The recent political thermostat is on the fritz as rioters and protesters erupt worldwide begging for social equality. History is being made and as many sit on the sidelines witnessing protests evolve into riots condemnation is quickly cast on the rioters. Anarchists are typically behind riotous endeavors. Contrary to their label these groups tend to be very organized with elected leaders. They operate under many fundamental beliefs grounded in the premise that capitalism is not a natural order and its infectious falsehood corrupts pure human interactions and turns everything into a monetary transaction where working-class people are often exploited.

Anarchists believe that there is an active war against equality in societies where capitalism and its long history of exploitation of lower-class workers, is present. Society’s actions against working-class people are violent so they respond with violence, in one voice, under the same masked face. They act like the agent, responding to a bodily infection. In their eyes, they are not the aggressors they are the white blood cells, which gather into puss at the site of a gaping wound alerting the body of infection. Although they may cause discomfort from build-up and inflammation their goal is to eradicate the issue aggressively to ensure the infection does not spread.

Anarchists understand the political weight of the media and will commit acts such as flag burning to make sure that a protest makes it on TV. If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, yes of course it makes a noise, but if Channel 5 covers the tree’s decline on national television, then millions of viewers hear the tree fall, see it fall, and start discussing it with their friends. They escalate movements without regard of institutionalized fear because the police merely represent the replicated force of the infection.

Some anarchists operate under organizations and treaties others erupt into anarchy naturally when other methods have failed. It is evident, after examining a brief history of effective protests, that a movement either needs a large mass of people (Women’s March 2017) or a forceful/violent mechanism (MLK Birmingham Campaign.) Once you have both a large mass with violent protest you have a revolution (Egypt 2011-2016, French Revolution 1789-1799, American Revolution 1765-1783.) I do not separate violence by protestors from the violence of law enforcement or other opposition of a movement from one another. It is clear when you study the “peaceful” protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that there was much violence in these protests enacted on protestors by citizens that disagreed with them and law enforcement. That makes these protests violent because it was not by chance that these officers became enraged and attacked protestors but because the leaders of these protests knew how to agitate their opponents to violence without striking first. Also in the American Revolution those who fought in the resistance as radical crusaders against the crown of Great Britain were breaking the law when they took up arms against government soldiers.

Now, agitation has escalated because individuals have become so desensitized to the rights of others. So many witnessed the marches in Ferguson on the news go from vigils and night gatherings, prayer circles and singing in the streets, to fires and looting. People began to judge the rioters asking, “What is wrong with them? They don’t want justice they’re setting their own neighborhoods on fire. What do they expect to accomplish? What are they selling? What’s their goal here?” Instead of looking at the rioters as people, a trait which anarchists attribute to capitalism, they suggest that we view others as we view ourselves and begin all question from a place of introspection asking, “What would drive me to do that? What would motivate me to madness? What would push me to burn down my neighborhood? How could our country get this bad? What do I do to listen better to my neighbor?”

People riot because they are pissed. It is not miraculous, there is no formula, and this will not be on the final exam. The message of anarchists is that we need to awaken from a deep slumber about the methodologies, reasoning, and money trail that our government is making. We need to see violence as violence regardless of police licenses handed to them by crooked governments. We need to see each other as equals, truly as equals. We need not ask, “Have they lost their minds?” We must begin asking ourselves, “Why does my neighbor suffer?”

Tune in next week for a breakdown of the many kinds of protests.