The units of society […] can deprive all such antisocial adults of political rights (except the old, the sick, and those dependent on private or public subsidy)
Freedom to live […] even at the expense of individuals who voluntarily tolerate one’s exploitation.
[Whoever] wants to live in society must earn his living by his own labor, or be treated as a parasite who is living on the labor of others.
-Mikhail Bakunin, Revolutionary Catechism
If society were only relieved of the waste and expense of keeping a lazy class, and the equally great expense of the paraphernalia of protection this lazy class requires, the social tables would contain an abundance for all, including even the occasional lazy individual.
-Emma Goldman, Anarchism: What It Really Stands For
[The] most tempting delicacies ought to be kept for the sick and feeble – especially for the sick. Say that if there are only five brace of partridge in the entire city, and only one case of sherry, they should go to sick people and convalescents.
-Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread
From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!
-Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme
[Humanity] will inevitably be confronted with the question of advancing further from formal equality to actual equality, i.e., to the operation of the rule “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”.
-V.I. Lenin, The State and Revolution
Everytime I read anarchist theory I wonder what they actually want.
“What do we want?”
“We don’t know!”
“When do we want it?”
“Time is authoritarian!”
This is what they want, not necessarily what they’ll get.
You can extrapolate a lot from these three pillars but ultimately anarchists are anti-civilisation, what they want is not to build, but to destroy. They’ll say they want to build “a new world on the ashes of the old” but the rebuilding part will never come. They would be perfectly okay living as foragers if it meant they could fuck about all day and just do stuff whenever they feel like.
You have to look at the common denominator in an ideology that has given us anarcho-egoism, anarcho-illegalism, anarcho-communism and others (anarcho-teenagerism lol, no bedtimes and no school). Or in other words, why do they flock towards the banner of anarchism to flesh out their niche ideology instead of making it stand on its own?
Anarchy is the ultimate “fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me”. Building a society on top of that is just a nice thing that could happen; if it doesn’t, whatever. The point of anarchism is that you get to satisfy whatever selfish desire you have. In my opinion, that’s the reason their theory regarding revolution and its immediate consequences is so lacking and idealist.
In the interest of accurate portrayal of anarchists, it should be mentioned that Bakunin had this to say about authority:
Mikhail Bakunin, What is Authority?
Edit: Emma Goldman however said this:
-Emma Goldman, Anarchism: What It Really Stands For
It is I who decide the authority, ideology of narcissists.
Same. I used to lean towards anarchism early in my radicalization process, but then I read anarchist theory; the selfishness and idealism turned me away from reading more of their theory. Then I read The State and Revolution and realized I was far from an anarchist, I was merely a heavily propagandized baby Marxist Leninist!