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@cliveo
Oliver
There was a stereotype of anarchists painted at the turn of the last century of bearded men carrying bombs. The type of characterture drawn by Joseph Conrad in his curious (and curiously popular) book The Secret Agent. This was wrong. Reading the English language literature of that time, such as Goldman and Berkman, makes clear that anarchism was very different. It was a real political force expressed in many different ways from Mutualism, Christian Anarchism and Communit Anarchism among many others. Some was violent by origin (such as Berkman's attempt on the life of Frick) and some violent by necessity (such as the Black Army of Makhno) and some non violent or pacifist. Opponents of anarchism, whether from the left or right, however, were happy to paint a stereotypical picture and allow that to permeate in order to discredit anarchism.
Today, other stereotypes abound. One of these is of anarchists being somewhat unkempt and ill-washed and being vegan. This is not to say that all anarchists are like that. It is to say that the Daily Mail and, probably the Socialist Worker, would like us all to think of anarchists in that way, in order to detract from the simple beauty of arnarchist thought.
I was simply challenging the need to button hole anarchists into part of that stereotype.