Anarchists United?

Some in Portland may have heard of the lemonade stand controversy, where the City of Portland tried to shut down a 7-year-old girl’s lemonade stand and fine her mom $500 after it failed to pass a health inspection. While that is all very lame, it also sheds light on an interesting development.

Since the lemonade stand controversy last month, anarchist groups have been rallying behind the incident as a beacon against bureaucracy. They’re even planning a “lemonade bloc” just so they can stick it to the city. The first thing I wondered was why anarchists are organizing anything? That seemed to defeat the point.

To be clear, Webster’s Dictionary defines anarchy as “the complete lack of government.” So if that is to be believed, then an anarchist is someone who totally rejects the idea of government. That is simple–Molotov cocktails and free people standing on the rubble of a capitol building. No laws to keep you down and no system to direct how you live. The path to a world free of “The Man” to be sure, but are you an anarchist if you’re organized?

It’s hard to say, but what is not in question is how people calling themselves “anarchists” all over the northwest seem to have a habit of being quite organized, managed and united behind this little girl’s lemonade stand plight.

I feel if you are going to rally behind a cause, or against the government, maybe it should be for something meaningful like poverty, education or healthcare. Then again if I were an anarchist I wouldn’t waste my time organizing a lemonade stand with a bunch of teenagers wearing black.