Beneath Every American Flag Flies The Black Flag
White Hats Vs. Black Flags
by The AnaRchRist, a.k.a. Rev. C. Corkrey

For the youth today, it is almost impossible to go through life without someone holding their hand. That someone may be a mother, teacher, priest, or government official. All of these people are aiding in the destruction of the anarchist within us all.

All humans have the innate ability to be responsible for their actions, and make decisions for themselves. Autonomy is not something that is learned; nature gives a species the ability or it doesn’t. Humans have that ability. If allowed to, the true nature of the human race will evolve. However, if the suppression of our natural tendencies continues, society will go on as it has since feudal Europe.

It is the natural abilities of humanity that modern culture strips from us. These abilities are the ones required to function without the bounds of government and conformity. The teacher tells us to love our country and to do our duty, the priest tells us to believe in god and to be humble, and the government teaches us about property and rights. The lies stack up and drown the strength that nature has given us. Anarchism shows us a way to apply the strength and make full use of the potential that we all possess.

The role of the teacher in western culture is that of near divinity. In most classrooms, the teacher is not to be questioned. In the eyes of the young, the teacher is infallible. They know everything there is to know. The teacher, or more appropriately the school system, audits what the students are taught, and in turn what the students think. During childhood, we are taught to say the pledge of allegiance and that our system of government, "democracy," is the best and that it should be instituted world-wide. "The land of the free and the home of the brave," is a statement that is drilled into our heads from an early age.

In the classroom we never hear of Leonard Peltier and the group of Native Americans who took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington D.C. or the battle that later took place on the Sioux reservation. We also rarely hear of the Weatherman movement and their rage across Chicago. The teacher’s job is to give us one view of our country, the world, and our position in it. This position reeks of fascism, and far too many of us refuse to realize it.

The role of religion in our society has long been a detrimental one. The priest, rabbi, or other miscellaneous Judeo-Christian religious figure, takes on a role extremely similar to that of the teacher in the destruction of the strength within us all. Their crime is actually worse.

In western society there is only one fundamental way to view God, our relation to him, and our place in the universe. Religion ties man to the structure of our society, separation of church and state or not. The religious virtue of humility weakens the proud man. Excellence has been replaced with benevolence. The populace is forced to worship a nonexistent being out of fear for its "soul." Religion is responsible for all of these things.

The government is the third, and by far the worst, criminal in this tirade. Governing bodies presume the masses ignorant and irrational. Does one need to tell a rational person not to kill another? In nature, no animal kills without reason. When it does, that reason is for protection or food. If it kills for no reason, it is sick and will eventually be killed in its destructive advances. Man is the same; man is an animal. Religion tries to remove man from his existence as an animal, and this position is upheld by government. We can no longer try to live with the opinion that we are outside of nature, somehow removed from the natural world by virtue of our cranial capacity and our relationship with a fictitious being.

If the purpose of government is not to rule the people, as in fascism and our own corrupt republic, then it adopts a savior role, as in socialism and communism. In such systems, the state attempts to bring about social and economical harmony. This goal is in alignment with the aims of anarchism, but the means is off course. Socialism and communism both depend on the state for prosperity. But this over-trust in the state is too great because the power offered by the state can corrupt even the most strong of mind and intent. These states will only crumble when flames lick at their heals.

The constant bombardment with laws tells us we are not able to decide upon actions on our own. It weakens us to the point that we are no longer able to tell the differences between right and wrong without a government decree. Our evolution is based on having an ability to reason. It is becoming increasingly clear that our own ability to ration out what is real and valid in the world is being destroyed and dictated to us.

Our own country buys into this philosophy. The Founding Fathers considered the average person too ignorant to make important decisions. This is evident by our representational democracy, our republic. The very choice of democracy as our form of government was to give freedom, but democracy is as much slavery as is tyranny.

Democracy shares anarchism’s desire for freedom, but fails to address the loss of autonomy from the compromise of majority rule. The premise of majority rule is acceptable for those that are in the majority. When we find ourselves in the majority, our autonomy is safe. When we find ourselves in the minority, we are forced into compliance. At this point autonomy is threatened. We are not necessarily wrong, but matters of right and wrong do not have a say within a democracy, only the majority.

A challenge has been made against the last point. Some people have tried to remedy this facet of democracy by redefining right and wrong. It has been suggested that how the majority votes is right by definition, and all others are wrong. If this premise is taken to be true, then we invite such institutions as slavery into the realm of moral correctness. This notion is an affront to all rational beings. It is a vain attempt to legitimize a flawed system.

Our system is placed even further from autonomy by instituting representatives that aren’t responsible to vote as we would have them. In fact, they tend to be persuaded to vote from monetary influences instead of principle influences. What was set into motion over two-hundred years ago has now become a self perpetuating monster. It will eventually devour itself, but it is unknown what will become of us all in the meantime. Uncertainty about the future is simply a weakening of the illusion of security in our system. If we have no future, we have nothing to fear from changing the present.

Another tenet of our government is that of the right to own property. But, as Proudhon asked, "What is property?" His reply would be that it is theft, liberty, and impossible.

It is theft in the sense of land grants, armed robbery, and feudal fiefs. They are all stolen and not deserved. This is also the most common concept of property in our society.

It is liberty in the sense that in a voluntary society, it would be essential to maintain the liberty of that society. Property in this sense is what no one can rationally deny us. For instance, there is no rational way of denying a man a home that he built himself from materials he gathered on his own.

The impossibility of property is in reference to the first type of property. This definition stresses the futility in maintaining property by force. Property that cannot be rationally defended is waiting to be attacked in the same manner it was originally acquired. This concept of property eventually erodes society and causes it to devour itself in undeclared civil war.

Our society is on the verge of devouring itself. We have become weak in our ways, giving up our autonomy for a false sense of security. We must throw off the bonds of church, state, and school if we are to feel actual freedom. We must foster a strength of character and a sense of pride if we are to look upon the natural world as our own. We should not see life as chaos made orderly by those in power.

For the youth, there are two choices: sit by and watch as we become like our parents, or take up arms either physically or mentally against the injustices within our society. The system of the past generation has become as corrupt and counter-productive as it’s predecessors; it is in need of severe renovation. Revolution is the fate of all systems. The time is now before we become entrenched in that which we have the opportunity to destroy.

Author's Note

I feel that there is nothing wrong with a world full of atheists. I myself have subscribed to that system of belief for several years now. I have yet to be consumed by fire and brimstone.

White Hats refers to a class of youth that are prevalent in high schools and colleges across the country. They are frat-boys, rich-kids, and wanna-bes that all have a stake in the future. They are tomorrow’s conservatives. They gain their name from the white baseball caps they wear that say the name of a school, frat, or sports team.

The Black Flag is longtime symbol of anarchism. First seen during the Spanish civil war among anarchist regiments. Since then the most common use is in the name of the 1980’s punk band Black Flag.

Punk may be dead, but Anarchism is not.

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