Anarchism & Murder (1)

Violence & Murder, An Anarchist Perspective
by Madilyn Windson aka Madi Mayhem/ Corny Gas/ Fat Stick

Anarchists are always trying to sort out the anarchist perspective on things, but well, anarchist perspective, blah blah, whatever. I'm no authority (ha!) on the anarchist point-of-view, but still, I'm an anarchist and I have a perspective on things, I have to right? At any rate, anytime someone hears you're an anarchist you get immediately barraged by what if scenarios and you, as the minority, must explain each fear away. So, I'll be indulgent this time and get down to it, what if someone was to kill another person?

Maybe surprisingly, this isn't a scenario I have played out much in my anarchic daydreaming. Whatever thought I had paid it was loose and hard to communicate. Perhaps it is because Anarchism forces us to look at everything for the entirety of what it is. Nothing is so cut and dry as it is in law. Law supposes that everything can be fit into it, guilty or innocent, legal or illegal, but those definitions are often too narrow for every
situation, for every person. So rarely are murders committed in total cold blood. There are a great many underlying motives and elements, which led to the incident, most of which, I would say, are directly related to symptoms of a sick society. When property damage is punished more severely than rape and homicide, is it any wonder that human life would be seen as less than precious?

Money is the end all be all in our society. We value the dollar over human health and well being. When we put an end to capitalist and dogmatic thinking, I believe, we can put an end to a great number of violent crimes. When people learn to respect women and are no longer subjected to a barrage of advertisements of women being placed into degrading gender roles, when coercive and demeaning internet porn is no longer an actual addiction, when people have enough money to feed their kids and pay their bills, when people eat food from gardens and not factories, when animals are viewed as equals and not test subjects, when communities cease to be racially and economically segregated, violent crimes will dwindle.

I could go so far as to say disappear, but I am not a utopian. Violence is part of nature and tempers will always flare no matter how happy and healthy a community is. When this happens, all elements of the event must be taken into consideration. The range of punishment could go from shunning, to forcible ejection from the community/region, to, in the most extreme of cases, a return of violence upon the offender, as an act of self-defense and protection. Violence is a tool nature has used for millennia, it can be overused and inappropriate, but other times it can be necessary for self-preservation. When language and reason do not work, one must communicate in other ways. We must be able to protect ourselves and preserve our well being.