Anarchism: A journey thus far

I am sure that I’m the millionth person to say that I first heard about Anarchy by way of Punk Rock music. It’s something that has become a bit of a cliché but like those millions of people that really is how I first heard about Anarchy at the young age of nine. At the time I didn’t grasp exactly what anarchy was about nor did I get why it was so edgy. I just knew that the word sounded cool and that my parents would give me a weird look while I sung “Anarchy in the U.K.” like so many others must have done before me. Like all those other kids I drew the infamous A and O symbol which means Anarchy is Order on all my note books and school books causing teachers to give me a strange look. Though at the time I thought I was being a pure individual is soon came into contact with other kids that were doing the same exact thing. So we “Little Anarchists” decided to hang out doing what we thought Anarchists did which was listen to loud music and piss people off. Even though we called ourselves Anarchist the notion was still vague.

I didn’t start taking politics seriously until my mid to late teens. I would say seventeen or eighteen up until then I was just a typical troubled youth doing all the typical “rebellious” things. One of the reasons I started to pay attention to politics is because I started to read religious scriptures with a more critical eye. I stopped seeing figures such as Moses, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad as purely spiritually minded people. They were political as well as spiritual for them both were one without separation. I now saw them for what they really were Revolutionaries human beings doing very antiauthority things. Leading people out of Egypt, Smashing idols, giving sermons about the Kingdom of God and achieving bliss without priests or Monolithic buildings. Ounce I saw these people in this way they became real to me not just imaginary people who may or may not have existed. These where people who were akin to the American founding Fathers who wanted to try to deal with human problems and societal issues in a very real way.

It was also around this time where I met a man who would deeply impact my life named Rashad Bey. He taught me Islamic Science as taught by the Moorish Science Temple of America. He gave me my first copy of the Holy Koran (a.k.a. Circle Seven Koran) along with books on American history and the dangers of White Supremacy Privilege. He also gave me lots of books on Native American culture as well as the Sayings of Noble Drew Ali. By studying, learning and growing I began to see society in a much different way. By undoing all that I have been taught by the oppressive school systems I began to look around my surroundings with a critical eye that I just didn’t have before. My friends also became students of Rashad and he dubbed us the “Elmwood Weirdo’s”.

In my curious nature I began to talk to people on a more deeper and intimate level. This is when I realized that most people question nothing and believing that in the end the government will uphold what’s best for the people. Though the American founding fathers would certainly disagree. So I set out to learn what made other people tick. I bought books on capitalism, Communism, Anarchism, and other forms of isms. Keeping in mind everything I learned it became more and more apparent that a society that upheld human dignity above materialism was the right choice to make. To me neither Capitalism nor Communism gives proper value to human life instead making individual human life worthless by either upholding the crowd above the individual or by placing material goods above everyone except the elite few. America for all its Freedoms gives none and gives virtually no value to human life. America has bought and sold the idea that things are better than humans, animals, and the earth itself.

Like my friends I started hanging out at punk shows meeting people weeding out those who claimed to be Anarchists and those who actually were anarchists. Many of them espousing there own philosophy on what Anarchy is or should be which will always be the case if Anarchy is to be realized. Though they may have differed in opinions over certain issues they all respected and loved one another at least the ones in Massachusetts did and still do. Before long I was running in the Boston underground circles along with Chaos magicians, other white people that were taught the Islamic Science (Moorish Orthodox Church), Atheists, Agnostics, varied forms of pagans, purely political, and others purely Utopian. All sharing the spark, the flame, the essence of true freedom to be what you are, as you are, without any outside force trying to decide what you should be. We had the ambition to change the world knowing that we can only change the world around our immediate area. We were and are practical living in a Capitalistic world but not being of it.

For me Anarchy is already a reality in may ways I have lived and live the Anarchists way of life which at its core is to use only what you need, help others, reject the need for false gross power, solve conflicts over tea, and allowing people to be human. That is a simplistic way of putting it but these are important steps to take in order to edge the earth in the right direction. The direction of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Serenity. Here I am roughly sixteen years later still waving the Black Flag.

N©!Abdul Batin Bey 2016