Anarchy: The Only Thing That Exists
Because Christ is King, any other is false.
Notice the necessity of coercion in worldly governance, it is a mark of illegitimacy.
Without actual authority, coercion is necessary to force compliance, there is no other option.
Mutual, voluntary, cooperation is the mark of those who comprehend the authority of Christ.
Those who either do not comprehend, or actively rebel against Christ, like Lucifer, attempt to make their own twisted and depraved version of the Only Kingdom.
-This is of course a great honor given to God, that His creation desires to be more fully like their Creator.
-However, there are times when we should be like ourselves.
Anarchy is the only thing that remains. No gods-but Yahweh, no kings-but Christ, no masters-but the Lord.
It is justice, that no human being stands over another human being in judgement.
Injustice, as a negation, is inherently unstable, and thus human and demonically prompted attempts at usurpation, will never stand for any great length of time.
The only response to these injustices, is that given by Christ: render to Caesar, what is Caesar's.
-Nonviolent, subversive, resistance is the limit. Descending into unjust violence, is the first step towards unjust usurpation, and thus, the first step towards evil.
-Taking Christ as exemplar: arrest and death is a real possibility, but that is no reason to shrink back from resistance to evil.
A major barrier to just resistance, is clinging to the perceived benefits of the usurpers via greed.
Unchecked consumerism, fear of being thrust into a position of being branded a troublemaker, sedate many into not engaging in the work of mercy and justice to resist usurpers.
The work is difficult, it requires working and living outside the sphere of influence of usurpers:
-Making raw materials.
-Crafting things from those raw materials.
-Making monetary systems.
-Aiding others in escaping the sedated masses.
A useful methodology to implement this work of resistance, is nomadism:
-Unbridled consumerism is difficult when you have to carry everything you own with you from place to place.
-In all things the nomad must rely on God completely.
-Many will hate nomads for various reasons, so a good reputation will be difficult to obtain in the first place.
However, many other attempts are useful and necessary: ascetic lives, hermetic lives, communal lives.
As we have done throughout the ages, guided by the Spirit, we must continue, as we follow the direction-and act in the strength-given by Christ, our true and only King.
Of course, anarchy as a concept has a long and venerable history, it is not necessarily sensible to force it to fit the reality I am attempting to express.
Conviviality, as extrapolated by Ivan Illich, might fit better. To be convivial, is to have autonomous, creative intercourse among persons and between individuals and their environment.
Like anarchy, the emphasis is on mutual, voluntary, cooperation. Without room for coercion, violence, or intimidation.
However, conviviality does not encompass the discussion of if there exists natural hierarchies present within (or outside of) the cosmos.
Obviously, for one who follows Jesus, there is at least a hierarchy between God and Humanity.
However, this single hierarchical structure does not imply the existence of further structures. Also, due to what we know of the relationship between God and Humanity, there does not exist within it any coercion or violence. Which in and of itself lends credence to the inevitability of at least conviviality, if not anarchy.
Due to God not pressing His existence upon us by force, traditional anarchy, with it's "no gods, no kings, no masters" is also a credible comprehension of reality.
But for us who follow Christ, it is better to take up the title of convivial, and leave the title of anarchy to those who do not wish to consider the existence of a creator.
Convivial, with it's roots in the Latin convivium, is also a apropos for us Christians, due to it's inherent festal connotations.
The Eucharist, holding the pride of place in the Christian life, is the highest expression of conviviality: a feast and sacrifice, where both God and Humanity brings what it has to offer, and rejoices in communion.
We see this mutual cooperation, which brings great joy, and makes difficulties bearable with the action of a voluntary community, breaking through in human history again and again.
Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker, recounts in her autobiography The Long Lonliness, how people came together to help each other after the San Francisco earthquake. She chased that reality of conviviality for the rest of her life. It's near in glory to the Eucharist, which is near in glory to Heaven.
Conviviality, when it happens, is the breaking-in of the Kingdom of God into this brutal and fallen world. Convivial action brings light and peace, in a cancerous way destroying the darkness and distress that haunts our daily life.
Where charity and love prevail, there God is ever found.
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