All This Talk Of Anarchy

By Leif Utne
Published on November 1, 2000

All This Talk Of Anarchy, James MacKinnon,
Adbusters
‘[T]he capital-A-Anarchist is back, and he’s wearing a big black
gas mask and breathing like Dennis Hopper in ‘Blue Velvet.’ He’s
cursing the hippies and climbing the walls of the gated community.’
But what is anarchy, really? Writing in the October-November issue
of Adbusters, James MacKinnon digs beneath the media
images of the Seattle protests–black masks, fires, and broken
windows–and talks to several self-described anarchists about what
makes them tick. ‘After the Second World War,’ says one Catholic
anarchist, ‘the United States was perhaps the chief enforcer of the
notion in the Nuremberg trials that you are demanded to adhere to a
higher standard than the laws and ideals of the country that you
happen to be in, the organization that governs that country, or the
military body that gives you orders. You were held guilty unto
death if you didn’t dissent from them unto a higher standard. But,
within our own political discourse, it’s usually considered
absolutely verboten to invoke that same principle.’
–Leif
Utne
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