... driven men, compelled men." "Freak men." "You're all freaks, sir. But you always have been freaks. Life is a freak. That's its hope and glory."
The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.
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