InsaneJournal

anarchy - 1 a : absence of government b : a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority c : a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government
2 a : absence or denial of any authority or established order b : absence of order </i>

nihilism - 1 a : a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless b : a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths
2 : a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility

Now, kiddos, what do we glean from this? First and foremost, we note that I lived a couple of heavily nihilistic years, but was never an anarchist. Is it possible to be one, and not the other? Yeah, it is. I was under the impression, for most of my teenage years (and if you're counting life in the real world alone, most of my entire life), that the beliefs of the majority were unfounded and downright nonsensical. I should say it started when I was a kid. As soon as I stepped out of my home and into the "real" world that is Hogwarts, I began to see that the people around me, the authority figures I had been...not looking up to, but at least acknowledging as authority figures, couldn't know half as much as they said they did. As soon as I had "mudblood" friends, it confirmed everything I ever suspected about my parents being a right pair of horse bollocks. Some of them were just as stuck up as my cousins, and some of the ones with legit muggle parents were brighter than I was. (Or more studious, at least.)

What I decided, was that I had to know everything I could about everything the adults were decrying. If it wasn't healthy? I ate it. If it was too dangerous? I got hurt doing it. If it was stupid? I willingly made myself look like an idiot. And what I learned - again - is that adults don't know what they're talking about. The ideas adults have are the same ideas adults have had for centuries. Thousands of years, even. I would venture to say that since time began, most adults have grown from good little children who absorbed at least 3/4 of what their parents said and did, and took it to heart. Maybe they were docile, maybe they were afraid of retribution, or maybe they were just stupid.

But whatever they were, they weren't right. Kids? (And I know this is only reaching a small, small lot of you, since some other adults in this world have got it into their heads that I shouldn't even be alive) Don't do what the big people tell you. I know, you're all good at this. But keep it in mind, because from what I'm hearing, it's going to get hard, this year. Don't listen. Don't follow. Don't stop poking your noses into other people's business. Question whether or not the beliefs around you really are founded.

There're more idiotic beliefs and traditions in the world than you'll realize, at first. You'll think we nihilists are immature, selfish people, until you start looking around you. I'm thinking of Hermione, here. She's a good kid, but I know she's going to doubt what I'm saying, on some level, if not many. But pause, here. If she doubts what I'm saying, she's doing exactly what I advise.

Now...I got ahead of myself, there. Anarchy. How was I a nihilist, and not an anarchist, at the same time? Because, while I decided most of what was going on in the heads of everyone around me was rubbish, I did understand, and respect on a certain level, that you can't always disrupt the social order and be right about it. Sounds strange, coming from me, does it? It's not. I was a fuckoff layabout in school, but what did I do, when I got out? I trained to join the aurors, and if any job has ever claimed to protect the status quo, that's the one.

I believe (and again, it may come off as strange to hear me say this, unless you know me very, very well) there's something to be said for the established order, and that is, it keeps people happy. People are happy, as long as the world works (primarily) in the way that it always. What most anarchists fail to understand is that a truly lawless world wouldn't make anybody happy. It wouldn't even make the anarchist happy. I mean, who the hell would be? I'd be right pissed if everyone I know could do whatever they wanted to me, or in front of me, all day long. It's no good.

Inevitably, someone will want order again. And then, who's left to rule? The other anarchists? You gotta be kidding. Anarchy, like socialism, sounds lovely and soft and ideal on paper. In real life - nightmarish. But anarchy, like most other nightmarish things, has a purpose to serve, because anarchy is not only a system of non-system (think too hard about that, and you might puke), but a call to action: denial of any authority or established order.

So let's go back to the advice you didn't ask for. The Ministry is denying you, aren't they? You've told them what's true, and it's right in front of their faces, and they still won't believe it. Do the same straight back. Laugh in this Umbridge broad's face (or at least the back of her head) at every chance you get. Anarchy is the only solution to totalitarianism.

Moving on.

Anarchy may well be the only solution to old ham in this house, too. Someone go to the market. I'll throw a chair over. Don't think I won't.