When I began my political journey which began with Peoples history of the United States and to the Communist Manifesto and the writings of Marx, Engel to Lenin and now Mao in parallel I also learn about Anarchism, historical and modern. I am not trying to dog on Anarchists because we both have the same overall enemies but when it comes to theory I just realized how little theory there is. It’s largely philosophical and critiques of hierarchy and the state, it seems it has its foundations in idealism which I guess would make it more Hegelian? I am a Marxist I try to keep idealism out of my thought and keep to material realities domestic and global.
Marxism is the theory of scientific socialism, Leninism is the extension of Marxism applied to the early 20th century developments of capitalism and imperialism and colonialism. Finally Maoism which while not the same thing as Mao ZeDong thought incorporates things like the cultural revolution. Each theory provides not just “theory” but theory put to practice and tested. Anarchists point to people such as the Zapatistas who don’t consider themselves Anarchists but rather have Anarchists, Communists etc. in their ranks and in general anti capitalists, so to use them as some kind of ideal of Anarchism is dishonest at best. The best example of an actual Anarchist movement establishing itself was the CNT-FAI, let me know if I’m wrong but they did receive a little support from Soviet soldiers but didn’t military itself have an issue with discipline? Don’t get me wrong anarchists are great fighters but the lack of adherence to central structure can create issues won’t it?
Anyways there are times when I’ve seen Anarchists criticize Communist MLs or MLMs for adhering too closely to theory and even Mao spoke of what he called book worship, theory is a guide not a bible of strict rules to follow, and while it is something that can happen to comrades it’s not something that normally happens. It’s this unified theory which strengthens us, not just theory but theory that’s been put to it’s paces and put to practice and tested and continues to do so even to this day such as in the Philippines when it comes to young revolutions. If there are Anarchists out there it seems that they usually join the MLs or MLMs when the conditions of revolution reveal themselves and I think that says more about Anarchism in practice than Marxism Leninism, Marxism Leninism Maoism.
Just my thoughts
I totally agree. I really wanted to be an anarchist, since I like punk rock and the asthetic and the idea of federalized communes with no central authority and no hierachy. It was a long and dissapointing journey learning exactly how unrealistic anarchism is and how little historical relevency, or how it is basically only believed in the west in well to do countries. I swallowed the propaganda about China and the USSR under Stalin because other Anarchists believed it. I thought that MLs were the ones only in it for asthetics, I thought MLs were pretentious for using words like “scietific” to describe socialism. I eventually learned that Marxism, socialism are just the natural conclusions one comes to when using dielectial and historical materialism. I hear many Comrades talk about the Western leftists obsession with being an underdog because they have been losing for so long, if we assume that than it seems obvious why anarchism is so appealing to many. I maintain that as the material conditions change in America and the rest of the imperial core and possibility of revolution becomes more possible, Anarchists will see who are the disciplined ones making real progress and change thier tune much like you said.
The journey of many leftists includes being swept up by the idealism of Anarchism in their push to get away from the idealism of Liberalism. Then over the course of time, learning that Anarchism is a worse ideology than the one they left and slowly either drifting into a Marxist ideology, or being lost to ideology. Thus, either returning to Liberalism, or drifting into becoming an ultra.
When I finally got myself dislodged from the brainrot of pro-capitalist ideology, I got sucked into Reddit’s Anarchist subs and came to a point of flat out believing anti-communist propaganda simply because that’s what everyone else in those subs believes in. Too many comrades have the same story.