Submitted by Raisins in Anarchism

I've had a half decent job for a few years now and my partner and I just got a mortgage and moved into a 3 bedroom house (a baby is on the way). I'm curious what you all think about me having a well paying job and owning property. I've had to accept that I'm invested in capitalism now because obviously I don't want to lose my home or have the property values go to shit so that I waste my 30-year investment. But at the same time I still see myself as an Anarchist.

Is there anyone else here entering their 30s and starting to fold into the system more and more as they age? How do you reconcile your anarchist beliefs with your increasingly establishment life? Can anarchists even really remain anarchists once on the property ladder, thoroughly invested in the markets to protect our capital? Is anarchism as a philosophy really reserved for the young and unattached, or those on the fringes of society?

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kin wrote

To be fair if I had the chance to get a mortgage instead of paying rent I wouldn't think twice.. being poor is a fetish for many, if you ask any poor people they wouldn't think twice if they had a chance to improve their lives. And the majority of anarchists I crossed paths that were from a poor background never fetishized poverty either. (It's different from adhering to consumerism)

I don't think you are less of an anarchist bc you have a work, family or you are paying mortgage. But I would say that being an active consumer and being a landlord for example are out of anarchism. And always there is some shades to commitment levels.. I know people who are more anarchists not knowing a single word of anarchism than long time activists

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256 wrote

What is an active consumer?

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kin wrote

Yeah sorry , my language limitations, but I wanted to say that if you are engaging actively in consumerism, not "I have to buy rice every week, omg what I am doing..." - it's a 0etsonal interpretation from where the boundaries of this behaviour lies, like I said is the many shades you have when dealing with people, at some point in my teens I avoided any brand cloths, using knockouts fakes sneakers, plain tshirts etc. But if you own an Iphone I wouldn't say you arent an anarchist for that, even if I wouldn't do it..

I passed decades without drinking that black poison sugar water just to get some sips 2 years ago. The worst part is that the flavour didn't matched my childhood one.

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256 wrote

I don't understand, tbh.

Say, my water tap is completely broken, a natural disaster/wear or something broke it. Do I aquire a new one? If, does It have to be the same quality, standards...?

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kin wrote (edited )

I think many people like yourself confuse the act of "consuming" a.k.a. buying something with consuming in the ideological sense, that is different from consumption from basic needs like get your home in living and dignified condition

I don't understand what you don't understand. For me confusing this is like when liberals say that communists want to take their private personal property and under communism you will share your toothbrush with some random homeless person

Edit: changed one word bc of freudian slip

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256 wrote

Anti-consumerism is very hazy to me. Sure, fight supermarkets and all, but I hate that anti-consumerism is so appropriatable, if that's the right word, as in owning class people saying to 'tighten the belt', advertising companies using it to advertise their product, social media, anti-plastic liberals...

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kin wrote

I think you just hit the spot, what we say about consumerism is nothing to do with austerity discourse from economists or ethical consuming. And we must avoid the easy fetish for poverty or idealizing 3rd world conditions.

I think it's hazy bc it's difficult to navigate, that's why I insist that it have very levels and shades, it's almost personal opinion. If must have sneakers from such brand ok, if you need to own an fruit electronic ok we are not question pontual choices, just the ideology

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ArmyOfNone wrote (edited )

Funny read. So I can only suppose you're living in some un-hyped state or area where buying a property is still an option, at all, if you're anywhere below "rich".

So anyways, the question is what makes you anarchist?

Like you know, I knew some cap dude who started a pizzeria and ran some summer fest, and did all that to get (or stay) rich, and he was claiming being anarchist. I never seen anything in what he did or even said that made him anarchist other than being in some hipster type of subculture (lol). Maybe he was putting major bucks in some prisoner support fund or something, but there's nothing, anywhere in anything I saw in his projects that was about these types of struggles, or any other clue. Which made me conclude he was just another small capitalist slumlord.

So yeah... the question's pretty salient.

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kano wrote (edited )

I would also ask what makes you an anarchist.

Find it suspicious when ppl start talking about returns on investment.

I'm in my mid to late 20s for context. But the choices you made according to your post I have no intention of making them. That being said I somehow live in a house that I own.

I live in a large house that a group of people bought together a couple years ago with the intention to renovate it, to provide dirt cheap housing, to make an anarchist social centre, and to remove the house from the market permanently. We intend to make the removal of the house from the market permanent by joining a syndicate ( link mostly in German). They would basically buy half of the house and neither of us could sell it without the consent of the other. So as long as we don't go bankrupt before we pay the mortgage the house will be ours. And since we don't need/want to make profit we will pay very little to stay here, already even with the mortgage the rent we pay is all cheap

So there's more or less radical ways of sorting out the housing solution I guess. And I would have said the choices you made according to your post perpetuate some harmful stuff, such as living in a nuclear family or viewing your house as an investment that needs to get more valuable.

I have no intention of letting the 'establishment' any more into life then it already is. I don't think anarchism is reserved for anyone really except maybe the anarchists. But definitely not the young or even necessarily the fringes of society. I'd guess it's fringe cos the powers that be try to stamp out anarchy wherever it might exist rather than for any other reason.

Editing to add that I am slightly suspicious of the syndicate, but seems like a way for us to also get support when necessary so idk. DK if this helped you at all.

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