The Mutuality Principle.

Anarchism is more than a mere political theory. It is a philosophy of ethics and of sociology, of relationships and organizations. It is ethical, social, individual and institutional. It is a theory which aims to deconstruct and destruct, the illegitimate gorgon like  state and it’s accompaniments, the established economic order of Capitalism.

From this ,we see that as humans we require a new way to relate to each other. We must look to each other as part of the same human family, despite our differences. Our benevolent treatment of others strongly follows from this recognition of others as like us. To focus on the knowledge that others suffer and rise to the heights of joy  exactly as we do is a hugely humbling and unifying thought. It is the seeds of the revolution.

Socialism has longed been mocked for it’s over sentimentality, it’s solidarity and it’s unifying call. Yet many people around the word are drawn to and accept the sentiments which can lead to anarchist conclusions and feed the wellspring of those emotions so nourishingly.

We are the products of a universal progression of affairs from the beginnings of time, under the skin we are one. If you strictly adhere accept and keep to mind these understandings, then it does not take much to work out the beginning of anarchist principles. That you do not desire to be the subjected, the oppressed, the slave should tell you all you need to know. Others feel likewise. The Golden rule is clear enough for you to see : do not do to others what you do not wish to have done to yourself. With this in sight, we see this rationale has passed through the ages worldwide. It has not dared been applied to the political realm.

Why should we seek only mutually beneficial relations(The Mutuality Principle)? Because others are living beings like us. What we do not wish for ourselves we should not wish for others, on pain of contradiction. Hierarchy is not an ideal which is meaningful given universalizability.

The unsatisfied might ask why not? Because government has no master and  those wishing for government in that suffer a contradiction, because hierarchy is degrading to our human as experiencers of life, it is dehumanizing, and to see that and know it to be true, it does not make sense to wish to see  it become universal. In this sense we can see that the ethics of Kantianism of some kind and Anarchism do not necessarily stand apart. In fact everyone accepts them to some degree , albeit maybe inconsistently.

From the mutuality principle we derive the core of anarchism: Anti-statism, Voluntaryism, opposition to unused land, opposition to landlords, opposition to rent, to profit, to interest, opposition to bosses, worker self-management,   and most important of all ,opposition to hierarchy- the grading of humans into categories of ‘lesser’ and ‘superior’ on arbitrary, meaningless or irrelevant criteria.

So it appears, the grounding for anarchism was there all along and from it voluntaryism and together the project and philosophy of anarchism.