I have bowed out of the conflict that arises out of the anarchist ideologues for a few years now. I intentionally use the term ideologue for a reason. An ideologue by definition is an ideology that is uncompromising and unbendable.
Look at the reality of where the radical left is, especially within the U.S. and most of Europe. It is non-existent. Our fractured splintered ideologies are vast and even if we were to combine under one flag we would still be such a small political minority that we would not remotely register as relevant within our society.
The few of us who hold these strong views find ourselves more often in conflict with ourselves. It seemed to me while I was active writing online at Gonzo Times that much of what I was hearing was bickering between philosophical semantics. The radical left was tearing itself apart by clinging to the ideologue they held as sacred much like radical fundamentalist religious zealotry.
In reality we are so few that the differences do not matter. No party holds power, no society is currently structured close to any of their ideals. In reality no society has ever been structured to be the ideal representation of the ideology it claims in the first place. Even within global capitalism those who support capitalism as an ideology will claim that the ideal is anything but the reality.
I point this out because we need to start to realize that as anarchists, socialists and communists we have common theories, goals and efforts. (This is true of many other stripes and colors of ideology). When we step away from abstract philosophical bantering we are faced with the real world and the actual situation we are in. It is here we need to focus to bring about the small changes we can bring about being as minimal as we currently are.
If you are wasting your energies trying to convert ideologues you are doing just that, wasting energies. So, the point of this brief post is that we need to redirect energies in more productive places. I have decided to start writing back here on Gonzo Times and the first thing I want to do in doing this is to avoid these conflicts and focus on things that are more productive this time around.
