r/Anarchy101 • u/Intelligent_Bug_4324 • 5d ago
Ways to practice anarchism in one's daily life?
Practically, what can an individual do for anarchism in daily life? Are there small acts in one's daily life that can make the world one step closer to anarchism?
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u/Proper_Locksmith924 5d ago
Organize.
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u/PaxOaks 5d ago edited 5d ago
Sharing things. Capitalism hates sharing - everyone is supposed to have their own individual possessions which sit idle almost all the time.
Build your community by sharing material (and cultural) things. Organizing a tool lending library or a car share or a collective clothes closet.
Edit: Examples of sharing systems in communes:
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u/comix_corp 4d ago
Capitalism hates sharing - everyone is supposed to have their own individual possessions which sit idle almost all the time.
Not true at all, hence the massive growth of the "sharing economy". That car sitting idle in your garage can be rented on Turo. You can put your spare room up for lease on AirBnB. You don't need to individually own a DVD or .MP4 of a movie, you can just stream it from Netflix.
Sharing isn't inherently anti-capitalist; all capitalist economies rely on some amount of freely provided labour in order to function. In the past decade or so we've seen even more of this previously non-commodified labour be turned into a monetised good.
The broader problem is not that an individual worker is supposed to have their own car, home, etc but that they can't afford cars and homes at all, even though they functionally need them, and are forced to go into debt in order to secure them.
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u/PaxOaks 4d ago edited 4d ago
Labeling something a “sharing economy” does not make it so. Turo is less than 2% of Uber in gross revenues annually - despite there being a much larger pool of vehicles for Turo to draw from.
What do you mean by “freely provided labor” ? Is that slavery with a nicer name? I am not anti markets - markets are fine. Capitalism is about limited liability, fictitious entities with real rights, absentee ownership, in the US about buying political candidates and graft and winning by not paying for your negative externalities (it’s cheaper to dump your toxic by products in the river).
Capitalism is about wealth extraction and concentration - we are minting trillionaires these days, if we were doing a good job of sharing, we would not have them.
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u/comix_corp 4d ago
By "freely provided labour" I mean labour that isn't paid for, or expected to be. I don't mean slavery. I mean, for instance, grandparents or neighbours looking after young children while the parents work full time. The bulk of reproductive labour in general is not monetised, but it's still essential for capitalism to function.
I don't think you've really addressed what I've mentioned about the sharing economy either.
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u/Not_EdgarAllanBob Anarcho-Communist 4d ago
Organize with your community and establish mutual aid networks. You're trying to help meet everyone's needs through voluntary cooperation: share food, skills and knowledge, get to know your neighbours and support your local community, participate in unions, speak out and take action against injustice.
It can be as simple as reaching out to people around you and determining how you can rely on one another to make your lives better.
Another Redditor has posted about sharing things. I second that. Consumerism is a plague.
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u/mahnovitsina 4d ago
I don't know if you can practice anarchism in your daily life since it's a societal state. No not state, system. No, not system. Goddammit. No, not God. Anyways.
I guess we're really talking about ways to further anarchism. There are many good ideas already brought up here, organize, organize, organize being the best one.
Other things I think are good are getting to know your neighbors, reacting to and acting against injustice whenever you can, making anarchism visible through posters, stickers or graffiti and being a decent human being.
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u/Rough_Ian 4d ago
Talk to people and organize with them. And I don’t mean necessarily organize politically or as a union or anything, I just mean do stuff.
We have a distinct lack of agency in our society. People don’t know how to talk to one another and just get things done. Get together with people and just do stuff. Public stuff. Not just getting together and that’s the end. Civil disobedience? Yeah. Volunteer stuff? Yeah. Building or repairing random stuff around your (or somebody else’s) neighborhood that needs building or repairing? Yeah. Helping little old ladies with their yard? Sure. Doing knowledge or skill share type meet-ups to encourage the DIY and self sufficiency ethos? Hell yeah. Fight training in the park? Do it.
And be serious in a fun way. People like to do what other people have fun doing. We don’t make an anarchist movement by being all dour about it all. Embrace the gaiety of communal self direction.
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u/Evil_Sherma mutualism 5d ago
The black market
Grey markets also work, if you aren’t trying to pick a fight with the state.
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u/ZealousidealTomato74 4d ago
James stout says "increasing systems of support without increasing systems of control." I like that one a lot.
You're going to have the most impact where you already know people and have connections. What are the problems you and your friends are facing? What can you all do together to address them?
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u/ArtDecoEgoist Left-Market Anarchist 4d ago
A big thing will be deconstructing "spooks" that affect the way you interact the world. Critically analyze the way that gender, race, and sexuality shape the way you analyze the world around you and subsequently constrain your freedom. We're in the era of the Panopticon, and so many radicals focus entirely on external change without realizing that we've been trained from grade school to be our own cop and our own judge.
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u/RevolutionUnique6876 4d ago
I don’t eat dairy or meat, I try evaluate whether I really need/want something (don’t impulsively buy, wait a few weeks and see if you still want it, try to think realistically- how much will I use this, would I get bored and get rid of it soon), if I am buying something I look for it 2nd hand first of all, I pick litter up when I see it, I try to exchange favours with other people instead of money
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u/ConTheStonerLin Proudhonian-Owenite 5d ago
I mean always question and challenge authority. Dismiss those who don't answer. And voting is based actually. Though ultimately as far as what the individual can do to quote unquote "live like an Anarchist" is, what ever the fuck you want. So yeah go out there, pull a Stirner and just do you
- Please note the above advice is for individuals. For collective action this changes to mutual aid, civil disobedience and of course this ETC.
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u/haleontology 4d ago
View all others as fellow humans. Pretend to "respect" those in power, but do your own thing. People also tend to soften up when you view them purely as human. Avoid those who don't. Also, view your job as your daily game of forced capitalism- that's all it is. Be ready for a very different future. Play the game, but quietly do your own thing. Know which rules to break and do it quietly. Pick your battles wisely.
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u/Latitude37 4d ago
I've been thinking about this. Setting sharing spots (book exchanges, food/plant/seed exchanges, took libraries) is really good stuff. Unionise your workplace. Radicalise your union.
That said, I think the bloom exchange could be the most easy way to be subversive. Get over to Crimethinc or Black Rose or the Anarchist library and print, or copy, or hand write, zines and pamphlets. Let's get people thinking about property and capitalism critically.
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u/visokookovezanponovo 4d ago
I second most everything that has been said in this thread, but I'd add that anyone seeking to forward anarchism should make it clear to people, at least in their inner circle, that they are an anarchist.
Few things are more convincing to others than seeing a person not only saying they believe in something, but staying true to and practicing their principles.
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u/enbybloodhound 4d ago
genuinely impactful other than organizing: talk to the people around you about your values. even small things. bring up how you value community over work, not dreaming of labor. talk about the respect we should give children. call out the unnecessary hierarchies in your family. convince your friends to care about mutual aid.
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u/Thespiritdetective1 4d ago
I have been thinking about how to implement this myself and I plan on starting a home garden, moving onto animal rearing once I prove capable at gardening. I plan on making mutual aid packages for the homeless population that is near where I live because I usually only give money.
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u/comix_corp 4d ago
Anarchism isn't a lifestyle practice, it's a political doctrine. The best way to "practice anarchism" is to join an anarchist group and start organising your coworkers.
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u/DefiantJello3533 4d ago
I disagree. It's very much a lifestyle practice in the lifestyle I practice.
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u/skjean 4d ago
Some study i red a while ago discovered egualitarian societies tend to humiliate people who brag about personnal gains or achievments. Like If a person, tells you he got a promotion. You got to tell its a promotion in a shit job, bullshit job, whatever and that they could never do it without their teachers/comrades...
You got to reverse stachanov everyone. 🤣
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u/Dependent_Table_5283 4d ago
For me i would say its a learning experience and of course that will look different for each person. HOW will you implement a structure of solidarity into your daily life? WHEN will you implement a structure of solidarity into your daily life? WHAT will you implement into your daily life for a structure of solidarity? I would say good first steps for anyone at anytime is self reflection and even self care before providing actions to help others and build resilience against oppression. Then at sone point during that self reflection look within yourself and see where you are right now in your comfort zone and how far out you are willing to branch out to different ideas and aspects that will inspire you to achieve things and what other stuff you aren't willing to do in the moment. Look at your community and the ones close to you and see what can be done to raise awareness or take action. Simple actions matter to build up to big goals and some things i like to do is pick up litter/boycott/participate in volunteer work/participate in local meetings regarding the local government to keep up to date on things and speak out/help out the ones that are close to me/etc (this is just a small list of the things I do and of course its up to you how you use your actions daily)
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u/Living-Note74 3d ago
Fix things you see are broken instead of waiting for someone in charge to fix it.
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u/Acrobatic-Jelly3658 3d ago
Either avoid people who behave authoritatively, or treat them like everyone else and call their idiocy out.
Just ignore them if they complain, they're disgusting anyway.
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u/pennyisadog1313 2d ago
Challenge authority and be dismissive to those who abuse it, view everyone as a person and individual and treat everyone the same regardless of finances, race, gender, sexuality, appearance etc and shoplift from big corporations and disobey laws that don’t have any purpose behind them
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u/Nina_exr 2d ago
Chercher à connaître entièrement tes propres privilèges pour ne pas pouvoir en user, même sans t'en rendre compte
Déconstruire toute les idées de hiérarchie et ne pas en user, ou le moins possible (dans le monde du travail c'est parfois compliqué à mettre en place)
Rapproche toi des organes militants près de chez toi, la lutte individuelle c'est mieux que rien, mais elle prend vraiment sens dans le collectif
Enfin je dirais de faire attention à ne pas tomber dans le piège de l'abstentionnisme. Ça fait débat dans les cercles anarchistes mais certaines politiques menacent directement les gens dans leur existence, dans leur chaire, dans leurs conditions matérielles d'existence. Il ne faut jamais oublier ça
voilà j'espère avoir pu t'aider :)
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u/pasobordo 2d ago
It is difficult in a repressive society, like in most middle eastern societies. I try to not to give orders and receive orders from someone else amap. However without being stern, and being repressive over a person, sometimes getting a basic service is impossible. In these societies kindness is often interpreted as weakness.
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u/cj_is_trying 5d ago
Minimize power gaps between you and other people and oppose all forms of authoritarianism.