Becoming an Anarchist ?

When I talk to people about anarchism, they all think the same thing at first : anarchy = violence. I wasn’t thinking that myself before looking more into anarchism, but I must admit I had strong bias concerning anarchy.

For instance I was surprised when I found out that Gandhi was considered by some people to be an anarchist… but it makes sense since he was fighting the stat.

So all this is called anarcho pacifism, and we can also talk of philosophical anarchism.

Anarcho-pacifism (also pacifist anarchism or anarchist pacifism) is a form of anarchism which completely rejects the use of violence in any form for any purpose.

Philosophical anarchism is an anarchist school of thought which contends that the State lacks moral legitimacy but does not advocate revolution to eliminate it. Though philosophical anarchism does not necessarily imply any action or desire for the elimination of the State, philosophical anarchists do not believe that they have an obligation or duty to obey the State, or conversely, that the State has a right to command.

This kind of anarchist view is less “extreme” and it seems that some of the philosophical anarchists like William Godwin accept the idea of a minimal state (minarchism). I will discuss minarchism later on, since this is an interesting theory.

Well all that sounds really nice, but can it lead to change ? We fall back once again to my question on the effectiveness and justifications of riots. I guess history showed that both the approaches worked (e.g. the French revolution, and the Indian Independence Movement)…