The Anarchist Mentality

My last girlfriend was and remains an Anarchist.

I have to admit that living here in suburbia that one doesn’t get to meet or have everyday interaction with a real Anarchist so it was a bit of a shock to the system upon the revelation of that Anarchist attitude toward our society as it is presently.

We met on an Internet dating site and she lives in the city of Boston.

The thing that attracted me to her was that we had similar backgrounds. I was born into the projects of the City of Boston and she was born into the projects of New York City. We both had gone to public school, were around the same age, liked many of the same things culturally and were, essentially, city dwellers. We were both employed although she works for a public radio station in the city and I work in the private sector out in the burbs.

What I didn’t like about the relationship was her attitude. Her attitude politically, in my opinion, was disturbing.

It wasn’t that she was a Liberal, because she was and I could deal with that, but also her distain for and desire to destroy the pillars of what had built in the United States from the very beginning. The tenants of Capitalism, self reliance, of working hard to build wealth, private ownership of property and even Democracy when it got in the way of what was "Right".

She wished for the whole system to collapse, the economic system, the political system, our society and yes, our Constitution, the document upon which is was all built, to be done away with. This was unbelievable to me.

I would ask “Well doll, what would you propose we replace it all with?” No clue. She didn’t care about that part. “You know, I continued, this will hurt not just the well-to-do but the working class and yourself as well. If the system is destroyed, wouldn’t you lose everything too?” She didn’t care about that either. It was only important that the people who were in power lost theirs and the consequences to her, her family and her friends were secondary.

This is the mind of the Anarchist. They don’t care who gets hurt or what happens afterward, they only wish to tear down what is there now. There is no thought of "after". 

Greece is currently displaying the Anarchist Mentality as it has been plying its Con Game with the European Union. Greece didn’t join the EU to be a part of something greater, they joined because they saw an opportunity to scam some money from some high-minded aristocrats who traditionally had looked down their noses at them. They saw an opportunity to spend other people’s money because they know that once established, the EU would throw more money at them to hold it together. Now when they’ve pushed the EU monetary ministers to their breaking point, Greece, which has already stated that they are in War Mode, will only work to pry the EU apart. Too bad the EU didn't believe it when they first heard this said. 

But this is what Anarchists do. It’s Comeuppance. To them, it’s what the EU deserves for taking home a sick, half-dead rattlesnake and nursing it back to health. They should have known better. You cannot expect gratitude from a snake. 

One place where I think the paths of my ex-girlfriend and I diverged was when my family had to enter the projects in Roxbury, my mom, who was the head of the household, remained working. We were in public housing but we didn’t go on the welfare track. She had always worked from a young age, from fighting boys for the coal that fell off railroad coal bins as the trains passed by during the first Great Depression and then in the war factories of WWII. She ran a giant turret lathe and drilled cannon barrels for tanks. She always told us how the oil that lubricated the drill wreaked havoc with her complexion. When the boys came home from the war, the women were let go and told to start families. The work ethic stayed strong and when she was left widowed with three children, she went back to work.

In the projects, where few people actually got up everyday and went to work, Ma got up every day and went to work. We saw this. This is how the work ethic is built. There were things we couldn't do with her because she was working. There were things she couldn't do with us because she was working. That's why they call it "work". This also fostered resentment among those who did not work and there were tensions, threats and sometime physical violence which myself and my older brothers had to deal with. Me being the youngest, I became the easiest target for some of this. We were different and the "so, you think you're better than me?" mentality was evident. This is a divide for the ages. When they couldn't get to us, they went after my mother's car and that had to be defended too on occasion. And one of my most vivid memories was one winter when ma slipped on the ice, fell hard, hitting her head and then getting up and still going into work. She said the next day that she doesn't remember a thing about the day or what she did.

Back then women weren’t viewed as the bread winners and you only got your start as a secretary. A secretary salary only goes so far.  Still, through hard work, taking college courses at night and seeking higher opportunities, ma was able to work herself into a better position to get the family out of the projects which she eventually succeeded when I was halfway through elementary school and my brothers were entering junior high school. She bought a house, not the best house, in a suburb of Boston in a blue collar neighborhood. Up to the time we could work, we never asked for money.

Neither I nor my three brothers went to our high school Proms. We didn’t go on school trips that required money. We didn’t go out to eat much except for an occasional trip to McDonald’s or Howdy’s and a big trip was going to Lake Pearl way out in Franklin, MA to swim. When we got old enough to work, we saved every dime and contributed to the house. One brother and I both worked our way through college, myself through night school. We took nothing and we owed nothing. 

My girlfriend’s upbringing paints a different picture. When her family came to New York from Puerto Rico, they went on public assistance even though they had an intact family unit since her father and mother, who were married, were together. She lived in public housing right up until she graduated high school and went to college. College was paid for through the State since she lived in public housing and was “poor”. The family was all this time on the welfare system. She went to the University of New York and also got her master’s from prestigious California University, all on the public arm.  She now works for a “non-profit” communications group funded by the State and by listener contributions making a better wage than I do. Was that life hard for them? I bet it was but it was very different from my experience growing up.

So it stands to reason that she would be All In on the Welfare State since all that she is today is because of it. The gulf between us was wide and deep and although I was very fond of her, our relationship was doomed.

One time I noted that my organization really likes to hire minorities and would do so at every opportunity yet, due to the nature of the work, most don’t tend to stay long. She asked me what kind of community outreach we were doing to correct this “problem”.

My reply was, after “Are you fucking kidding me?!” was that we are an equal opportunity employer and if someone, anyone, can’t make an effort to apply (online even) and walk in our door for an interview, what good will it do to go looking for them? Success does not cater to the unmotivated. Community outreach indeed. We have plenty of Portuguese employees since we are located on the south coast of Massachusetts, THEY are a minority group and THEY seem to have no trouble finding the place.

This is a fundamental rift of the entitled. They hate the very system that hands them everything and they should since we’re doing nobody any favors by giving them the very things they could earn themselves if given half a chance. In this instance the Welfare State served only to create and support Anti-Capitalists and Anarchists.  

At least one that I know anyway.

One sees people doing well and works to get ahead like they did and the other just wants to take it away from them by force if necessary as if somehow they cheated them or others to get where they are and are keeping them down through The System! If only they were allowed to make it so.

But there are many others just like her who work with us, walk among us and are currently in our government. Judge the actions and not the words but their words give them away if we actually take the time to listen to them. Anarchists tell us everyday what they are after. We just refuse to believe it. 

Because of the situations of our upbringing, both of us were left with chips on our shoulders. But only one of us wants to destroy what another has built. Sure there is corruption but there is plenty that was built the right way, through hard work, commitment and capital risk. Capitalism may not work for everybody but no system does and we only need to view history to tell us how well Socialism has worked.

Socialism has sunk Greece. It sank Venezuela and Brazil. It will sink Spain. It will sink Italy. And it will most certainly sink the United States of America so yes, my ex will most likely get her wish and feel good about being a part of its downfall. The white European majority, whatever that really is, will fall. But what then?

Zimbabwe got rid of the Europeans and within a year after many of them were drinking out of mud puddles and dying of Cholera in the streets while their economy collapsed and the nation fell to ruins. It’s still a ruin.

But they didn’t care. Anarchists don't think that far ahead. It wasn’t about them living; it was about destroying the white farmers and taking what they had built. That was all that mattered. They neither thought nor cared where the food was going to come from. They didn’t know shit about running a farm but they drove out the ones who did because that’s what Anarchy does. It destroys indiscriminately and without a plan for the future.

Once the Communists gained power in Russia, they quickly learned their plans didn’t work but still took 78 years to collapse. The misery the people of Russia suffered under the Soviet Union is well documented and heart rending.

All the Marxists cared about was taking power, what happened after that was not important and subject to improvisation.

Anarchists can’t run a country. Terrorists can’t keep the lights on.

They can only destroy.