>I'm sure that Liza ran across a few John Wayne anarchists. I've run
>into more than a few John and Jane Wayne liberals, socialists, and
>progressives. Are we talking about people's quirks and
>personalities, or something essential to being an anarchist?
Sometimes I wonder. For what a lot of anarchists and autonomists would call an Old Leftist, I've been pretty sympathetic to anarchism. It's a great antidote to the sclerotic tendencies in left thinking and organization. But the aversion to power and to formal organizations of any size really makes me wonder how anarchism can actually change the world in any significant way. As appealing as Hallowell's formula of changing the world without taking power is, I think it's a delusion. You can't opt out of power, though you can try to make it democratically accountable. You can't stay pure either. Nor can you organize a complex, technologically advanced economy on anarchist principles. I'm willing to listen to arguments to the contrary, but I'm really skeptical.
Doug