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RE: The difference between a LEADER and a RULER...
So when you hear the term anarchist applied to a radical, extremist, or activist that did some aggressive action they are in fact NOT anarchists at all. That's just the media choosing to use that label.
And when I see a group of people with an "Anarchist" sign and vandalizing businesses, is it the media that invent it? I saw it with my eyes!
And what about leaders who become rulers?
No that is people using the sign though they don't know what the sign means. They've seen a punk rock T-shirt or a logo and they associate it with rebellion. They actually buy into the hijacked meaning of the word.
Leaders who become rulers and push the rules upon others are not supported by anarchists.
I can go put an upside down cross on a building. That doesn't mean I am a Satanist. I can go put a right side cross on a building and that doesn't mean I am a Christian.
I can go put a Japanese Zero symbol on a building. That does not mean I am Japanese.
I can go put a hammer and sickle on a building. That does not mean I am communist.
I can go put a Swastika on a building. That does not mean I am a Nazi. That symbol (in fact most of these) existed FAR before the thing which gives them negative connotations.
However, IF I did use those symbols there is also the chance that I do consider myself those things.
As a youth who once drew the Anarchy symbol on notebooks and such beside my heavy metal band logos in the 1980s I can tell you I had no CLUE what Anarchy really meant. I just knew the song Anarchy in the UK and that it was considered rebellious to do it.
I didn't consider it rebelling against the government at the time. It was being young and rebelling at society, and more because it was a fad and I was young and didn't know nearly as much as I thought I did.
:)
EDIT: Basically... the symbol does not make the person. Their ideologies and actions do. A person can draw or make any symbol they want. That does not truly represent what their ideologies and actions are.
EDIT 2: The moment a leader becomes a ruler and people choose to obey their rules that is no longer anarchy and those people are no longer anarchists. If there are rulers then it is not anarchy.
Many people who oppose the established order define themselves as anarchism without understanding its definition. So these opponents give a bad image of the "anarchist" philosophy, not just the media.
Sixty years ago, and still today, I was a contradiction of the established system. We have worked to improve it and not change it ... but we are never satisfied with the changes. Regardless of the structures, I think that men will remain humans.
I cannot disagree with you there. You are likely correct.
Men/Women will also use labels however they damn well please too. :)