FeralRobot wrote:
Authoritarianism encourages (or indeed, in extreme cases, forces) conformism. For example, conservatives, who are on the authoritarian right, often oppose LGBT rights, immigration etc. (i.e. people who are not like them) and usually are against new forms of expression and the counterculture because they cut against the grain of 'normal' society. Theocracies often punish those who act or think differently (for example, the recent case in Iran of the partying youth who were arrested). This, I believe, is because an important component of authoritarianism is the idea that a doctrine (ideology or religion) can be imposed from above, which means that people have to follow it, and act the same. Anyone acting differently or being different is a 'threat'.
This, I believe, is an easy attitude to internalise, probably because humans already have it: the herd mentality. Authoritarianism encourages, deliberately or otherwise, the herd mentality.
The idea that we should all conform to a standard is harmful to autistic people, partly because we see little need to but mostly because we think differently, see things differently to NTs, so, in many situations, we can't. How many of you have felt pressure to conform to expectations but fell short, or did not know what those expectations were? How many of you have been ostracised, picked on, or have been unable to integrate with your social group in any other way because of this? How many of you have experienced depression, anxiety because of that? How many of you feel awful about yourselves when autism is treated like a terrible disease? I can answer 'yes' to all of those.
Anarchists are of course, by definition, fundamentally opposed to authoritarianism. We (particularly left-anarchists) also usually want to allow creativity to flourish in a free environment where the statement "to each according to his need" really applies, considering that everyone has different needs (evidence:
Why, then, can we not introduce neurodiversity to anarchism? There's aIf the LGBT community can have a branch of anarchism fighting for their rights, we can! Our goals can be to abolish authoritarian "you must conform" systems, challenge the herd mentality, and encourage autism acceptance and move towards an accepting society in which everyone's special needs are met and everyone's abilities and talents are encouraged, not suppressed by hierarchical systems.
So, what do you think?
I tend to prefer the term Libertarian Socialism instead of anarchism because of the negative and deliberately misleading connotations hat has been ascribed to anarchism usually from power systems like the state and others institutions - that is inherently based around destruction and lack of order. This is not true historically particularly in the 19th and early 20th century when huge resistance movements were organised by different groups on the left that came together to fight for longer working hours and better pay etc.
I think it is a little misplaced to conceive of authoritarianism as only harbouring animosity towards racial groups and gay people when authortarianism and totalitarianism also involves deep economic inequality that often breeds others forms of bigotry like racism or homophobia when the public are coerced by governments & conglomerates into turning against other types of citizen. Take western governments that are supportive of gay rights, races & equality of gender yet actively spy on their citizens through the use of spy agencies like NSA and GCHQ. Take western backed coups that are largely unknown to the public and done without their consent. I don't think we'd say a corporation was democratic just because it accepted more women and openly gay people to be on their board because the nature of the corporation itself is to accumulate profit regardless of the cost.
"For each according to his ability, to each according to his need" What about people who are not able to develop their own abilities because of their own disability? Does that mean that they will be a restriction of the welfare state to only those that have in the past contributed to society should be worthy of support. Doesn't it completely undermine the human right to live a decent life regardless of if you've worked or not. It may sound cliché but there is alot of "Yes you can" propaganda going around, it is very similar to the "Just do it" corporate slogan of Nike in the sense that it is encouraging a herd mentality among people that they can become enterprising business minded individuals on their own merit without the need of those annoying products of the social contract called the welfare state. The increasing number of self-employed people in the UK shows that the hard-like adoption of this individualist ideology is working very well in convincing people that they can live without a social safety net that was born out of the social contract. Little do they know that economic circumstances govern how flexible & creative we can be with our time.
I think this is part of the reason the Aspie people I know are far more conforming. They are easily convinced into accepting ideas without proper scrutiny and easily fall prey to trends because they are vulnerable to becoming misinformed.
19 Jun 2014, 11:26 pm
