by Paul Cudenec, who reads the article here

This anarchy thing probably does not make any sense if you imagine that we really live in a democracy.

This anarchy thing no doubt seems destructive if you think that society is basically sound and has been constructed in the interests of the public as a whole.

This anarchy thing must be frightening if what makes you afraid is the disappearance of the slave system, rather than its continuation, consolidation and concentration.

The anarchist viewpoint may seem to you to be fanciful or extreme, but, in fact, it is based on reality and common sense.

The truth is that our natural freedom has been stolen from us and we are being ruled and exploited by a tiny group of criminals who cloak their domination in terms of “law”, “order”, “civilization”, “progress”, “science” and “modernity”.

This anarchy thing will perhaps seem immoral if you have swallowed the lie that authority equals morality, that lawful is the same as just and that your idea of what is right and wrong can be dictated to you by an exploitative cartel.

This anarchy thing must seem odd if you think that everything good in life comes from the state, that we could never live without it, that without a police force to watch over us we would all be at each other’s throats, that without a pharmaceutical industry we would all die of disease, that without a top-down educational system we would all be ignorant and stupid.

This anarchy thing must seem ridiculous if you think that human nature is based on the craving to compete, dominate and enslave.

Has it ever struck you that such traits are mainly displayed by the tiny clique that rules over the rest of humankind? Anarchism knows this, has always said this and is subsequently little heard in this clique-owned world.

This anarchy thing must appear outlandish if you picture its proponents as the system wants you to picture them, if you project onto them the officially approved profile of violence and incoherence.

A dozen years ago, my late parents came to support me when I was on trial, with several others, for trying (and succeeding, so far) to halt the destruction of what is left of the English countryside by the fracking industry.*

As well as learning that the police lie (absurdly claiming that their own video footage of the incident did not reflect the reality that they were trying to push), my parents met some of my anarchist friends and were astonished to find that they were not demons (they should have already known – their son and their former daughter-in-law were anarchists, after all).

The indoctrination runs deep.

This anarchy thing is presented to you as a descent, a collapse, a disaster, whereas in fact it is a potential restoration, rebuilding and rebirth.

This anarchy thing is the reclaiming of our right to live our own lives, to write our own rules, to take the law into our own hands, to be what we want to be and what we were meant to be, to flourish naturally in the world without interference from fraudulent self-appointed authorities who would bleed us dry for their own profit.

This anarchy thing is about demanding the fulfilling existence of belonging, creating, loving, respecting and becoming that all real human beings long for with all their hearts.

This anarchy thing is about your freedom to be yourself!

* We were found not guilty.