[lbo-talk] Socialim [was: Cheery thought for the next 300 years

Chuck chuck at mutualaid.org
Wed Feb 22 09:20:19 PST 2006


Doug Henwood wrote:


> I'm with you on this, but anarchism (the word) has an image problem as
> bad as socialism. When the masses hear the word "anarchism," they think
> of mass disorder, not mutual aid. So I think Woj has a point here, and
> that socialists and anarchists need to work on getting the solidarity
> idea out there - and, at the same time, we'd be promoting more
> solidarity among ourselves (red, pink, black) at the same time.

I'm very aware of the image problem, which is kind of why most of my anarchist activism involves popularizing and promoting anarchism.

At the same time, just about every political tendency, profession, and group of people has to deal with image problems. I think that most people really have no opinion on anarchism. I'd also rather be a socialist or anarchist than a lawyer. I'm also a librarian. Do you know how much librarians talk about their image problems? Librarians can't get it into their heads that people LIKE librarians, but librarians still blew a gasket when that Nancy Pearl librarian doll came out.

You can complain about your image problem or you can go out and change it. I prefer the latter. So I'm an anarchist librarian which confuses more than a few people.

Aren't anarchists against organization?

Chuck



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