Anarchism and Its Aspirations

Milstein, Cindy 2010. Anarchism and Its Aspirations. Oakland: AK Press.

"We're only human," the saying goes, but our humanity is profoundly damaged by the alienated world of control that we inhabit. Anarchism contends that people would be much more humane under nonhierarchical social relations and social arrangements. (Milstein 2010: 12)

Võõrandatud kontrolli maailm. Mittehierarhilised ühiskondlikud suhted ja ühiskonnakorraldused.

The project of liberalism in the broadest sense is to ensure personal liberty. Communism's overarching project is to ensure the communal good. One could, and should, question the word "free" in both cases, particularly in the actual implementations of liberalism and communism, and their shared emphasis on the state and property as ensuring freedom. (Milstein 2010: 13)

Kindlustada isiklik vabadus. Kindlustada kogukonna hüvang. Jagatud rõhk riigil ja omandil kui priiuse kindlustajatel.

Anarchism's great leap was to combine self and society in one political vision; at the same time, it jettisoned the state and property as the pillars of support, relying instead on self-organization and mutual aid. (Milstein 2010: 14)

ühendada self ja ühiskond ühes poliitilises nägemuses. Heitis üle parda. Iseorganiseerumine ja vastastikune abi.

Anarchism understood that any egalitarian form of social organization, especially one seeking a thoroughgoing eradication of domination, had to be premised on both individual and collective freedom - no one is free unless ev­eryone is free, and everyone can only be free if each person can individuate or actualize themselves in the most expan­sive of senses. (Milstein 2010: 14)

Valitsemise hävitamine. Eristada (isikupära anda) või aktualiseerida (tegelikuks muuta) endid kõige avatumas mõttes.

Acknowledging this self-society juggling act as part of the human condition, how can people collectively self-determine their lives to become who they want to be and simultaneously create communi­ties that are all they could be as well? (Milstein 2010: 14)

Kollektiivselt ise määrata oma elusid.

Although it happens at any level of society, one
experiences this most personally in small-scale projects­ - from bike cooperatives to free schools - where people collectively make face-to-face decisions about issues large and mundane. This is not something that people in most parts of the world are encouraged or taught to do, most pointedly because it contains the kernels of destroying the current vertical social arrangements. (Milstein 2010: 15)

Kus inimesed teevad kollektiivselt näost-näkku otsuseid suurte ja igapäevaste küsimuste üle. See sisaldab praeguse vertikaalse ühiskonnakorralduse hävitamise tuuma.

From the start, anarchism was an open political philosophy, always transforming itself in theory and practice. This, too, might be seen as part of its very defini­tion. Anarchism has to remain dynamic if it truly aims to uncover new forms of domination and replace them with new forms of freedom, precisely because of the ever­ present strain between personal and collective freedom. (Milstein 2010: 16)

Avatud poliitfilosoofia. Paljastada uusi valitsemisvorme ja asendada neid uute vabadusevormidega.

Even worse, it can seem like a political praxis of "anything goes" - libertine without the libertarian - without regard for how one person's acts impact another person or community. (Milstein 2010: 16)

"Kõik kehtib" poliitiline praksis.

Enlightenment philosophy gave voice to the ideas of on-the-ground social struggles and, in percolating through society, gradually shattered such self-abnegation with the increasingly hegemonic understanding that everyone has the ability to think for themselves. This, in turn, led to a second idea: if humans have the capacity to reason, then they also have the capac­ity to act on their thoughts. Again, this was an explosive notion, since prior to this, most people were largely acted on by an all-powerful king and/or god, via an all-powerful monarchy and/or church. (Milstein 2010: 18)

Purustas sellise isetuse/enesesalgamise. This sounds like Foucault, e.g. the replacement of monarchy with the power of discourse.

As the
Situationist International would later add, people become spectators of rather than actors in their own lives - lives that are increasingly controlled and deadening, if not deadly, regardless of whether one is "at work" or not. (Milstein 2010: 22)

Inimestest saavad pigem pealtvaatajad kui tegevuses osalejad oma eludes

The state has its own logic of command and control, of monopolizing political power. Anarchists held that the state cannot be used to dismantle capitalism, nor as a transitional strategy toward a noncapi­talist, nonstatist society. They advocated an expansive "no gods, no masters" perspective, centered around the three great concerns of their day - capital, state, and church - in contrast to, for example, The Communist Manifesto's assertion that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." It's not that anarchists didn't take this history seriously; there were other histories, though, and other struggles - something that anarchism would continue to fill out over the decades. (Milstein 2010: 23)

Käsu- ja kontrolli loogika. Poliitilise võimu monopoliseerimine. On teisi ajalugusid ja teisi võitlusi.

From its beginnings, anarchism's core aspiration was to root out and eradicate all coercive, hierarchical social relations, and dream up and establish consensual, egali­tarian ones in every instance. (Milstein 2010: 24)

Anarhismi tuumaks oli algusest peale püüda juurida välja ja hävitada kõik sundivad/kohustuslikud hierarhilised ühiskondlikud suhted.

It makes eminent and ethical sense to experiment with utopian notions. No other political philosophy does this as consistently and generously, as doggedly, and with as much overall honesty about the many dead-ends in the journey itself. (Milstein 2010: 25)

Eksperimenteerida utoopiliste arusaamadega.

First and foremost, anarchism is a revolutionary politi­cal philosophy. That is, anarchism is thoroughly radical in the true sense of the word: to get at the root or origin of phenomena, and from there to make dramatic changes in the existing conditions. Anarchism aspires to fundamental­ly transform society, toward expansive notions of individual and social freedom. (Milstein 2010: 31)

Revolutsiooniline poliitiline filosoofia. Ühiskonda põhjalikult ümber kujundada suurema individuaalse ja ühiskondliku vabaduse poole.

As mentioned earlier, anarchism from the start focused on what appeared as the two biggest stumbling blocks to a libertarian society: capitalism and the state. This pair, sadly, are still the predominant forms of social immiseration and control. Capitalism and statecraft loom large in terms of naturalizing-and thereby being at the root of - this immiseration and control. To survive, they have to make it seem normal that most people are materially impover­ished and disenfranchised as economic actors, and socially impoverished and disenfranchised as political actors. They have to restructure social relations in their own image - as unthinkingly assumed ways of being and acting. (Milstein 2010: 32)

[Riik ja kapital on] valdavad ühiskonna vaesestamise ja kontrollimise vormid. [Riik ja kapital] panevad seda näima normaalsena, et enamus inimesi on materiaalselt vaesestatud ja majanduslikult otustamatud (hääleõiguseta) majanduslikes tegevustes osalejatena ja ühiskondlikult vaesestatud ja otsustamatud poliitilises tegevuses.

Moving beyond capitalism and states would entail nothing less than turning the world upside down, breaking up all monopo­lies, and reconstituting everything in common - from institutions to ethics to everyday life. (Milstein 2010: 33)

Institutsioonide, eetika ja igapäevaelu - kõige, mis on ühine - uuesti moodustamine.