(ALL EXTERNAL LINKS ANONYMIZED)
Many of us define rights as a negative - the act of officially naming them is enough to bind our potential and creativity within them, thus reducing the liberty we would exercise otherwise.
Just as many rely heavily on rights as a foundational principle, sowing discord throughout communities by educating each other with labor rights readers in one hand and "If An Agent Knocks" in the other.
The English speaking world is seeing an massive rollback of government-approved ways of living. We can expect to see massive violence to follow, especially regarding "rights" to citizenship (2), abortion, homosexuality, gender identity, travel (2), a livable environment (2), privacy (2), speech, and protections from unequal enforcement of law, cruel and unusual punishment, and execution.
This elimination of these rights will not bring greater comfort to the disenfranchised, and the fact that this was never the context argued for by anarchists will not stop idiots from pointing to this as proof "it will never work."
Those same idiots seem to be unable to pick their jaws up off the floor for long enough to think up a better plan than yelling "They can't do that!" over each other, as though there were ever rules in the first place.
Anarchists generally bristle at suggestions to engage in legislation or support judicial measures - something about the master's tools - but we don't seem to exclude it as an option as we often make public demands of those in power to wield their power in a more favorable way.
And while anarchists generally bristle at a whole lot of shit, there's been scores of them calling for enrollment in and participation with nonprofits, parties, and labor unions just the same.
What are you, the anarchist, doing to prepare for these changes? Does that differ from what you, the person, are doing?
Have you seen any immediate changes in your own life as an anarchist or as a person?
What would an ideal anarchist response look like? Is saying "told you so" appropriate? Can we trot out the tried and true "mutual aid" as a solution here, or do we finally have to get creative?
Is it the anarchist's "job" to offer an exit strategy from a mess we've had no hand in making? Or DID we have a hand in making it?
In 4, or 8, or 12 years, are we looking for a re-establishment of these legislative rights? Or are we seeing this as a crack in the foundation of law and order and pushing until it all collapses?
Comments
some thoughts on the origin of rights
anon (not verified) Mon, 01/27/2025 - 13:44
First a definition: Human rights, or the standards of a system, which dictate what is right and what is wrong. Also defined by Spike Lee in the 1989 comedy drama “Do the Right Thing.”
Throughout the past, rights – specifically human rights, have seemed to develop in the community. Now in the postmodern globalized world [society!], with its impact upon culture, collective identity, and the decline of the nation-state, have formed new global institutions that mold the power of human rights to the liberal Western thinker. Everyone’s favorite non-anarchist thinker, Foucault might have said something like: with the creation of regulatory powers, the power to regulate, you create standards of what people find as acceptable ways to behave or interact in society. Human rights have largely been influenced by the liberal Western standard of ideas.
The regulation of power also brings along a certain form of accepted knowledge, with power and knowledge becoming closely intertwined in a symbiotic-style relationship, feeding off each other like Pizza the Hut eating himself to death in the classic 1987 sci-fi “Space Balls.” The unfortunate game of Politics will always produce subjective knowledge, or the type which it finds itself best suited for. The creation of a universal form of Human Rights and related ideals have helped to bolster the neo-liberal Western capitalist world. The normalization and standardization of human rights is meant to create the ideal environment for capitalism to flourish via the spectacle and a life centered around work and a thin moral code to protect oneself from “Others,” feed capitalism, and still be able to come home and have a couple of beers while watching the NY Knicks win (best team in the NBA).
We can now add to the definition of Human Rights that we mentioned at the start. Human Rights are created by institutions to strip-mine productivity and the human-strike as laid out by the standardization of global institutions by a general moral code associated with human beings that are universal in their applications and directly related back to the ideals of human flourishing (whatever that means[1]).
So, how did we get here? A global hegemony of ideals has created the forces which aim to normalize ways of life. In 1215, the Magna Carta stated rights for a certain group of people. Taking the giant leap forward, after World War II, Europe was a wreck and the USA asserted itself as a global force by creating institutions to help rebuild Europe. In 1944, the World Bank along with the International Monetary Fund were established at the Bretton Woods Conference. The Geneva Convention originated in 1864, but was significantly updated in 1949 after World War II. In 1965 there was the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, in 1966 there was the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the international Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, in 1979 there was the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, in 1984 the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and in 1989 the Convention of the Rights of the Child. And so on.
What do anarchists want? Know your rights and fight for your right to abolish everything! Or at least have an okay understanding of the world-changers in play around you.
[1] Emile. “Confusing Figureheads for Fountainheads”
If they go away, afterwards,…
anon (not verified) Wed, 01/29/2025 - 18:49
If they go away, afterwards, let's not bring them back.
But for now we gotta defend rights. It’s that bad.
I agree with you, I’m…
anon (not verified) Sun, 02/02/2025 - 16:33
In reply to If they go away, afterwards,… by anon (not verified)
I agree with you, I’m actually joining the Democratic Party and becoming a full time activist. It’s just that bad
Add new comment