Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 16:09:48 -0700
From: "Senex R. Rupicapra" <olgoat-AT-kdsi.net>
Subject: Re: Is anarchism a religion?


come to the Indy and we can hash this out, Bri.

	old goat.
	Love is like the wind:  you may feel it, 
	but the only part of it you can see is the effect.
 	ÐÏ à¡± á

Brian J. Callahan wrote:
> 
> Oh, hell, who died and made Carpo moderator?  If he's bored
> by the topic, he knows where the delete key is.
> 
> I think you find religious tendencies in any political
> belief system.  I think the term "belief system" is right
> on target.  To use a crude analogy, generally the human
> mind does not waste a lot of cpu cycles on recalculating
> the validity of their belief systems once they have
> survived an initial period of inquiry.  This is perfectly
> reasonable, but the problem lies in belief systems that
> encourage and codify this human bent.  Any belief system
> that labels critical inquiry into its foundation as a
> deviation from correct action tends to close the mind of
> the adherents.  That would be most religions and many
> political systems.  Anarchism tends not to do that, but
> since it is by its nature a very amorphous belief system,
> there are certainly anarchists who come to hold their
> beliefs in a way that certainly resembles religious fervor.  
> As you pointed out, some seem to almost worship certain
> anarchists (Kropotkin, Bakunin, Bey, Black--it's not
> limited to any particular flavor of anarchism, IMHO). 
> Still, I think anarchism is less susceptible to this than
> almost any other political philosophy, because a basic
> tenet of anarchism is distrust of authority and leaders. 
> That why I like it, for Kropotkin's sake.  I mean,  holy
> Bakunin, we don't want to be like those Proudhon-cursed
> Marxists, do we?