Baby Steps and Strange Bedfellows

I've been staring down the barrel of political ideologies for quite awhile now. I want to report back a few things. First I'd like to point out that most people are mostly right with the stereotypes about the various ideological goals. The problem is very little of those 'most people' have an understanding of the functionality or outcome of those ideological goals. Secondly I'd like to point out that the more one learns about political ideologies, the more one learns they don't exist. No matter what you say about a political ideology, someone is going to say you're wrong. You think you've been told you're generalizing and using hyperbole calling a politician a socialist? Wait until you're steeped chin deep in a political ideology, and to use one misplaced letter you'll be ostracized as exactly the opposite of everything those people believe in. Or to put it simply, people are unreasonable, and they don't actually know what their own ideology is.

Anarchism

Anarchism, in a simple definition, is the goal of having a stateless (no government)society. No private ownership of land, no laws, no voting, no officials, just people agreeing to deal with each other.

Where it gets murky: The issue of crime. While not having laws means there can't technically be a criminal,many anarchists(you see how easy it is to slip into "hyperbole" and this is why Wikipedia flat out doesn't allow words like this) believe in a concept of individual rights. The solution to a person violating these rights is a collective appeal. How this would work, I don't know. Speculation varies wildly.

Socialism/Communism

When Marx and Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto there were many different kinds of socialism, so they came up with the term "Communism" to differentiate their socialism. They considered the terms interchangeable, as I gathered from Engels explicitly stating that in the Manifesto. The fact that there is now an ideology called "Marxism" should be enough to let you know the shit gets thick from here.

One common definition distinguishing the two is saying socialism is an economic ideology, and Communism a social ideology. Either way, they are quite intertwined.

Basically, generally, simplistically, Communism seeks to have all people in the world united, all means of production belong collectively to everyone, the transition from status quo will be to eliminate everyone in power, eliminate all governments, and ultimately have a united global body of people who are in charge of themselves. The state is all the people, so all the people will have the power and the money, universal everything (healthcare, education, etc.). Socialism if it is to be distinguished as an economic ideology, is the process of eliminating business owners. Putting the power of all the money into the hands of the people, effectively this is by giving the government authority over all the money.

Where it gets murky: When your ultimate goal is a global collective detailing exactly how all people and money and leadership and society is controlled, there's bound to be disagreements on fine details. Thus you not only have dozens of broad definitions of each ideology, you have a plethora of various titles.


Why Anarchists work with Communists

Watch any G4, G8, G12, WTO meeting held anywhere in the world. Tons of protesters. Notice their flags. Communists and Anarchists hand and hand. This isn't hyperbole. Since the days of union busting in the turn of the century Anarchists and Communists have been working together. It took me awhile to understand why.

It is in chaos where they unite. Communism and Anarchism both seek the elimination of the state. And when you get down to it, long past all the process and "means" the end goal of Communism and Anarchy are very similar. Both end goals wish for a world of no government, no individuals vested with authority, everyone working together collectively to deal with problems. Societies bound together socially with no tiers or classes or private property. In fact, altogether all I can think of that differentiates Communism with Anarchism is how people are dealt with by the collective. In Anarchy a person wouldn't be forced to do anything unless they've done wrong to a person/people. In Communism you really won't have any choices.