civil wars and violent revolutions. A concept held in esteem by activists like Leo Tolstoy,

Noam Chomsky, and Mahatma Gandhi. So, what is it?

Anarchy, very simply, is a state of being without any government or authority. The original

concept of anarchy was born alongside, and in response to, the concepts of democracy

and other political systems.

But it wasn’t until later, around the 18th and 19th centuries that modern anarchist philosophy

was fully developed in Western countries. Following the French Revolution, anarchism

gained prominence as a political alternative to theocracies or monarchies, and as an attempt

to achieve total equality by eliminating authoritarian roles. However, as Noam Chomsky and other

academics have admitted, it is somewhat of an unrealistic utopian theory.

Many forms of modern anarchy are political ideologies that hold the government responsible

for the world’s problems. Because there are many forms of state control, there are

many different forms of anarchy. For example - Anarcha-feminism says that the hierarchies

of the state lead to patriarchy, which leads to oppression. Green-Anarchism states that

environmental exploitation is a result of capitalist government policy. And despite

the violence commonly associated with anarchy, Anarcho-Pacifism holds that it is the state

that creates unnecessary political violence, and should therefore be abolished.

In fact, violence is not an intrinsic part of modern anarchism, as many believe. Tolstoy

and Gandhi specifically petitioned against all forms of violence. And Chomsky has said

that, quote, “[anarchy] is not… people running around the streets… breaking store

windows, [it’s] a conception of a very organized society… with as little control as is feasible”,

end quote. While violence is still controversially used by some groups of anarchists, in order

to destroy systems of government, many anarchists renounce it.

A lot people would agree that anarchism is a good idea, in theory, because it promotes

both freedom and egalitarianism. However, in practice, it would be difficult to perfect.

As Chomsky explains, anarchy is a response to oppressive political movements rather than

as a stand-alone system of government.

Democracy is another political theory that is often more hard to understand than you

might think. To learn more about what democracy really looks like, check out our video here.

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