Really enjoyed this episode and Nick sounds like he'd be a brilliant guy to natter with and to hang out with. But I was intrigued that Nick called himself an anarchist (twice I think), and not in a jokey self-deprecating way. To most people anarchy sounds like lawlessness and the opposite of stable democracy so I wondered how he squares…
Really enjoyed this episode and Nick sounds like he'd be a brilliant guy to natter with and to hang out with. But I was intrigued that Nick called himself an anarchist (twice I think), and not in a jokey self-deprecating way. To most people anarchy sounds like lawlessness and the opposite of stable democracy so I wondered how he squares that circle in the 21st century?
Totally agree that the current system of government and representation doesn’t work for the majority, but is it realistic to be campaigning to change society on a platform of ‘no more rules, we’ll all just play nicely and share equally?’ Or is that unfairly snarky?
hi tim, its not unfairly snarky, its just not an accurate representation of anarchism - its more like the way anarchism is dismissed by mainstream politics, in order to discredit it - it actually doesnt matter much to me what i am, in terms of political labels, but as an example, what you saw after grenfell, food queues and aid distribution by members of the community, sikh, muslim, jewish, christian, non denomenational , when the government literally did nothing - that was anarchism, though no one in the press will ever say so - anarchism is not about no rules, its about horizontal power sharing rather than relying on top down systems to hand out aid, or law and order - concepts such as defund the police, for example, seem incredibly radical at first, until you read into them, and you realise that they make a lot of sense, on a practical level - basically, if you have a visceral reaction to the word anarchism, its worth reading into the substance of it, and then considering where that reaction came from - who constructed it, and to what end?
Really enjoyed this episode and Nick sounds like he'd be a brilliant guy to natter with and to hang out with. But I was intrigued that Nick called himself an anarchist (twice I think), and not in a jokey self-deprecating way. To most people anarchy sounds like lawlessness and the opposite of stable democracy so I wondered how he squares that circle in the 21st century?
Totally agree that the current system of government and representation doesn’t work for the majority, but is it realistic to be campaigning to change society on a platform of ‘no more rules, we’ll all just play nicely and share equally?’ Or is that unfairly snarky?
hi tim, its not unfairly snarky, its just not an accurate representation of anarchism - its more like the way anarchism is dismissed by mainstream politics, in order to discredit it - it actually doesnt matter much to me what i am, in terms of political labels, but as an example, what you saw after grenfell, food queues and aid distribution by members of the community, sikh, muslim, jewish, christian, non denomenational , when the government literally did nothing - that was anarchism, though no one in the press will ever say so - anarchism is not about no rules, its about horizontal power sharing rather than relying on top down systems to hand out aid, or law and order - concepts such as defund the police, for example, seem incredibly radical at first, until you read into them, and you realise that they make a lot of sense, on a practical level - basically, if you have a visceral reaction to the word anarchism, its worth reading into the substance of it, and then considering where that reaction came from - who constructed it, and to what end?
Thank you Nick, that's a good explanation. As an old punk I guess I should have known that it would smell as sweet by any other name!